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James Moloney Speaking of "Black Taxi"...

Okay, so I'm not a student at St Paul's but I thought you wouldn't mind admitting me as an honourary student for a day so that I can talk about my own book, Black Taxi. I was trawling around the Internet to see if anyone was taking the least bit of interest in my book when I found your wonderful site. It is very colourful and appealing and I couldn't help searching around for a closer look.

My review of Black Taxi is really rather short.

Black Taxi is fabulous! Read it.

Well, it is fabulous if you are used to mostly serious YA novels - even the ones James Moloney wrote in his earlier life, like 'A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove', 'Dougy', 'Gracey' and 'Touch Me'. I still write serious YA novels by the way and have just finished a beauty titled 'The Presence of Angels'. Look for it next year. I have also written a terrific fantasy novel 'The Book of Lies', which is getting rave reviews around the place - see The Age for 7 August 2004. In September, I will release the first book in a sci-fi adventure series for upper Primary and lower secondary, titled 'The Tunnels of Ferdinand'.

'Black Taxi' was actually one of the projects I embarked upon to free myself from the purely literary and dreadfully serious reputation I had built up over the past decade. I am proud of my many novels, but I was feeling the need for change - for the challenge of something new, really. The voice of Rosie Sinclair came to me from having so many teenage girls in my house - friends of my daughters and my daughters themselves, of course. They were always happy, lively, boisterous, and a joy to have around. I couldn't help but eavesdrop on their conversations and pre-occupations, mostly boys. 'Black Taxi' was a joy to write, and I hope that is what it brings to its readers.