Barbara Anderson Biography

New Zealand novelist, educated at the Universities of Dunedin and Wellington. She came late to a writing career, beginning with radio plays. Her first book was a collection of short stories, I Think We Should Go to the Jungle (1989), praised for its perception of love and grief in everyday life, which earned Anderson comparisons with Raymond Carver and Flaubert. Her first novel, Girls High (1990), set in a school, was less successful, but Portrait of the Artist's Wife (1992) confirmed her abilities as a novelist. All the Nice Girls (1993), widely considered her finest novel, is a tale of adulterous passion, set in New Zealand in 1962, and containing the characteristic Anderson combination of wit, buoyant prose, and emotional insight.