Musette Morell

Musette Morell (1898 – 29 September 1950) was an Australian playwright and children's writer. She wrote both for the stage and for radio.

Musette Morell
Born	Moyna Ann Martin 1898
Died	29 September 1950(1950-09-29) (aged 51–52) Hornsby, New South Wales, Australia
Pen name	Fiona O'Farrell Muse M
Occupation	Playwright children's writer
Notable works	Three Radio Plays Bush Cobbers Ten Puppet Plays

Born Moyna Ann Martin in 1898,^[1] she began writing poetry and short stories for magazines including The New Triad,^[2] The Bulletin^[3] and The Australian Woman's Mirror^[4] during the late 1920s.

With theatre director Duncan Macdougall, she produced plays at the Playbox Theatre in 1930 and 1931,^[5] having earlier written about his efforts to establish that community theatre in Sydney in 1927.^[6] Her first play, The Wife Exchange, was performed at the Tom Thumb Theatre in February 1934,^[7] followed later that year by Take It or Leave It.^[8]

She wrote a number of plays which were produced for radio by the ABC.^[9] She was also skilled in adapting children's classics, such as Gulliver's Travels and The Water Babies as radio serials for a young audience.^[10][11] Her two books for children, The Antics of Algy and Bush Cobbers, were published from successful radio serials she had written for the ABC.^[12] Bush Cobbers was highly commended at the 1948 Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards.^[13] Three Radio Plays included Webs of Our Weaving, one of six Australian plays selected by the ABC to commemorate Australian's Jubilee in 1951.^[14]

Morell died at her home in Hornsby, New South Wales on 29 September 1950.^[15]

Selected works

• The Wife Exchange, 1934
• Take It or Leave It, 1934
• The Quick and the Dead, 1935^[16]
• His Gentle Art of Making Enemies, 1937^[17]
• The Antics of Algy, 1946^[18]
• Three Radio Plays, 1948^[19]
  • Webs of Our Weaving
  • The Better Road
  • Even the Birds of the Air
• Bush Cobbers, 1948 ^[20]
• Ten Puppet Plays, 1950^[21]