Barbara Hanrahan Biography

Australian writer and artist, born in Adelaide. She studied art in London and became an internationally known painter and print-maker. As a writer, she achieved recognition with her first book, The Scent of Eucalyptus (1973), an autobiographical work drawing on her memories of Adelaide from childhood to adolescence; it was followed by the sequel Kewpie Doll (1984). Her many novels include Sea Green (1974), The Albatross Muff (1977), Where the Queens All Strayed (1978), The Peach Groves (1979), The Frangipani Gardens (1980), Dove (1982), and Annie Magdalene (1986). Many of her novels, especially those dealing with different eras in the history of Adelaide, express her preoccupation with the contrast between prim respectability and sordid reality; she has described her native city as a ‘terribly sinister place’. Among her later works are the novels A Chelsea Girl (1988), Flawless Jade (1989), Good Night, Mr Moon (1992), and Michael and Me and the Sun (1992), which is autobiographical. Her early short stories are collected in Dream People (1987); the stories in Iris in Her Garden (1992) also have an autobiographical basis.