Cirrus@Austlit

'A striking number of Australian women have ventured into the autobiographical genre. While a slew of immigrant men were producing their personal odysseys of pioneering endeavour and the exploration and appropriation of a new land in the nineteenth century, a regiment of women from diverse backgrounds began to record their remembered experiences and specific local responses to colonial life. The women’s stories were very different. Franker, relational, concerned with childhood, people and places, some masquerading as regional or local history, in a strongly masculine society they were often judged as ‘unimportant’ or ‘trivial’ and not given publication at the time of writing. But they came to lay the foundation of ‘a complementary culture’ to male autobiography with its ongoing emphasis on national identity and image, and they have been judged by literary and historical scholars as a rich and unique reading experience.'  (Introduction)

'Historian Ann Moyal has led a fascinating life. As a young adult she was the research assistant to Lord Beaverbrook – a vibrant British political player during the World Wars. In her sixties, Ann believed she had told her life story when she published the autobiographical Breakfast with Beaverbrook. But – inspired by the bemoaned lack of interesting late-life stories – Ann decided to recount her rich later years.

'In A Woman of Influence Ann, now a Doctor of Letters, tells of her life’s work in Australian science history, and the many important people she met along the way. She also writes insightfully about our social and political challenges, and intimately about life’s great commonalities: love and loss.' (Publication blurb)

'Half-a-century ago Alan Moorehead was one of Australia's most famous writers. He first made his name as an intrepid and eloquent World War Two correspondent, then as the biographer of Montgomery and Churchill. His widely-read historical works, fiction and travel writing drew critical and popular acclaim. Books such as African Trilogy, Gallipoli, The Fatal Impact and Darwin and the Beagle were re-printed many times and extensively translated. Yet, in spite of his major contribution to Australian and international history, Moorehead has largely fallen from public view.

'Ann Moyal's marvellous encapsulation of his life and work is therefore timely. The first of the national Library's new biography series, An Australian Life, Moyal brings this passionate writer and his era vividly to life and provides an informed assessment of Moorehead's last influence. ' (Publication summary)

'Ann Moyal's is a life lived to the full, if at times unconventionally. Three-times married, she has always sought to balance her life as a woman with her varied career: working with the vivid and controversial Lord Beaverbrook, co-founding the Australian Dictionary of Biography, becoming a 'cause celebre' as an academic at Griffith University, and later choosing independence and emerging as a leading social historian of Australian science, telecommunication and technology.

'In Breakfast With Beaverbrook she has balanced an exploration of her early life and career highlights on the world's stage with the more complex strands of maturity and achievement.' (Publication summary)