Elizabeth Stead Elizabeth Stead i(A32726 works by)
Born: Established: 1932 Sydney, New South Wales, ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Elizabeth Stead is the niece of writer, Christina Stead (q.v.) and the daughter of Frederick Huxley Stead (1911-1938) and his wife, Mavis nee Woolf. Frederick Huxley was one of six children that David George Stead had with his second wife, Ada nee Gibbins; Christina Stead was the only child of his first wife, Ellen nee Butters. The father of Elizabeth Stead died in a traffic accident when she was six years old and the family went to live at Watson's Bay, New South Wales, near the Stead relatives. Elizabeth Stead remembers her mother being emotionally unstable, addicted to prescription drugs and committing suicide after deep sleep treatment at Chelmsford. She also alleges sexual abuse by three of her uncles.

Despite this difficult childhood, Elizabeth Stead was inspired by her grandfather, David George Stead (q.v.), a naturalist and conservationist, who she loved and defends against Christina Stead's fictional portrayal in The Man Who Loved Children with her own novel, The Fishcastle. She was inspired by his powers of imagination and by her aunt, Cathrine, who introduced Stead to her world of the dance and music.

Elizabeth Stead started writing when a child, influenced by 'Jason and the Argonauts' and its serial, 'The Search for the Golden Boomerang.' She called her first childhood book 'The Search for the Blue Opal'. She left school at thirteen, took a job as a filing clerk then became a model living a vibrant social life in Sydney, New South Wales. Stead also acted and wrote for the theatre, danced, travelled and painted. She lived for three years on a tropical island near the equator with her family. Her first novel was published when she was sixty. Stead has published many short stories as well as her novels.

(Source: Anne Lim, 'Foreword - Good Times, Bad Times', The Australian Magazine (14 January 2006): 12; Hazel Rowley Christina Stead: A Biography (1993): 15).

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Gospel of Gods and Crocodiles St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2007 Z1358462 2007 single work novel Ann Morley, a missionary, is sent to a tropical island where the community has been virtually untouched by the modern world. A magnet for eccentric characters, the island paradise soon becomes a hotspot of conflicting cultures. - from Back cover
2008 highly commended Barbara Jefferis Award
y separately published work icon The Different World of Fin Starling Haymarket : Penguin , 2003 Z1050188 2003 single work novel humour Wagner's Creek, otherwise known as the arse-end of the earth, is the home of the mutton-bird, the carrion crow and the remarkable Fin Starling. Son of the local provider of 'special services', Fin is different from other children and soon it becomes clear that he is something of a miracle-worker as he transforms the dirt-poor shantytown into a place of pilgrimage.(Publisher's blurb).
2004 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Christina Stead Prize for Fiction
Last amended 11 Feb 2008 12:55:16
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