PATCHETT, M(ary Osborne) E(lwyn)

(1897-)

   Australian writer, long resident in the UK, whose competent CHILDREN'S SF novels are Kidnappers of Space (1953; vt Space Captives of the Golden Men 1953 US), Adam Troy, Astroman (1954), which deals with the consequences for Earth of colliding with a giant asteroid, Lost on Venus (1954; vt Flight to the Misty Planet 1954 US), Send for Johnny Danger(1956), The Venus Project (1963), Ajax and the Haunted Mountain (1963) and Farm Beneath the Sea (1969). Her writing is alert, uncondescending, sensitive to animal life and information-full.

   JC