Gillian Barnett was born in 1948 in Melbourne.  According to the Hodder edition of Gumboots and Other Risks, she still lives near Melbourne “with her husband and two ugly dogs”. For eleven years she lived in the countryside and was “familiar with gumboots, snakes, red-back spiders and horses”. She lectured in adult and children's literature and fiction writing at Monash University. The Inside Hedge Story was shortlisted for the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards in 1982. Gumboots and Other Risks won the 1993 Australian Library and Information Association's Hoffman Award.

Many thanks to Danyele Foster for all her help with this section.

Source:  Gumboots and Other Risks
Austlit

Gumboots and Other Risks
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989, 156pp.
Hodder Headline, Australia, Rydalmere, 154pp.  Pb.
 

Gillian Barnett

The Blurb:  When Katherine's parents suddenly decide to move to the country, her world is transformed from times spent joking around with girlfriends and afternoons at the library to doing battle with blackberry bushes,lethal snakes and killer horses. This isn't her idea of fun! And in a school full of strangers, making new friends is even more of a challenge for a girl who isn't interested in sport, horses or even boys.  But living in the country has its advantages,like a new puppy to look after- and befriending  Nick, the son of the local vet. As Katherine gradually learns to overcome her fears, she discovers that country life has its charms after all.

Bibliography - Pony Books Only