A quiet hello
One day after September 11th last year I wrote a message of swift sympathy, understanding, and love on my website, for all my friends in America. But since the close-to-home tragedy in Bali on October 12th words have become a lump in my throat. I know I have to write something but I […]

Hello world!
Today I begin a journey to the USA and Canada. Someone has to be brave enough to fly on September 11th so I am setting an example.
This time last year exactly, I began another journey to the USA to begin a book tour in New York on Sept 13th. I stayed in Sydney overnight, […]

Happy July 4th to all my American readers!
Today in Adelaide it’s 11 degrees Celsius, wet, grey, windy and miserable so you can imagine how happy I am to be going to Italy next week. My ‘Italian’ sister Jan is marrying her beau Giuseppe, so we’re expecting a fabulously good time. Both my sisters are getting […]

My angel dad, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, died in his sleep yesterday afternoon, Wednesday February 27th 2002.  He was 89 and a half, very dignified and absolutely adored.
I was insane with grief.
But he is so happy to be dead that I have promised myself to be more controlled today and to carry out my […]

Hello, hello!
Today Malcolm and I have lived in Australia for thirty two years - I don’t count being born here and then leaving the country for twenty three years.
And two days ago Malcolm and I had been married for thirty three years. Neither of us can understand how this could be possible since we aren’t […]

Hello one and all! Thank you for your kind messages about my darling dad.
We have a garden fertiliser here called Bounce Back. My feeling is that someone sprinkled Bounce Back all over Dad and watered him well. He has taken a turn towards Continuing Life.
My middle sister Jan, who lives in Italy, came to […]

To all my friends in America
I am so sorry about the shocking events in America. I am so sorry about everything: the causes, the effects, the horror. My anxiety for you is huge. You must all be in a surreal mind-frame. The entire world is in hypnotised by shock and grief and sympathy. Words fail […]

I haven’t forgotten…
Hello, hello. I’m late again! It’s way past my two-month target for updates to the Hot News Space. Apologies for having forgotten you for a while. I feel as guilty as a child who hasn’t completed homework on time.
I’ve been at home, that is, in Australia since June 25th and will be here […]

Queen’s Birthday Holiday.
( What a joke. About Australia having a queen, I mean. Do we need one?)
Hi again!
I’m in the seventh heaven. After thee years of slogging and sweating over the birth of Reading Magic I’m happy to announce that it has behaved very nicely by appearing on bestseller lists all round Australia, immediately […]

Anzac Day
Hello, hello!
A quick up-date–earlier than the usual two month information gap!–in honour of new website which will be up and running a week today: May 2nd , the Day of Days when Reading Magic finally hits the shops in Australia. (The USA edition will be in USA stores in late August/early September.)
I’m now in […]

Yep, still alive!
Hello again. March 7th 2001? What? When? How did that happen?
My New Year’s resolution was to update my Hot News Space regularly but who keeps New Year’s resolutions? No one I know. So, contrary to the evidence, I’m actually still alive, still over-worked, and still (probably) over-paid, for which I thank heaven […]

Christmas Greetings, 2000
Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year everyone!
I notice with shock and amazement that I haven’t written any Hot News since early September. Where and how did those three and a half months vanish?
It’s true that I went on holiday with Malcolm and two other friends to Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and […]

I’m here. I’m awake!
Hi! I know. You thought I’d forgotten you, and you were right. Sometimes I ask myself if I’m living or merely working. I’ve been unusually busy, even for me, and I’m tired, tired, tired.
The cheerful news is I’m going on holiday to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan for two weeks next week, […]

Yes, I’m still here. . .
Late, later, latest update: Here it’s the shortest day of the year. Longest day in the northern hemisphere.
Of course Malcolm’s heart surgery is the perfect excuse for the lack of an update. So I’m not even going to BEGIN to apologise this time. Hello, again!
For the past few months, […]

Heart-stopping news
Hi, oh hi, what a time it has been! The day after my last entry in the Hot News Space my world fell apart. Listen to THIS. . .
I came home this Tuesday morning April 4th from my second trip to the USA in four weeks, if you get that time sequence. In the […]

