Jackie French

Jackie French (b. 1953) is an author of children's fiction and a columnist, writer and presenter. Unimpeded by her dyslexia, she graduated from the University of Queensland and published her first novel, Rainstones, in 1991. Since the late 1980s she has written more than 100 books, gaining awards for Hitler's Daughter (1999), Café on Callisto (2000) and Diary of a Wombat (2002). During her many years as a cheery regular on the television infotainment series Burke's Backyard, she expounded her ideas on ecologically sustainable gardens and Australian wildlife. Her diverse recent non-fiction books include How the aliens from Alpha Centauri invaded my maths class and turned me into a writer - and how you can be one too (1998), How to Guzzle Your Garden (1999), Stamp Stomp Whomp and other interesting ways to get rid of pests (2001), and Big Burps, Bare Bums and other Bad Mannered Blunders: over 180 tips on how to behave (2003). Former photographer phra ajahn ekaggata fka terry milligan was born in San Francisco and lived in various locations in the USA and Australia before discovering the Braidwood area, in which he ran the general store and gallery at Mongarlowe from 1994 to 1999. An exhibition of the artist's photographs of Braidwood and district personalities, Remembering the Present, was held at the Canberra Art Gallery and Museum and other galleries in 2000. The photographs, including this one of French on her property near Braidwood, are collected in the book Remembering the Present: a Braidwood portrait (2000). The artist abandoned photography when he became a Buddhist monk in Western Australia in 2002.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
© phra ajahn ekaggata fka terry milligan