The Life of a Teenage Body-snatcher

Author, poet, playwright, screenwriter, songwriter and editor Doug MacLeod wrote 26 books for children and young adults, published in Australia and around the world, beginning with Tales of Tuttle, published by Puffin in 1985. Many were bestsellers and won awards, including Sister Madge’s Book of Nuns (1986). In 2008 the Australian Writers' Guild awarded him the Fred Parsons award for contribution to Australian comedy. He worked as head writer for some of Australia’s most popular TV comedy shows including The Comedy Company, Fast Forward, Full Frontal, Col’n Carpenter, Kylie Mole and Wedlocked. He also wrote for Big Girls’ Blouse, The Micallef P(r)ogram(me) and SeaChange, and was the script editor on Kath & Kim. He also devised and co-wrote the animated series Dogstar screened all over the world, for which he won two Australian Writers’ Guild Awards and the inaugural John Hinde Award for Science Fiction. His best known book Sister Madge's Book of Nuns started as a practical joke on a publisher. He published more than twenty books with Penguin including Tigers on the Beach; The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher, a CBCA Honour Book in 2012 shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and the Aurealis Awards; and The Shiny Guys, shortlisted for the 2013 CBCA Book of the Year Awards. One of his novels, The Clockwork Forest, was presented as a play by The Sydney Theatre Company in 2008, and in 2013 he wrote Margaret Fulton: Queen of the Dessert, a musical about the life of Margaret Fulton.