Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock has captivated and perplexed generations. But the woman behind the novel is as much an enigma as the disappearance of the fictitious schoolgirls and their teacher.

Joan Lindsay, wife of painter, art entrepreneur and National Gallery of Victoria director Daryl Lindsay, sacrificed her own artistic talent in deference to her husband, as was the order of the day. She painted landscapes with skill, but gave it up; wrote plays and novels of little merit; took routine journalism commissions for much-needed funds; and happily played hostess to guests including Dame Nellie Melba, Robert Helpman, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, as well as Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch and Robert Menzies, at the Lindsay country house on the Mornington Peninsula – all the while giving no indication of the literary brilliance that would emerge late in her life. There were clues, though, as Brenda Niall reveals in this fascinating biography. Joan’s unconventional attitude towards time – she allowed no clocks in the house and never wore a watch – and her deep reverence for the Australian landscape hint at the mystical centre of her masterpiece.

Was Joan really the dutiful wife, or was she patiently waiting her chance? Was Picnic at Hanging Rock a burst of creativity in response to a life held in check? Or did something happen behind the carefully curated scenes that gave rise to her extraordinary novel? Joan Lindsay: The Hidden Life of the Woman who Wrote Picnic at Hanging Rock explores these questions and more in an engaging and surprising portrait of a fascinating Australian woman.

Details

ISBN13: 9781923058019
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 288
Edition:
Publication Date:
Publisher: Text Publishing
Publication City, Country: Melbourne, Australia
Dimensions (cm): 234(H)x153(L)
Weight (gm):

Author Biography

Brenda Niall is one of Australia’s foremost biographers. She is the author of several award-winning biographies, including her acclaimed accounts of the Boyd family and her portrait of the Durack sisters, True North. In 2016 she won the Australian Literature Society’s Gold Medal and the National Biography Award for Mannix. In 2004 she was awarded the Order of Australia for ‘services to Australian literature, as an academic, biographer and literary critic’.

Reviews

‘Brenda Niall is in a class of her own…Her books have all been works of insight and substance, their observations carefully considered.’ -- Michael McGirr * Age *
‘Niall’s short but limpidly written biography leaves the most tantalising mysteries of her life unsolved, just as its subject would have wanted.’ * Tom Gilling, Weekend Australian *
‘When it comes to biography, Brenda Niall is indefatigable.’ * Jason Steger, Age *
‘Brenda Niall is one of Australia’s premier literary biographers and in Joan Lindsay: The Hidden Life of The Woman Who Wrote Picnic at Hanging Rock she’s at her best, bringing Lindsay further to life and further illuminating her seminal work.’ * Michael Williams, QANTAS Magazine *
‘A change of pace with non-fiction. Brenda Niall is one of Australia's best biographers and her new book, Joan Lindsay, is about the writer behind one of Australia's most compelling works of fiction, Picnic at Hanging Rock. For most of her life, Joan was the wife of a more famous man, Daryl Lindsay, sacrificing her artistic talent for his own artistic career. Niall explores the enigmatic life of Joan, and what lay behind her captivating novel that has endured so successfully.’ * Fairfield Books *
‘The great pleasure of this new biography…is to share with Niall and Lindsay the author’s delight in her late success and her new identity as a writer. The scenes during which Picnic at Hanging Rock was filmed at Lindsay’s home, the closing chapters of the biography, are joyful and exuberant.’ * Guardian *
’This deep dive into Joan’s life is simply fascinating.’ * New Idea *
‘An entertaining read…The novel conveys a simple message: “to recognise the small, good things that make up a life and a love”.’ * NZ Listener *
‘…Enthralling. Lindsay is a beguiling, almost inscrutable, subject. Niall delves forensically into her fabric, body and soul.’ * Carmel Bird, Saturday Paper *
‘5 stars. Brenda Niall, one of this nation’s most celebrated authors, particularly as a biographer, has turned her attention to the hidden life of Joan Lindsay…’ * Good Reading *