What makes a writer?
Letters from Robin is a portrait of Robin Klein, one of Australia’s most acclaimed and enduringly popular writers for children. Drawing on published profiles and recent interviews with Robin’s family and former colleagues, the book conveys her determination to be a writer from an early age – despite childhood poverty and the obligations of other work and domestic life. A third, unique information source are the letters she wrote to Jon Appleton from when he was an 11-year-old 'superfan' in Sydney until he was approaching his mid-twenties.
What makes a reader?
Robin Klein’s books championed the underdog and challenged oppression. Her characters were battlers and sometimes combative but she offered them lessons in humility and compassion too. All these were traits of the author and her letters to Jon were gently imbued with wisdom and encouragement that inspired his teenage career as a children’s literature critic and his work with books and writers today. The book contains entertaining and funny extracts that offer an extra narrative alongside the books, which are explored with insight and humour.
Letters from Robin celebrates the enduring collaboration between readers and writers. How many of us return, time and again, to childhood favourites for renewed comfort and courage? This book is for anyone who wants to know how a writing life works and to be reminded how rich and rewarding a reading life can be.
About the Author
Jon Appleton was born in Sydney in 1974. At Naremburn Public School in the early 1980s he discovered a world of Australian children’s authors who spoke to him intimately and at SCECGS Redlands he created a magazine called Rippa Reading to celebrate their processes, personalities and prose. Upon completing a BA at Sydney University he moved to London in 1996, where he still lives, and worked in children’s publishing in-house for twenty years. He now works as a freelance editor, writing tutor and mentor, and is active in researching the history of children’s books from 1970 in both the UK and Australia. You can find him on the websites www.janmark.net and www.lettersfromrobin.com.
Industry Reviews
'The dominant thread is the work and life of Robin Klein, and her books are examined in detail, thematically rather than in chronological order, and interwoven with the story of her young correspondent and with the larger tale of Australian publishing. Appleton’s book has affinity with the English writer Spufford’s The Child That Books Built, but this Antipodean book is more subtly stitched together ... Letters from Robin offers a variety of riches, perhaps best of all in presenting a chronotope of that time when literature for the young burst into bloom in Australia. It has certainly sent me scurrying back to reread Robin Klein’s books.'’
Dr Robin Morrow, Magpies, March 2022
‘The stories of writers such as Robin Klein have been significant, providing reassurance, dreams and role models. Children’s authors are reread, and the characters remembered affectionately and treasured longer than adult writers because these books are discovered at significant stages of life. When creators’ legacies are compiled by literary historians and book lovers such as Jon Appleton, new generations benefit. The biopic-doco next, but only if the memoir or biography exists first as a clue to the creatively productive life of writers such as Australian Robin Klein.’
Hazel Edwards OAM, author of There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake series
‘Robin Klein brought us the classic pre-teen Hating Alison Ashley. Jon Appleton brings us the classic post-teen Letters from Robin. An invaluable insight into the works of one of Australia’s leading children’s authors.’
Susanne Gervay OAM, author of Jamie’s a Hero
