TONY HYLAND

I'm an Australian writer who mainly writes non-fiction for children. I've written over 20 non-fiction books, as well as numerous science magazine articles.

I was a primary school librarian for many years. I have always loved reading books, and working with them in the library. Now, I get to write my own, and that's really cool.

When I was growing up, my dad was an air force electronics technician. We lived near the air base, and were able to wander almost anywhere we wanted to around the base (you'd never be allowed to do that these days!). It was a great place for a kid who was fascinated by aeroplanes and machinery. I always wanted to find out "just a bit more", and I still do.

Dad helped. He made sure we had a good encyclopedia set, and he found lots of books and magazines in second-hand book shops. He even enrolled me in the state library. In those days, that meant that a brown paper parcel of books arrived in the mail every month. They were always terrific parcels too, full of exciting books!

My favourite part of writing books is meeting the experts while I'm researching. I've interviewed astronauts, scientists, circus performers, deep sea divers and stuntmen, and lots of other friendly and fascinating people.