Phyllis Piddington
Description
Phyllis Piddington, born Phyllis Lilian Aird on October 9, 1910 in Melbourne, Australia, is an Australian writer best known as the original creator of the novel Southern Rainbow, which was adapted into the Japanese anime series Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow. She died on July 8, 2001 at the age of 90. Piddington was the eldest daughter of an optician and was among the first female graduates to earn a Master of Arts degree from the University of Melbourne. After her marriage in 1938, she moved to Britain to study and teach, spending the war years in Aberystwyth. She returned to Australia in 1946, where she worked as a lecturer in speech and drama for fifteen years before retiring in 1969.
Following her retirement, Piddington wrote Southern Rainbow, a children's novel set in the late 1830s that follows a young girl named Lucy and her family as they emigrate from England to start a farm in Adelaide, South Australia. The book was published in 1982 by Oxford University Press in Melbourne. That same year, the Japanese animation studio Nippon Animation adapted the novel into a 50-episode anime television series, Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow, which aired on Fuji TV from January 10 to December 26, 1982 as part of the studio's prestigious World Masterpiece Theater franchise. Notably, this adaptation was the only World Masterpiece Theater series produced while the original author was still alive, and it is also unique for having aired before the source novel was completed, as Southern Rainbow was still being serialized in an Australian family magazine during the broadcast. A Japanese novelization of the story written by Ken Wakasaki was also published as a tie-in to the anime in 1982.
Beyond Southern Rainbow, Piddington's published works include the poem The Old Toll House, featured in the 1988 collection Sunlight and Shadows 2, and the short story Holiday Before War, published in the 1992 collection Silver Linings. She also wrote under the pen name Grace Veritas. Her significance in the context of anime and manga lies entirely in her role as the original source creator for Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow, a single but lasting contribution to the World Masterpiece Theater series, which remains a notable example of Japanese animation adapting Western literature for a family audience.
Following her retirement, Piddington wrote Southern Rainbow, a children's novel set in the late 1830s that follows a young girl named Lucy and her family as they emigrate from England to start a farm in Adelaide, South Australia. The book was published in 1982 by Oxford University Press in Melbourne. That same year, the Japanese animation studio Nippon Animation adapted the novel into a 50-episode anime television series, Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow, which aired on Fuji TV from January 10 to December 26, 1982 as part of the studio's prestigious World Masterpiece Theater franchise. Notably, this adaptation was the only World Masterpiece Theater series produced while the original author was still alive, and it is also unique for having aired before the source novel was completed, as Southern Rainbow was still being serialized in an Australian family magazine during the broadcast. A Japanese novelization of the story written by Ken Wakasaki was also published as a tie-in to the anime in 1982.
Beyond Southern Rainbow, Piddington's published works include the poem The Old Toll House, featured in the 1988 collection Sunlight and Shadows 2, and the short story Holiday Before War, published in the 1992 collection Silver Linings. She also wrote under the pen name Grace Veritas. Her significance in the context of anime and manga lies entirely in her role as the original source creator for Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow, a single but lasting contribution to the World Masterpiece Theater series, which remains a notable example of Japanese animation adapting Western literature for a family audience.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview