Elyne Mitchell, OAM was an Australian author noted for the Silver Brumby series of children's novels.
12 Facts About Elyne Mitchell
1.
2.
Sybil Elyne Keith Chauvel was born in Melbourne on 30 December 1913.
3.
Elyne Mitchell was the daughter of General Sir Henry Chauvel, who was the commander of the ANZAC Mounted Division Light Horse and Desert Mounted Corps in World War I, later famous for the charge at Beersheba.
4.
Elyne Mitchell married lawyer, and later parliamentarian, Thomas Walter Mitchell in 1935 and moved with him to the Snowy Mountains.
5.
Elyne Mitchell taught her to ski, and they had four children.
6.
Elyne Mitchell ran the property by herself until her husband's return at the end of the war.
7.
Elyne Mitchell's novels describe eastern Australian terrain and wildlife in considerable detail.
8.
Elyne Mitchell was part of a wave of nationalist Australian writing that gathered strength in the late 1930s and 1940s and her work is generally described as having a landscape aesthetic.
9.
Elyne Mitchell often illustrated her work with her own photographs.
10.
Elyne Mitchell was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to literature in 1990.
11.
Elyne Mitchell won Children's Book Council awards: The Silver Brumby was highly commended in the 1959 Book of the Year, Silver Brumby's Daughter was commended in 1961 and Winged Skis was highly commended in 1965.
12.
Elyne Mitchell used several typewriters, including a 1936 Corona which can be seen at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.