Duncan Ball

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Duncan Ball is an Australian author who has written the children's series Selby (which is about a talking dog named Selby who tries to keep his secret away from his owners) and Emily Eyefinger (about a girl who has an eye on her finger). He is also under the name of John St Claire. St can mean either Saint or Street and Duncan happens to live on the corner of John and Claire Streets in Sydney.

1 Author Profile
2 Books
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Author Profile

Duncan was born in 1941 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA and was one of three children. When he was 4, his family moved to Alaska, where he went to primary school. In his teens, Duncan moved to Madrid, Spain where he learned to speak Spanish. He finished high school back in the US, and eventually moved to Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and worked as an industrial chemist. He wrote a novel for adults and later changed jobs to editor of the School Magazine at the Department of Education of New South Wales.

He continued to work there for a few years, then resigned to become a full-time author, which he continues today.

[edit] Books

Duncan has written a number of books. His first children's' book was Selby's Secret, which was published March 6, 1985. It is about a dog named Selby, who learned to talk while watching TV and struggles to keep his ability as a secret (he must do this so his owners, the Trifles, do not use him as a slave). Since this first book, 14 original Selby books have been published, as well as Selby's Selection book, featuring Selby's best antics, and 2 joke books.

In 1997, he wrote the first Emily Eyefinger book, which is about a girl named Emily who has an eye on the end of her finger. Eight books have been published in this series. Duncan has also written the Piggott books, which is about Bert Piggott and his useless family, the "The Case of the..." books and "The Ghost and the..." books. Duncan also wrote single non-series books, such as "Jeremy's Tail" and "My Dog's a Scaredy Cat".

These books have won many awards.