Local literature key to cultural longevity

“I always buy from bookstores,” Australian children’s author Leonie Norrington says. “Consumers tend to think if it (buying discounted books online) is cheap, it is alright. We don’t understand it’s eroding our culture,” she says.

The author of The Barrumbi Kids and The Devil You Know is also well-known for her role as a presenter on ABC television’s Gardening Australia. On bookstores shutting down across the world as consumers increasingly buy from e-commerce marketplaces, she says, “The only way to deal with this is to lobby Governments to do something about it. What they are selling and what they are allowing to be sold is our culture. We are allowing other people to dictate our culture to us and the culture that our children grow up in. I don’t think it is okay.”