Described as a 'formidable journalist and a surperb communicator', Elizabeth Webb spent her formative years living on the family property in Western Queensland. Educated at the Glennie Memorial School (Toowoomba) and St Catherine's Church of England School (Warwick), she began writing magazine stories at the age of seventeen. These early works were published under the pseudonym of Allan Morris.
From these beginnings, Webb established a notable career as a writer and broadcaster both in Australia and the United Kingdom (where she lived for many years). At 'a time when radio offered an apparently exciting and glamorous employment opportunity for talented young men and women', she 'began her career as a radio broadcaster and journalist in Sydney in 1932'. Her early media experience included the position(s) of Newsreel Commentator and Fashion Producer for Fox Movietone News (Sydney). Working for the Australian Broadcasting Commission during the late 1930s, Webb hosted her 'own feature session, "Speaking Personally", which was broadcast nationwide on daytime' radio from Brisbane. By the 1950s, Webb was once again hosting her own radio programme, "Elizabeth Webb Calling", a half-hour session which was 'recorded abroad' for Australian audiences, 'the tape being airmailed for broadcast in Australia every Tuesday night'.
In addition to publishing three novels, Mine Is the Kingdom (1947), Into the Morning (1958) and The Quondong Tree (1963), Webb wrote a weekly newspaper column for the Sunday Mail; many of the articles which appeared in this column were re-published in the selected work, Stet (1950). She also researched and wrote a booklet, Three Score Years and Ten (1951), which recorded the 'life work' of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty in Queensland.
Sources: Sharyn Pearce 'Speaking Personally and Propaganda: Elizabeth Webb's Wartime Journalism' Imago: New Writing vol.7 no.2 July 1995; Webb Into the Morning (dustjacket, 1958 edition).
