Phyllis Johnston has been writing for over 30 years. In 1998 she was awarded the Storylines Betty Gilderdale Award for distinguished service to New Zealand children’s literature. Recently she moved from Tauranga to Hamilton to be near family. She enjoys reading, walking, painting abstracts, gardening and having visitors.

Selected bibliography:

• No One Went to Town illustrated by Christine Brown (Price Milburn 1980).
• Black Boots and Buttonhooks illustrated by Ernest Papps (Price Milburn 1982).
• A Comet in the Sky (Moana Press 1985).
• Then There Were Nine (Moana Press 1989).
• No Lily-livered Girl (Waiatarua Publishing 1993).
• My Marine illustrated by Julia Crouth (Reed 2001).
• Our First Twenty Years: The History of the Bay of Plenty Children's Literature Association Inc., 1983 to 2003 (BOP Children's Literature Association 2003).
• The Fugitive Soldier: A Fifteen-Year-Old Runs Away to War (Polygraphia 2004).
• Dead Dan's Dee (Longacre Press 2007).
• Brother Sister Soldier Cousin (Longacre 2009).

Awards:

• AIM Children’s Book Awards 1990 Fiction Shortlist for Then There Were Nine.
• CLA Services to Children’s Literature Award 1997 (now the Storylines Betty Gilderdale Award).
• New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards 2008 Junior Fiction Shortlist for Dead Dan’s Dee.

Storylines Notable Book Awards 2008 Junior Fiction List for Dead Dan's Dee.