Monica Elizabeth Jolley (4 June 1923 – 13 February 2007) was an English-born Australian writer who settled in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

in the late 1950s and forged an illustrious literary career there. She was 53 when her first book was published, and she went on to publish fifteen novels (including an autobiographical trilogy), four short story collections and three non-fiction books, publishing well into her 70s and achieving significant critical acclaim. She was also a pioneer of creative writing teaching in Australia, counting many well-known writers such as

Tim Winton Timothy John Winton (born 4 August 1960) is an Australian writer. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories. In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and has won the ...

among her students at

Curtin University Curtin University (previously Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology) is an Australian public university, public research university based in Bentley, Western Australia, Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. ...

.Hacket (2007) Her novels explore "alienated characters and the nature of loneliness and entrapment."

Life

Jolley was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England as Monica Elizabeth Knight, to an English father and Austrian-born mother who was the daughter of a high ranking Railways official. She grew up in the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...

in the English industrial

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

. She was educated privately until age 11, when she was sent to

Sibford School Sibford School is a British co-educational independent school in Sibford Ferris, west of Banbury in north Oxfordshire, linked with the Religious Society of Friends. The school has both day and boarding pupils between the ages of 3 and 18. It is ...

, a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

boarding school near Banbury in Oxfordshire which she attended from 1934 to 1940. At 17 she began training as an orthopaedic nurse in London and later in Surrey. She began an affair with one of her patients, Leonard Jolley (1914–1994), and subsequently became pregnant. Leonard Jolley was already married to Joyce Jolley, who was also pregnant. Elizabeth moved in with the Jolleys, and her daughter Sarah was born five weeks before the birth of Susan Jolley, the child of Leonard and Joyce. Elizabeth and Leonard subsequently emigrated to Australia in 1959 after they had married. They eventually had three children and Leonard was appointed chief librarian at the Reid Library at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, a job he held from 1960 to 1979. Leonard told his family in England that it was Joyce and Susan with whom he had moved to Australia. For several years, Elizabeth wrote letters purportedly from Joyce and Susan to Leonard's British relatives. Leonard eventually asked his former wife to tell their daughter Susan that he had died. Elizabeth and Leonard lived in the riverside Perth suburb of Claremont. In 1970 they also bought a small orchard in

Wooroloo Wooroloo is a town on the outer fringe of the Perth metropolitan region, located off Great Eastern Highway in the eastern part of the Shire of Mundaring. At the 2021 Australian census, 2021 census, Wooroloo had a population of 2,613. History T ...

, a town in the Darling Ranges approximately 60 kilometres inland from Perth. Elizabeth Jolley worked at a variety of jobs including nursing, cleaning, door-to-door sales and running a small poultry farm, and throughout this time she also wrote works of fiction including short stories, plays and novels. Her first book was published in 1976, when she was 53. From the late 1970s, she taught writing at the Western Australian Institute of Technology, later

, and one of her students was another Australian novelist,

. Her students have won many prizes including "several ''Australian''/Vogel Awards (for a first novel), several different Premier's Awards, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the Miles Franklin Award". She developed

dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

in 2000, and died in a nursing home in Perth in 2007. Her death prompted many tributes in newspapers across Australia, and in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' in the United Kingdom. Her diaries, stored at the

Mitchell Library The Mitchell Library is a large public library located in the Charing Cross area of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the largest public reference library in Europe, and the centre of Glasgow's public library system. History The library was initiall ...

in Sydney, will be closed until after the deaths of her children or 25 years after her death. Andrew Riemer, the ''Sydney Morning Heralds chief book reviewer, wrote in his obituary for her, "Jolley could assume any one of several personas – the little old lady, the Central European intellectual, the nurse, the orchardist, the humble wife, the university teacher, the door-to-door salesperson – at the drop of a hat, usually choosing one that would disconcert her listeners, but hold them in fascination as well". On 16 November 2007, the performance of

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...

's '' A German Requiem'' by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, chorus and soloists, under conductor Lothar Zagrosek, was dedicated to Jolley, for whom the Requiem had been a great source of joy and inspiration.

Literary career

Jolley began writing early in her twenties, but was not recognised until much later. She had many rejections by publishers, 39 in one year alone. Delys Bird suggests that it was the post-modern features of her writing – "motifs repeated within and between novels and short stories, self-reflexivity and open-endedness"Bird (2000) p. 195 – that made it hard for them to be published at that time. She suggests that her eventual success owes a little to "the 1980s awareness of 'women's writing'", which had been catapulted to the mainstream after the success of other Australian female writers such as

Helen Garner Helen Garner (née Ford, born 7 November 1942) is an Australian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. Garner's debut novel, first novel, ''Monkey Grip (novel), Monkey Grip'', published in 1977, immediately established her ...

and

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and feminist, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literature, she ...

