Elizabeth Jolley

Elizabeth Jolley AO (4 June 1923–13 February 2007) was an English-born writer who moved to Western Australia in 1959 with her husband Leonard Jolley and their three children. She was fifty-three when her first book, Five Acre Virgin and Other Stories (1976), was published, and she went on to publish fifteen novels (including an autobiographical trilogy), four short story collections and three non-fiction books. She won The Age Book of the Year Award three times, for Mr Scobie's Riddle (1983), My Father's Moon (1989) and The Georges' Wife (1993), and she won the Miles Franklin Award for The Well (1986). She was recognised in Australia with an AO for services to literature and was awarded Honorary Doctorates from Curtin University (1986); Macquarie (1995), Queensland (1997) and The University of New South Wales (2000).

‘Self Portrait’ by Elizabeth Jolley

November 1983, no. 56 • 01 April 2020

There was a child went forth every day,And the first object he looked upon and received with wonder or pityor love or dread, that object he became …(‘There was a child went forth every day’, Walt Whitman) When I was seventeen, I sold my doll and all her little frocks and coloured, knitted things. At the time I thought I ought to sell her, it seemed important to have some extra money. Sh ... (read more)

Elizabeth Jolley reviews 'Dancing on Coral' by Glenda Adams

November 1987, no. 96 • 01 November 1987

A mixture of courage and an innocent hopefulness seem to be the necessary ingredients for finding rewards and compensations during the painful searching after self-knowledge. Lark Watter, the student daughter of Henry and Mrs Watter, embarks, as so many do, on the voyage of self-discovery. The reviewer of Dancing on Coral is confronted by a book of enormous variety which does not lend itself to l ... (read more)