Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather

by Karen Lamb

Overview

This is the first biography of one of Australia’s most beloved novelists, Thea Astley (1925–2004). Over a 50-year writing career, Astley published more than a dozen novels and short story collections, including The Acolyte, Drylands, and The Slow Natives, and was the first person to win multiple Miles Franklin Awards. With many of her works published internationally, Astley was a trailblazer for women writers. In her personal life, she was renowned for her dry wit, eccentricity, and compassion. Karen Lamb has drawn on an unparalleled range of interviews and correspondence to create a detailed picture of Thea the woman, as well as Astley the writer. She has sought to understand Astley’s private world and how that shaped the distinctive body of work that is Thea Astley’s literary legacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780702253560
Publisher:	University of Queensland Press
Publication date:	04/22/2015
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Karen Lamb teaches literature and communication at the Australian Catholic University and has held teaching and research positions at the University of Queensland, Monash University, and the University of Melbourne, where she taught in literary studies, media and communication, and cultural studies. She has edited a book of Australian short stories, and published book chapters and articles on Australian authors, including Peter Carey: Genesis of Fame.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Part 1 The Hinterland

1 The hinterland of childhood 3

2 Suspected of reading 25

3 Barjai: A meeting place 44

4 We've Freud and Nietzsche at our finger-tips 59

Part 2 Dream Country

5 Dream Country 73

6 Jack 87

7 The Gorgon of Epping North 103

8 An armed neutrality 128

9 I merely crave an intelligent buddy 147

10 Writing as a neuter 163

Part 3 North Of Nostalgia

11 The oldest senior tutor in the Commonwealth 187

12 North of nostalgia 202

13 Living is serial 219

14 Jane Austen of the rainforest 236

Part 4 Personal Weather

15 Pictures from a family album 257

16 Inventing her own weather 278

17 Curving 292

Epilogue 313

Acknowledgements 316

Notes 319

Further reading 349

Index 352