Anne Brooksbank – January 15 2017

Anne is an author, film scriptwriter and playwright. She studied painting at the National Gallery School and received a Master of Arts in English literature and history from Melbourne University before becoming a professional writer. Anne has won four Australian Writers’ Guild Awards. Her other novels include Archer and On Loan, as well as the juvenile fiction books Father’s Day, Big Thursday, Sir Katherine and Mother’s Day. Anne has written extensively for film and television, her credits including A Country Practice, Blue Heelers, Water Rats, Avengers of the Reef, Case for the Defence, The Winds of Jarrah and Land of Hope. Anne lives in Palm Beach, Sydney, and was married to Bob Ellis with whom she collaborated on such works as the novel Mad Dog Morgan, the stage play Down Under and the screenplays Newstime and Maybe This Time.

All My Love: The Lost Romance of Mary Gilmore and Henry Lawson
William Heinemann Australia, 1991; ISBN 9780855613969
Mary Gilmore, literary icon and radical socialist; Henry Lawson, writer and poet; Louise Lawson, Henry’s formidable suffragette mother. Introduced to each other at the end of the 19th century, Mary and Henry’s friendship blossomed and they became secretly betrothed but their love was deliberately thwarted by a devastating deception. This is the story of lost love. Anne first uncovered the tale of their loving promises while researching Mary Gilmore’s memoirs. Their letters and autobiographical works form the framework for this story, which the author has also made into a play.

Marriage Acts
Penguin Books, 2000; ISBN 9780140290301
A dramatic novel dealing with family relationships, revenge and marital betrayal. When a letter bomb meant for David McKinnon, a family law court judge, explodes in a leafy Sydney street, it shatters his comfortable and ordered world and places a strain on his marriage and relationships with his children. While police carry out a formal investigation David begins a hunt of his own, desperate to protect his disintegrating family.