. In the 1960s some of her stories were accepted by the BBC World Service and Australian journals, but her first book ''Five Acre Virgin'' was not published until 1976. Soon following were '' Woman in a Lampshade'' and ''Palomino'', but it would not be until much later that these books would receive either positive reviews or high circulation. She lapsed in her writing, discouraged by earlier failures, and was only to be published again in 1983 with ''Miss Peabody's Inheritance'' and ''Mr Scobie's Riddle''. The latter won

The Age Book of the Year ''The Age'' Book of the Year Awards were annual literary awards presented by Melbourne's ''The Age'' newspaper. The awards were first presented in 1974. After 1998, they were presented as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival Melbourne Writer ...

and high acclaim, especially in Australia and the United States. A year later, ''Milk and Honey'' was awarded Christina Stead Prize for fiction in the

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...

. In 1986, ''The Well'' won the top Australian literary prize – the

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the Will (law), will of Miles Franklin ...

. ''The Sugar Mother'' was, as Riemer writes, "her characteristically idiosyncratic way of fulfilling a commission to write a novel commemorating the bicentenary of 1988".Riemer (2007) Later in her career she wrote an autobiographical fiction trilogy, ''My Father's Moon'' (1989), ''Cabin Fever'' (1990) and ''The Georges' Wife'' (1993). In an article in ''The Age'' newspaper, 20 February 2007, written after her death, literary critic Peter Craven, was reported as saying, "She was a master of black comedy and she went on to write a wholly different form of autobiographical fiction that was lucid, luminous and calm". ''Lovesong'', her third last novel, is, Riemer suggests, "the riskiest book she wrote". It deals with the subject of paedophilia and demonstrates "an admirable refusal to be deflected from what she must have seen as the demands of her art and vocation". In 1993, a diary she kept before her novels were published which recorded the experience of buying a hobby farm was published as ''Diary of a Weekend Farmer''. A partly autobiographical collection of pieces, ''Central Mischief'', appeared in 1992. She also wrote numerous radio plays broadcast by the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

, and several of her poetic works were published in journals and anthologies during the 1980s and 1990s. Jolley was made a professor of Creative Writing at

in 1998. On 8 February 2008,

Library launched the online Elizabeth Jolley Research Collection, a virtual research centre for scholars interested in studying her and her work.

Awards and nominations

* 1983:

Award for ''Mr Scobie's Riddle'' * 1983:

Western Australian Premier's Book Awards The Western Australian Premier's Book Awards is an annual book award provided by the Government of Western Australia, and managed by the State Library of Western Australia. History and format Annual literary awards were inaugurated by the Wes ...

for ''Mr Scobie's Riddle'' * 1985:

, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction for ''Milk and Honey'' * 1986:

for ''The Well'' * 1987: Western Australia Citizen of the Year * 1988:

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

(AO) for services to literatureIt's an Honour
– Officer of the Order of Australia * 1988: Western Australian Institute of Technology Honorary Doctorate * 1989:

Award, winner for ''My Father's Moon'' * 1989: Canada/Australia Literary Award * 1993:

Award, winner for ''The Georges' Wife'' * 1993:

, Premier's prize for ''Central Mischief'' * 1994: National Book Council Award, Banjo for ''The Georges' Wife'' * 1995:

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

Honorary Doctorate * 1997: Australian Living Treasure * 1997:

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

Honorary Doctorate * 1998:

shortlist for ''Lovesong''

Literary works

Novels

* ''

Palomino Palomino is a equine coat color, genetic color in horses, consisting of a gold coat and white mane (horse), mane and tail; the degree of whiteness can vary from bright white to yellow. The palomino color derived from the breeding of Spanish hor ...

'' (1980) * '' The Newspaper of Claremont Street'' (1981) * '' Miss Peabody's Inheritance'' (1983) * '' Mr Scobie's Riddle'' (1983) * ''

Milk and Honey Milk and Honey may refer to: Music * The Milk and Honey Band, an English band * Milk and Honey (album), ''Milk and Honey'' (album), a 1984 album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono * Milk & Honey (Crowder album), ''Milk & Honey'' (Crowder album), 2021 * M ...

