Joan Lindsay

‘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 *

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’.

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