![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/c619f30214449ee1ada77fca035e7086.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nTell us about your experience. <\/p>\n
Australian children’s author and illustrator Terry Denton, best known for his work on the popular Treehouse series, has died aged 76.<\/p>\n
His literary agency Curtis Brown and publisher Pan Macmillan announced that Denton died surrounded by his family near Melbourne on Monday.<\/p>\n
Denton enjoyed a creative partnership spanning three decades with author Andy Griffiths, illustrating the Treehouse books, beginning with the 13-Storey Treehouse, which sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.<\/p>\n
Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n
He was also known for his Gasp! series, which was adapted for television.<\/p>\n
No cause of death was revealed, but Denton had suffered poor health in recent years.<\/p>\n
Griffiths paid tribute to his longtime collaborator, describing working and playing with Denton over three decades as “an honour and a pure delight”.<\/p>\n
“I’ll miss him forever, but he’s at peace now,” Griffiths said.<\/p>\n
“I’m incredibly grateful for his legacy, that we were able to get so much out to the children of Australia and the world.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Terry Denton (right) with his collaborator Andy Griffiths in 2018. (ABC News: Dave May)<\/p>\n
Over the decades, Denton and Griffiths built global profiles as pranksters, the kind of larrikins that Australia is famous for.<\/p>\n
“We were quite different in many ways. It’s that difference that makes a creative partnership work \u2026 it was a match made in heaven,” Griffiths said.<\/p>\n
“He had a complete lack of ego. In the books, we were mad at each other all the time, but in real life, it was a very harmonious relationship.<\/p>\n
“We would supercharge each other. I would create a structure and he’d come in and throw a spanner in the works.<\/p>\n
“We would play with words, play with pictures, play with ideas.”![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/9779b4fdea8a0d41a60fbfc44b242e1a.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The 13-Storey Treehouse was devoured by children in 35 countries.<\/p>\n
The 78-Storey Treehouse became the fastest-selling book in Australian history when it went on sale in 2016.<\/p>\n
Although Griffiths lived just over an hour’s drive away from Denton on opposite sides of Port Phillip Bay, he had not seen his co-collaborator for several years.<\/p>\n
“As his health declined, he spent all his time with his family, and I totally respected that,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We always joked that we would go to 13 books with the Treehouse series, and to our surprise we actually did.<\/p>\n
![\"Terry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/edc4603965ce20f90d214674b0d740b9.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Terry Denton had already worked on almost 30 books when he met Andy Griffiths in the 1990s. (ABC News: Dave May)<\/p>\n
“169 stories \u2014 13 times 13 \u2014 \u00a0seemed like the perfect place to stop.”<\/p>\n
First published in 2011, the 13-Storey Treehouse follows fictional versions of Andy and Terry living in an extraordinary treehouse while battling bizarre distractions as they try to finish a book.<\/p>\n
The pair\u2019s attempts to meet a publishing deadline are repeatedly derailed by the treehouse\u2019s bizarre attractions and a series of increasingly chaotic adventures.<\/p>\n
Griffiths said he and Denton were “surprised” when their books became popular outside of Australia to some 35 countries.<\/p>\n
“The Treehouse was done just for kids in Australia and we had concluded it was too strong a flavour for any other country,” he said.<\/p>\n
“To our surprise, it went worldwide, tickling the whole world’s funny bone, including the UK, Norway, Holland, and South Korea.”![\"Covers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0d39d1483279b7b97ceff3b56aa183ab.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The Just series is still popular three decades after it first hit the shelves. (ABC News: Dave May)<\/p>\n
Denton won several major awards across his career, including the Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year Award in 1986 for Felix and Alexander.<\/p>\n
The second youngest of five boys, Denton was born and grew up in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Denton is survived by his wife Kristen, his children Imogen, Eve and Max, and his grandchildren Georgia, Lucy, Charlie, Alfie and Felix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tell us about your experience. Australian children’s author and illustrator Terry Denton, best known for his work on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,284059],"class_list":["post-901159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-terry-denton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}