Graeme Base


Graeme Rowland Base is a British-Australian author and artist of picture books. He is perhaps best known for his second book, Animalia published in 1986, and third book The Eleventh Hour which was released in 1989.
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Early life

He was born in Amersham, England and moved to Australia with his family at the age of eight. He has lived there ever since. He attended Box Hill High School and Melbourne High School in Melbourne, and then studied a Diploma of Art for three years at Swinburne University of Technology at Prahran.

Career

He worked in advertising for two years and then began illustrating children's books, gradually moving to authoring them as well. His first book, My Grandma lived in Gooligulch, was accepted by the first publisher he sent it to.
Base resides in Melbourne with his wife Robyn and has three children.

Publishings

The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery was re-released five years later in 1993 with a new, special sealed section in the back called "The Inside Story". Labelled "TOP SECRET", it carries the paragraph: Within lies the solution to the Curious Mystery of The Eleventh Hour, as well as detailed explanations of all the clues and puzzles in the illustrations. Do not turn this page until you have tried your hardest to unravel the Mystery – for the getting of wisdom is no match for the thrill of the chase, and those who choose the longer road shall reap their reward! — Graeme Base
Graeme's first novel, Truck Dogs , was released in hardcover and paperback. It includes 16 colour plates of profiles of the half-dog / half-vehicle characters, as they would have appeared in the abandoned picture book, before Graeme decided to instead release the story as a novel for teenagers and younger readers.
Colouring books based on Animalia was published in 2002 and for The Waterhole in 2004. A series of jigsaw puzzles were created for selected illustrations from Animalia. Calendars based on Graeme's works were published throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. In 1987, Viking published The Animalia Wall Frieze, a giant frieze over 26 feet long, in four folded sections, in a special pack which included 'The ANIMALIA Riddle Sheet' as an added bonus.

Adaptations of Base's works

The Sign of the Seahorse was adapted as an opera with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2001.

Awards