Prue Mason S
AUTHOR Discover the best in Australian children’s literature. The Children’s Book Council of Australia Short List will be announced March 27. See cbca.org.au.
OUTH Australian Prue Mason wanted to be a writer and pilot from a very young age. Her grandfather had been an officer in the Australian Flying Corps in World War I but his poor eyesight and lack of jobs in aviation in the 1920s made him turn to journalism and books. Strangely, she followed his path. She was told not having 20/20 vision meant she wouldn’t get a commercial licence and aviation careers were limited for females. Mason was not deterred. She did finally achieve her wings with a restricted private licence after she married a professional pilot. Together they travelled the world in a small aeroplane. While living in the Middle East her career as a writer began and three of her children’s novels are set in this region: Camel Rider, Destination Abudai and Zafir Through My Eyes. Birdie in the Sky is about Mason’s love of old aeroplanes. Whilst researching vintage aeroplane history Mason discovered that a plane she and her husband had purchased had been flown by women pilots during World War II. With the help of a fellowship from the May Gibbs Trust they spent a month in Canberra researching an idea that has turned into her latest book Amazing Australians in their Flying Machines, illustrated by Tom Jellett. Mason continues to fly and is a part-owner of a 70-year-old Auster J-5 Adventurer. With the help of a small team the plane has been successfully restored. “Two years ago some might have called it ‘a renovator’s dream’ others an ‘aviator’s nightmare’ because it ‘needed work’,” said Mason. “Knowing we’re flying a piece of history each time we take it up gives me a sense of the romance and glamour of the days when it was truly amazing to fly.”