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Possum Magic author Mem Fox gets apology after 'turbocharged' US customs officers wrongfully detained her

Best-selling Australian children's author Mem Fox may never return to the United States after being wrongfully detained by immigration officials at Los Angeles Airport.

The 70-year-old author of Possum Magic and Where is the Green Sheep? said she had never been "treated with such disdain".

On her way to Milwaukee to address a conference earlier this month, Fox was questioned by Customs and Border Protection officers for two hours.

Best-selling Australian author Mem Fox said she "collapsed and sobbed like a baby" after being wrongfully detained by customs at a US airport earlier this month. Picture: AAP

She told the ABC airport officials appeared to have been given "turbocharged power" by President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration.

"I have never in my life been spoken to with such insolence, treated with such disdain, with so many insults and with so much gratuitous impoliteness," she said.

"I felt like I had been physically assaulted which is why, when I got to my hotel room, I completely collapsed and sobbed like a baby," she said.


Fox has since received an apology after lodging complaints with the Australian embassy in Washington and the United States embassy in Canberra.

However she said she is unlikely to return to America after the experience.

The Possum Magic author said she was unlikely to return to America after the experience. Picture: MemFox.com

Her first publication Possum Magic published three decades ago remains Australia's best selling children’s book.

A copy of the author's more recent internationally best-selling book Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes was Australia’s official gift to Prince George in 2013 - baby of Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

A copy of her book Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes was Australia’s official gift to baby Prince George in 2013. Pictures: Supplied

Fox has also written several non-fiction books for adults.

Newsbreak – February 25