by Karen Lamb
Vrepont, Brian 53
Walsh, Richard 213–18, 224, 240
Waten, Judah 224
Watts, Julie 250
The Well Dressed Explorer ix, 23, 41–2, 126, 136, 139, 141, 146–55, 160, 192, 226, 279, 294
White, Patrick 11, 18, 112, 131–3, 136–8, 140, 147, 151–7, 161, 166, 173–5, 193, 213, 231, 233, 239, 265, 279–80
Whitington, Don 178–81, 191, 198, 242, 269
Whitington, Richard 178–81, 191, 198
Whitlam, Margaret 203
Williams, Sir John 138
Winton, Tim 285–6
wit and humour 37, 89, 96, 111, 158–9, 164, 171, 266, 289
Witting, Amy 50, 124, 134–5, 145, 149, 173
Woolf, Virginia 194, 288
World War II 33–5, 38, 44–6, 59
US servicemen in Brisbane 34–5, 46–9, 53–4
Wran, Neville 278–9
Wright, Judith 48, 54, 56, 60, 230
Writers’ Train 285–7
Wyndham, Yvonne 106–7, 122, 180
Yowell, Jackie 252
Zervos, Komninos 285
Zwicky, Fay 142, 168, 225, 237, 240, 243, 261, 263, 275
Thea Astley aged eight or nine years old. She would grow up to have much to say about all matters domestic.
Thea dressed for her First Communion, c. 1933. Her troubled experience with Catholicism influenced much of her writing.
Thea at Kirra Beach on the southern Gold Coast with her mother, Eileen, and older brother, Phil, in the early 1930s. Thea’s fondest childhood memories were of her family’s beach holidays.
The Queensland ‘beach shack’ of Thea’s youth, c. early 1930s.
Thea’s father, Cecil, in the 1940s. A senior newspaper sub-editor, he prided himself on the correct use of language – a quality Thea would inherit.
Eileen and Cecil Astley in the 1930s. Their unhappy marriage created tension in the family home throughout Thea’s childhood.
Thea (far right) and friends on a day out, c. 1940s.
The Barjai writers’ group, at the University of Queensland, provided Thea (back row, second from right) with the opportunity to socialise with other young writers and to develop her literary voice.
Thea Astley graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland in 1947.
A devout Catholic, Phil Astley began training with the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in the early 1940s.
Cecil and Eileen Astley and guest at Phil’s ordination gathering. They were very proud to have a priest in the family, but Phil faced many personal struggles throughout his life in the Church.
The newly married Mr and Mrs Gregson on a night out in 1948.
Thea sitting in the foundations of 44a Dorset Street, Epping. She was the creative energy behind the uniquely modern design of the house.
Construction of 44a Dorset Street was completed in 1956. Thea would write eight books over twenty years in this house.
Thea with a young Ed in the front garden of Dorset Street.
Jack and Thea with Ed in the kitchen of the Dorset Street house.
Thea in 1958, the year her first book, Girl with a Monkey, was published by A&R.
The first publicity photograph Thea had taken for A&R, c. 1962. She sent the photograph to her editor, Beatrice Davis, with the note: ‘Glorious photos of me with my wrinkles smoothed out and my ego trimmed en brosse …’
Thea reading The Well Dressed Explorer, for which she won her first Miles Franklin Award in 1962.
Thea collecting the Melbourne Moomba prize for fiction for The Slow Natives, which also earned Astley her second Miles Franklin Award in 1965.
Thea at the Adelaide Writers’ Festival in 1979 with her friend and fellow poet Fay Zwicky (second from left), as well as poet Andrew Taylor (far left) and writer Barry Oakley (second from right).
Thea befriended some of her students at Macquarie University. Here she is with Jeff McMullen in the mid-1970s.
Thea with US academic Robert Ross in Memphis, where she was the writer-in-residence at Memphis State University in 1988.
Thea at the Adelaide Writers’ Festival in the late 1980s, with Robert Brown and Laurie Muller from UQP.
Thea at Macquarie University. Photograph by Graeme Kinross-Smith.
Thea relaxing at her Kuranda home, relishing that ‘do-it-tomorrow feeling’ she so loved about Tropical North Queensland.
Thea and Jack in the lounge at their Kuranda house, 1979.
Jack, Thea and June at Michelle and Ed’s wedding on 15 July 1988.
Thea and Jack at the Kuranda house in the late 1980s. The move north seemed to bring a loving peace to their marriage.
Thea remained very close to her brother, Phil, over the years. Here they are outside the Carmelite Monastery, Melbourne, in 1990.
Thea, with her signature cigarette in hand, on the 1990 Writers’ Train that travelled throughout rural Queensland. Photograph by Ray Cash.
First published 2015 by University of Queensland PressPO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia
uqp.com.au
[email protected]
© Karen Lamb 2015
This book is copyright. Except for private study, research, criticism or reviews, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright licensees for permission to reproduce material. Please contact the publisher if material for which you hold the rights to has been reprinted here.
Edited by Jacqueline Kent
Cover design by Sandy Cull, gogoGingko
Cover photograph by Christopher Ellis
Author photograph by The Melbourne Headshot Company
Photographs courtesy of Ed Gregson and the author unless otherwise noted
Typeset in 11/15.5 pt Janson Text by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group, Melbourne
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
National Library of Australia
Lamb, Karen, 1956– author.
Thea Astley : inventing her own weather / Karen Lamb.
Astley, Thea, 1925–2004.
Women authors, Australian—Biography.
Novelists, Australian—Biography.
ISBN 978 0 7022 5356 0 (pbk)
ISBN 978 0 7022 5500 7 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7022 5501 4 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7022 5502 1 (kindle)
920.72
University of Queensland Press uses papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests.The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.