'' (1984) * '' Foxybaby'' (1985) * ''

The Well The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL or The Well, is a virtual community founded in 1985. It is one of the oldest continuously operating virtual communities. By 1993 it had 7,000 members, a staff of 12, and gross annu ...

'' (1986) * '' The Sugar Mother'' (1988) * '' My Father's Moon'' (1989) * ''

Cabin Fever Cabin fever is the distressing irritability or restlessness experienced when a person, or group, is stuck at an isolated location or in confined quarters for an extended time. A person may be referred to as stir-crazy, derived from the use of ''s ...

'' (1990) * '' The Georges' Wife'' (1993) * '' The Orchard Thieves'' (1995) * '' Lovesong'' (1997) * '' An Accommodating Spouse'' (1999) * '' An Innocent Gentleman'' (2001)

Short stories and plays

* '' Five Acre Virgin and Other Stories'' (1976) * '' The Well-Bred Thief'' (1977) * '' The Travelling Entertainer and Other Stories'' (1979) * '' Woman in a Lampshade'' (1983) * '' Off the Air: Nine Plays for Radio'' (1995) * '' Fellow Passengers: Collected Stories of Elizabeth Jolley'' (1997)

Non-fiction

* '' Central Mischief: Elizabeth Jolley on Writing, Her Past and Herself'' (1992) * '' Diary of a Weekend Farmer'' (1993) * '' Learning to Dance: Elizabeth Jolley: Her Life and Work'' (2006)

Notes

References

Caldwell, Alison (2007) "Australian writer Elizabeth Jolley remembered", transcript of broadcast on ''The World Today'', Tuesday, 20 February, 2007
*Bird, Delys (2000) "New narration: contemporary fiction" in Webby, Elizabeth (ed.) ''The Cambridge companion to Australian literature'', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070701015503/http://www.asc.uq.edu.au/asal/index.php?apply=18&menu=news&order=18&extra=default Dibble, Brian (2007) ''ASAL mourns Elizabeth Jolley''br>"Elizabeth Jolley (Obituary)" in ''The Times'', 7 April, 2007
*Falkiner, Suzanne (1992) ''Wilderness'' (Series: Writers' Landscape), East Roseville, Simon and Schuster *Garner, Helen (1983) "Elizabeth Jolley: an appreciation" in ''Meanjin'' Vol 42 No 2 (June 1983)
Hacket, Jeanette (2007) ''VC's Note: Vale Elizabeth Jolley''''Jolley's diary to be kept a secret'', 21 February 2007
*McCowan, Sandra (1995) ''Reading and Writing Elizabeth Jolley: Contemporary Approaches'' Fremantle Arts Centre P: Fremantle, Western Australia)

*Riemer, Andrew (2007) "A witty adventurer in fiction: Elizabeth Jolley, 1923–2007" in ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 23 February 2007 *Salzman, Paul (1993) ''Hopelessly Tangled in Female Arms and Legs: Elizabeth Jolley's Fictions'' U of Queensland P: St Lucia, Queensland

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070611095736/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21252867-27648,00.html Sorenson, (2007) "A prolific, peculiar voice" in ''The Australian'', 20 February, 2007]
Steger, Jason (2007) "Literary peers mourn mischievous mistress of black humour" in ''The Age'' 20 February, 2007
Accessed: 13 July 2007 *Wilde, W., Hooton, J. & Andrews, B (2000) ''The Oxford Companion of Australian Literature'' 2nd Edition Oxford UP: Adelaide, South Australia

External links

Elizabeth Jolley Research Collection
at

Accessed: 2008-02-23

Transcript of interview with Brian Dibble, Jolley's biographer on his book "Doing Life", by Ramona Koval, The Book Show,

ABC Radio National ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...

, 2/12/08
Delys Bird, 'Gertrude and Elizabeth: Letters, Lives and Fictions' ''JASAL'' 2 (2003)

Barbara Milech 'Elizabeth Jolley, Mr Berringrton and the Resistance to Monogamy' ''JASAL'' 3 (2004)

Brian Dibble 'Mothers, Daughters and Elizabeth Jolley's Ethic of Hope' ''JASAL'' 4 (2005)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jolley, Elizabeth 1923 births 2007 deaths British emigrants to Australia 20th-century English novelists 21st-century British novelists 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English women writers Officers of the Order of Australia Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands English people of Austrian descent English nurses People educated at Sibford School English short story writers Miles Franklin Award winners ALS Gold Medal winners British women short story writers Academic staff of Curtin University English women novelists Australian women novelists 20th-century English short story writers 21st-century British short story writers