Deborah Mary Niland (born 1950) is a New Zealand–born Australian artist, known as a writer and illustrator of children's books. Some of her most popular books include Annie's Chair, When The Wind Changed, Mulga Bill's Bicycle, and Chatterbox. In 2006 she won The Children's Book of the Year – Early Childhood, with her book Annie's Chair.

Biography

Niland and her twin sister Kilmeny are the youngest of five children of Australian authors D'Arcy Niland and Ruth Park. Niland was born in Auckland, New Zealand and raised in Sydney, Australia. Niland and her sister Kilmeny attended Julian Ashton Art School in The Rocks, Sydney. Here they studied drawing and painting, taught in the traditional manner, by J Richard Ashton. Both began their art careers by freelancing. In London, they received illustration work from Transworld and their first full-length picture book, The Little Goat, was published in 1971. Niland and her sister Kilmeny worked together on thirteen books. Their best-known collaboration is an illustrated version of Mulga Bill's Bicycle, based on a poem written by A. B. (Banjo) Paterson. This classic picture book was first published in 1973, and has never been out of print. The newest edition is published by HarperCollins Australia. Niland's early career as a book illustrator involved collaborations with author Ruth Park (When The Wind Changed (1980), Roger Bandy (1977) and The Gigantic Balloon (1975)) and author Jean Chapman (Velvet Paws and Whiskers (1979) and The Sugar Plum Christmas Book (1977)). Niland has both written and illustrated many children's titles including Annie's Chair (2005), The Big Green Thing (2008), and Let's Play (2007). Throughout her career, Niland has illustrated more than 50 titles. In addition to book illustration, Niland has been a freelance contributor to The Australian Women's Weekly for over ten years, providing mainly humorous illustrations for articles and stories. Work for other magazines included Cleo, Family Circle, CHOICE and Reader's Digest. When illustrating or painting, Niland uses a variety of materials, including pen and ink, coloured pencil, acrylic paint, water-colour, pencil and digital media. Niland has continued to work in the fine arts, producing paintings for exhibitions and galleries. She has won several prizes, including The Robert le Gay Brereton Prize for Drawing, awarded by the Art Gallery of NSW and the North Sydney Art Prize (Open) 2009. Her work has been acquired by private and public collections.

Published books

As author and illustrator

As illustrator

Awards

Niland was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in the 2020 Australia Day Honours for "service to children's literature." Niland has won a selection of awards for her picture-books.

Annie's Chair

(Author and Illustrator Deborah Niland)

Chatterbox

(Author Margaret Wild, Illustrator Deborah Niland)

When The Wind Changed

(Author Ruth Park, Illustrator Deborah Niland)

Mulga Bill's Bicycle

(Author A. B. Paterson, Illustrators Deborah and Kilmeny Niland)