The slack OLD fox gets lazier by the day
Adelaide, South Australia
Hi and goodbye!
Not really goodbye. I’ve been home from the USA for only a week and am going back tomorrow. Life is a little hectic. This quick note is merely to say that you, dear reader, are not forgotten and I will be updating my […]

haven’t forgotten you. . .
Well, hello! Remember me?
I feel I’ve neglected the Hot News Space disgracefully but Adelaide itself has been a ‘hot news space’ of sorts over the last few weeks, with summer temperatures of up to 40 degrees Centigrade—about 104 degrees on the old Fahrenheit scale. That’s hot. How can one think in […]

Hot news in nearly-November
Almost Hallowe’en, 1999
Hi, all you patient people hanging out for recent news! As usual I have been very naughty about my Hot News. I see it’s high time I warmed up the current offering. . .
Next week Nov.4th, I set off for the USA again. This will be my fiftieth visit over […]

I am still here!
Hi! An itinerary of my USA trip in November 1999 can be found at the end of this Hot News Space. (I’m telling you this now because you may never get to discover the itinerary: I do tend to ramble on. And on. And on.)
Last week I wrote twenty five pages in […]

Hello again, from me again, finally, again!
It’s June 12th 1999 and I’ve been so busy with Other Things that my Hot News Space has yet again a had time to cool right down. Apologies for the slackness. Explanations follow in a moment!
I do read the Guest Book on this website and love the messages. Thanks […]

Easter 1999
Hello again.
I’m embarrassed.
It’s April 2nd 1999 and I know from keeping my ear to the ground that something called a Hot News Space should have HOT news in it. My news gets lukewarm very quickly for many reasons. I feel like a kid at school who hasn’t done her homework! Listen to […]

Mem Fox Perspiring
Hi! Whew!
I knew it would be a long hot summer. Adelaide has been sweltering. Fortunately Malcolm and I were away for the major heat wave on our crazy 30th wedding anniversary trip in Chile, Martinique, Barbados, London, Paris, Yemen and Vietnam. Yes, it was totally brilliant and in spite of being together for […]

Christmas Hot News 1998
Hot News Space
Oh no! Shock, horror. It’s nearly Christmas and I haven’t updated the Hot News Space since August. I’m sure this is a terrible web-site sin but I am so rarely at home I know you will excuse me. Thanks for your patience^as they so irritatingly say when your plane’s already […]

The years are catching up on me!
Hi! If you can believe it—I can’t!—I’ve just spent half an evening writing up all my Hot News only to lose it into cyberspace yet again. I am a slow and ponderous two-fingered typist so this is a disaster. I’m going to type fast and hope that this time […]

Can you believe it? At last, an update!
All right, all right, I apologise! What use is a home page if it isn’t updated? For months the so-called “hot” news in my Hot News Space hasn’t even been lukewarm—it’s been stone cold. It’s now mid-July 1998. The last entry was mid-May. Ridiculous. I did update it […]

About to leave the country for the USA: TEMPORARILY!!
Hi everyone. It’s been a hectic two weeks. I’ve been doing a book tour for “Whoever you are” in four Australian States as well as presenting a teacher seminar for Scholastic in Melbourne. It’s been exhausting and exciting: I’ve been on Good Morning Australia, the Today Show, […]

The heat is still on in many ways!
Hi! But hi especially to all those wonderful people who have left me great messages at the end of this website. You make me so happy it’s ridiculous. I have answered the messages (where possible) in the guest book—so look there, not here, for any replies.
The whole point […]

Will I be where you are in 1998?
When: March 25th
Where: Melbourne
What: Scholastic Teacher Seminars
Contact: Scholastic Office in Melbourne
When: April 3rd
Where: Virginia Beach, USA
What: Virginia Reading Association
Contact: Nancy Davenport Ph.757.431.4015
When: April 7th and 8th
Where: Albany, New York
What: School visits and teacher seminar
Contact: Frank Hodge Ph. 518.434.0238
When: April 13th and 14th
Where: Fairfield, Connecticut
What: School visits
Contact: Jimmy Giff […]

Hot (as in heatwave) News
To those of you who have left messages, thanks a million. Especially thanks to Gail Munnecke of the Los Angeles County Office of Education whose email isn’t working and whose letter I am about to quote, with her permission:
“Dear Mem Fox,
This letter is long overdue. I say this because I first […]

My two latest books have just hit the shelves in the USA. The first is: Whoever You Are, published in Sept 1997 (San Diego: Harcourt Brace) with divergent, glorious naive-art illustrations by Leslie Staub, a funky New Orleans artist. Hardback copies of Whoever you are will be available in Australia (Harcourt) before Christmas 1997 and […]