Mary Grant Bruce

Mary Grant Bruce, one of Australia's best known authors of children's literature, was born Minnie Grant Bruce near Sale in Victoria, Australia on 24th May 1878. Her parents were Eyre Lewis Bruce, surveyor, and Mary Atkinson Bruce (née Whittakers). Mary began writing at the age of six and, from age 16, she entered and won the annual examinations of the Melbourne Shakespeare Society three times in a row whilst still a schoolgirl. Much of Mary's childhood was spent on her uncle's cattle station in Victoria. This instilled in her an abiding love of horses. Along with her parents, her elderly great-aunt, Miss Martha Moore, who lived with the family, was a very important person in Mary's childhood and the heroine of her story Port After Stormie Seas.