Paul Bland

Paul Bland lives in Brisbane in Queensland, Australia although his professional work

has taken him from the deserts in the north west of the state to the beautiful tropical

regions of the north. He is a retired educator and priest – and the grandfather of

three very lively young ladies. As the girls grew up, Paul first told stories to the girls

and then committed these stories to paper.

The first stories were pirate yarns set in tropical Queensland. Not surprisingly, the

girls themselves – Katie and Emily - are the heroes of the stories and as the girls grew

up, the stories became longer and more complex. Pirate and detective stories

featured storms at sea, lost dogs and pirate weddings in the rainy season when sailors

take shelter in any safe haven. These stories gave way to historical romance set in

British India, colonial Hong Kong, Edwardian England and occupied Belgium in the

Great War.

The stories may have become more complex but they have never lost three qualities

that were important to his writing from the very beginning. Firstly, the stories were

written to be read aloud and all the published work available through this website and

others reads well in the context for which it was written. These are bedtime stories;

every chapter has a climax and the pace is in keeping with the attention span of

young listeners [and old readers]. Secondly, the stories are grounded in values that

are enduring – and surprisingly modern. All the stories have a strong feminist bias in

that the girls are the doers of the action and the heroes in every plot. Katie and Emily

are not the sort of girls who will stand about waiting for boys to take the lead: in

fact, they rescue the boys from any number of tight spots. The Treasure of Thursday

Island transfers this commitment to an unexpected group of heroes: elderly ladies

who thought they had gone into a tranquil retirement.

Finally, the stories are great fun and full of jokes that will probably not register with

the youngest listener. They are feminist without being doctrinaire and grounded in

values without being too preachy. Paul works always on a naive canvas. Just as the

figures in a naive painting don’t cast a shadow, the dangerous and evil figures in these

stories are comprehensible in a childlike way.

Paul enjoys reading, travel and volunteering at his own parish church and in schools

both in Australia and in China. He has been happily married for almost fifty years and

his lovely wife, Chris, is always the first to read his stories and offer encouragement.