Danielle Clode spent much of her childhood living on a boat and doing her schoolwork by correspondence.  It turned out to be pretty useful as one school project on the amazing killer whales of Twofold Bay, turned into her first book, Killers in Eden (Allen & Unwin, 2002) which was later made into a TV documentary.  Danielle studied psychology at University before worked as a zookeeper and then taking up a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford where she spent each summer chasing seabirds around the Outer Hebrides. 

Since then, Danielle has worked as a science communicator and researcher for wide range of health and environmental organisations and has written several books.

Prehistoric Giants: The megafauna of Australia, part of Museum Victoria’s Nature Victoria series, was shortlisted for the 2010 CBCA Children’s Information Book of the Year.   With the help of beautiful illustrations, this easy to read guide to Australia’s very own megabeasts, is a favourite with primary school kids who love becoming junior palaeontologists for the day and learning about what is involved in being a non-fiction writer. This is Danielle’s second book bringing the Museum’s natural history collection to life.  Continent of Curiosities: A journey through Australian Natural History (Cambridge University Press, 2006) also explores some of the amazing objects in the Museum’s collections from dinosaur brains to Martian meteorites.

Both these books provide a great focus for curriculum areas in secondary schools covering issues of extinction, desertification and climate change.  Danielle’s latest book A Future in Flames (Melbourne University Press, 2010) extends some of these themes with a topical discussion of bushfires in Australian history and how we can learn to live with fire. 

Covering a broad sweep of Australian history from pre-history, through Aboriginal impact and European settlement, A Future in Flames (Melbourne University Press, 2010), also provides an unusual perspective on the role of humans in Australia’s ecological history.   Historical topics also form the focus of Voyages to the South Seas (Miegunyah, Melbourne University Press, 2007) which provides a lively first-hand description of Australia through the eyes of French naturalists and sailors against the backdrop of the revolutions, empire and upheaval in France.  Voyages won the 2007 Premier’s Literary Award for Non fiction.

Danielle’s work as an author, researcher and editor has put her in demand to teach writing and communication skills across the tertiary, government and non-government sectors.   She teaches a wide range of non-fiction writing courses, but her scientific and technical writing courses are particularly popular with students and staff alike. 

"The children really enjoyed having Danielle visit and speak about her book. She had the children engaged and used language they were able to understand.  Danielle incorporated getting the children up and moving which enhanced the presentation and held the children's interest. It was very informative and memorable."
— Justine Puls-Welsh, Panton Hill Primary School

“Our children had great fun when Danielle organised them to build "living models" to demonstrate the size of extinct Australian megafauna. Following her presentation her book was on high demand in the library.”  
— Joy Pagon, Research Primary School

"fabulous work by author Danielle Clode…who has brought the prehistoric giants to hair-raising life"
– Mercury Magazine

 “Thank you very much for your input to the writing workshop for our postgrads before Christmas, it was excellent and we really appreciate your willingness to be involved.  The feedback from the students has been uniformly positive, and it seems the content and level of the workshop was about right for their needs.”
—Prof David Chapman, University of Melbourne

“If ever there was a book for its time, it is A Future in Flames. There are half a million Victorians living within striking distance of what is sometimes called the Red Steer. They would all be a lot safer if there was a well-thumbed copy of this superb volume in their homes.”
—The Age

“The distinctive difference in this book is the blending of a valuable historical perspective on fire in the Australian landscape, impressive insights into contemporary policy issues, and personal experiences that draw unanswered questions into sharp relief.” 
—Kevin O’Loughlin, Former CEO of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (on A Future in Flames)

"The writer’s considerable literary skills help bring to life the characters she so vividly portrayed making Voyages to the South Seas a colourful and dextrously realised historical tapestry."
—Prof John Gascoigne, University of New South Wales