Adrian Peniston-Bird was born in the south of England. He lived in England and Ireland before coming to Australia as a young man.

After working as a jackeroo on a large sheep station near Bourke in New South Wales, he moved to Adelaide where he worked for a short time before moving to Victoria where he joined the Victorian Public Service. Deciding on a career in teaching he returned to studying and graduated from Toorak Teachers' College in 1963.

Adrian later specialised in Learning Disabilities and worked as a consultant in metropolitan schools testing and planning programs for children with learning disabilities. He retired as Vice Principal of a metropolitan primary school in 1992.

In 1987 Adrian started writing for children and in 1988 was the winner in the open section of the FAW Mary Grant Bruce National Literary Award for Children's Literature with a story called, 'The Terrible Tale of the Vanishing Library'. In 1995 'The Cave that screams in the Night' was commended in the same award and more recently 'Snake Girl' and 'The Weirdos'.

Having retired from casual teaching, Adrian's current interests include conducting writing programs for talented young writers, gardening and the Arts. He is also past president of The Fellowship of Australian Writers (Vic) Inc and an Honorary Life Member.

Publications:

Fiction:

Miranda the White Witch, Dellasta, 1990.
Smart Spac and other stories, (selected by Adrian Peniston-Bird), Dellasta, 1991.
Time Flies, Macmillan Education, 1994.
Melvin's Marvellous Mixture, Macmillan Education, 1996.
The Cave that Screams in the Night, Macmillan Education, 1996.
Time Flies, (reprinted) Megan's books, 2000.
Katie's Dream, Megan's books, 2000.
The Children of Theatre Place, Macmillan Education, 2003.
Time Flies, (reprinted), Canterbury Primary School, 2005.

Non Fiction: