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Daisy Meadows Rainbow Magic the real Authors
Daisy Meadows, the name on the cover of Megan the Monday Fairy, Tallulah the Tuesday Fairy and the five other days-of-the-week fairytales in the top 10 children's books list, is not "a very kind person with blonde hair and a little cottage in England", as six-year-old Allegra Lonard, from Bondi Junction, believes.
There's no point searching the bottom of the garden, either. Hachette Children's Books, which publishes Daisy Meadows's Rainbow Magic series under its Orchard Books imprint, says she is a pseudonym for a group of "talented UK-based children's authors, and unfortunately they are not available for interview".
In fact, Chris Raine, the sales and marketing director of Hachette Children's Books, confirmed the names of the four authors and said the publishers had never hidden the fact that Daisy Meadows is an alias.
"We don't publicise the fact that the author is a pseudonym - we haven't felt it necessary to. I'd hate to think you are spoiling something for hundreds of thousands of little girls," Mr Raine said.
Since 2003, Daisy Meadows has produced 42 slim, sparkly fantasies, amounting to sales of more than 1.5 million in Australia and more than 6 million in Britain.
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About the Author Nicholas Negroponte
Nicholas Negroponte (born 1943) is an architect and computer scientist best known as the founder and Chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, and also known as the founder of The One Laptop per Child association (OLPC).
Negroponte, son of Dimitri John, a Greek shipping magnate, grew up in New York City's Upper East Side. He is the younger brother of John Negroponte, current United States Deputy Secretary of State.
He attended many schools, including Buckley (NYC), Le Rosey (Switzerland) and Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut where he graduated in 1961. Subsequently, he studied at MIT as both an undergraduate and graduate student in Architecture where his research focused on issues of computer-aided design. He earned a Master's degree in Architecture from MIT in 1966 and joined the faculty of MIT in 1966.
In 1967, Negroponte founded MIT's Architecture Machine Group, a combination lab and think tank which studied new approaches to human-computer interface. In 1985, Negroponte created the MIT Media Lab with Jerome B. Wiesner. As director, he developed the lab into the pre-eminent computer science laboratory for new media and a high-tech playground for investigating the human-computer interface.
In 1992, Negroponte became involved in the creation of Wired Magazine as the first investor. From 1993 to 1998, he contributed a monthly column to the magazine in which he reiterated a basic theme: "Move bits, not atoms."
Negroponte expanded many of the ideas from his Wired columns into a bestselling book Being Digital (1995), which made famous his forecasts on how the interactive world, the entertainment world and the information world eventually merge.
In 2000, Negroponte stepped down as director of the Media Lab as Walter Bender took over as Executive Director. However, Negroponte retained the role of laboratory Chairman.
In November 2005, at the World Summit on the Information Society held in Tunis, Negroponte unveiled a $100 laptop computer, The Children's Machine, designed for students in the developing world. The project is part of a broader program by One Laptop Per Child, a non-profit organisation started by Negroponte and other Media Lab faculty, to extend Internet access in developing countries.
Negroponte sits on several boards including Motorola (listed on the New York Stock Exchange), Velti (listed on the London Stock Exchange) and privately-held Ambient Devices. He has invested in over 30 startup companies over the last 30 years, including Zagats, Wired, Ambient Devices, Skype and Velti.
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