Marie Stuttard

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stuttard, Marie (1927 - 2002) was a writer for children and adults, a broadcaster, and an internationally recognised lecturer in speech and communication. Her varied career always centred on her expertise with spoken and written language.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, she lived for over forty years in Auckland, traveling extensively to deliver her 'Power of Speech' seminars to corporations.

Stuttard gained a teacher's diploma in speech and drama from London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She worked as a broadcaster with the BBC since childhood as an actor, presenter of documentaries, interviewer and reader of short stories and poetry. She was a drama critic for New Zealand's Concert Programme and a regular contributor to National Radio's 'Sunday Supplement'. Her television credits included working as an interviewer and panelist on game shows and talk shows.

Stuttard's children's fiction includes the popular Children of the Dog Star (1984), which as a television series won a Golden Globe award at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Her other titles for children are Mr Chip and the Aliens (1982); Mr Chip in Space (1983); Mr Chip in Paradise (1986); The Boy From Nowhere (1990); and Shadows (1993).

Her two guides to public speaking are The Power of Speech (1994) and The Power of Public Speaking (1997). 'As an instructive manual for speech making, this book is excellent - but it's more than that, it is a superb example of how information may be presented effectively and efficiently, and absorbed with minimum effort.' Her 'Speech Power' series also includes audio and video cassettes.

Other titles are Fashion is Fun (1967); Body Language (1988), and The Sacred Cat (1998).

The Sacred Cat is the story of how a young Birman cat travels the world to find the home of his ancestors, the Sacred Cats of Burma. The text is accompanied by more than 60 colour photos.