Beverley Farmer

Beverley Anne Farmer (also known as B. Christou) (7 February 1941 – 16 April 2018) was an Australian novelist and short story writer.

Personal life Beverley Farmer was born in Melbourne. She was educated at Mac.Robertson Girls' High School and at the University of Melbourne, where she graduated with a BA in 1960.

She worked in various jobs, mainly secondary-school teaching and running a restaurant, before becoming a professional writer. She was married to a Greek migrant, Christos Talihmanidis, for thirteen years 1965-78, three of them spent in Greece. They returned to Australia for their son to be born in 1972 and they were subsequently divorced. The "experience of being foreign" was also favoured. Several stories in her 1985 book Home Time show growing awareness of the relation between life and fiction, writers and readers. She was an admirer of her fellow Australian novelist Marjorie Barnard.

Awards and nominations 1984 – New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction for Milk 1996 – The House in the Light was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award 2018 – This Water was long-listed for The Stella Prize

Selected works

Short story anthologies Snake (1982) Milk (1983) Home Time (1985) Collected Stories (1987) This Water: Five Tales (2017)

Novellas

Alone (1980) The Seal Woman (1992) The House in the Light (1995)

Other

A Body of Water: A Year's Notebook (1990) The Bone House (2005)