Marien Oulton Dreyer

Marien Oulton Dreyer (24 September 1911 – 16 January 1980), also known as Marien Cooper, was an Australian journalist, playwright and short-story writer. She wrote a weekly column for New Idea magazine as well as numerous scripts for radio. In 1959 she was joint winner of the Walkley Award for best magazine feature article.

Early life Marien Dreyer was born on 24 September 1911 at Mornington, Victoria. Her parents were Mary Oulton, née Rosson, and Joseph Dreyer, a journalist from New Zealand. During childhood she lost a leg; she nicknamed its wooden replacement "Annabella" and in later life held it an annual party. She attended a convent school in Melbourne before leaving at age 14 to work as a stenographer.

She also wrote frequently for radio for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Her scripts included "Story of a Lame Duck" (1951), an autobiographical account of living with a disability, and "Hard Way Back" (1953), which described the challenges faced by a recovering tuberculosis patient. The latter attracted controversy when it was denied permission to be broadcast after the Commonwealth Department of Health objected that it "over-emphasise ... past the bounds of reality" the challenges experienced by patients (tuberculosis was considered a sensitive subject; a 1948 report by Maxwell Dunn had been suppressed on similar grounds). Deyer appealed but her appeal was dismissed, a decision she described as "a slur on her reputation and contrary to free speech."

In the 1960s she co-authored three books with retired magistrate Arthur Debenham: Without Fear or Favour, All Manner of People and The Innocent Victims. Her satirical play Bandicoot on a Burnt Ridge won the Journalist's Club Award for 1962–3.

Personal life Dreyer married fellow journalist Rodney Beaumont Lovell Cooper in the late 1930s in Melbourne. They moved to Sydney in 1940 and had two sons. She died on 16 January 1980 in Darlinghurst.