Henry Handel Richardson: A Life

Henry Handel Richardson is celebrated for her classic Australian novels The Getting of Wisdom and The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, yet her own life-story is still to be fully told. This enthralling book is the first complete biography of this enigmatic Australian literary icon. Drawing on previously unavailable records, the book sheds new light on Richardson's unconventional life. Beginning with her traumatic childhood, then tracing in detail the largely unknown story of the eleven formative years Richardson spent on the Continent, the book goes on to explore the personal and social forces that moved her during her long years as a London intellectual, concluding with her last ordeal as a frail spectator in the front-line of the Battle of Britain.

Michael Ackland is Head of the English Department at Monash University.