Biography

Using James Vance Marshall as a pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

, Payne has written such books as A River Ran Out of Eden (1962) and White-Out (1999). His most famous book is probably Walkabout

Walkabout (novel)

Walkabout is a novel written by James Vance Marshall, first published in 1959. It is about two children who get lost in the Australian Outback and are helped by an Aborigine on his walkabout. A film based on the book came out in 1971, but deviated from the original plot.-Plot summary:The book opens...

(1959), first published as The Children and later made into a movie

Walkabout (film)

Walkabout is a 1971 film set in Australia, directed by Nicolas Roeg and starring Jenny Agutter, Luc Roeg and David Gulpilil. Edward Bond wrote the screenplay, which is loosely based on the novel Walkabout by James Vance Marshall...

 starring Jenny Agutter

Jenny Agutter

Jennifer Ann "Jenny" Agutter is an English film and television actress. She began her career as a child actress in the mid 1960s, starring in the BBC television series The Railway Children and the film adaptation of the same book, before moving on to adult roles and relocating to Hollywood.She...

.

Payne has also used Ian Cameron and Donald Gordon as pseudonyms. As Donald Gordon, he has published, among others, Riders of the Storm (2002), an official history of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution

Royal National Lifeboat Institution

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, as well as on selected inland waterways....

. As Ian Cameron, he has written The Lost Ones (1961), later dramatized by Disney

The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...

 as The Island at the Top of the World, as well as The Mountains at the Bottom of the World (1972) and The White Ship

The White Ship

"The White Ship" is a short story written by science fiction and horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was first published in The United Amateur #2, November 1919....

(1975).

He has also edited several Reader's Digest

Reader's Digest

Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...

 volumes such as the Travels & Adventure series.

He lives in Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and has four sons and one daughter.

Works

• Walkabout
  Walkabout (novel)
  Walkabout is a novel written by James Vance Marshall, first published in 1959. It is about two children who get lost in the Australian Outback and are helped by an Aborigine on his walkabout. A film based on the book came out in 1971, but deviated from the original plot.-Plot summary:The book opens...
  
  (1959)
• The Lost Ones (1961)
• A River Ran Out of Eden (1962)
• Star-Raker (1962)
• Flight of the Bat (1964)
• My boy John that went to Sea (1966)
• The Mountains at the Bottom of the World (1975)
• The White Ship (1975)
• White-Out (1999)
• Riders of the Storm (2002)
• Also from the South (2003)

External links