Nancy Phelan

Nancy Phelan (2 August 1913 – 11 January 2008) was an Australian writer who published over 25 books, including novels, biographies, memoirs, travel books and a cookbook. She travelled widely throughout Europe, the Pacific, Asia and the Middle East.

Life and career

Nancy Eleanor Creagh was born in Sydney, and had "a magical childhood, spent wandering the shores of Sydney Harbour near Chinamans Beach and The Spit on Middle Harbour with her friends and extended family". However, as a teenager she saw the limitations of her suburban life and was keen to travel, so in 1938 she bought a one-way ticket to England. She met her husband, Raymond "Pete" Phelan, in London near the beginning of the war, and had her daughter, Vanessa, there. She and her daughter were evacuated to Devon where she spent her war years while her husband was in the Navy.

Towards the end of her life, Phelan said that she wanted to push her prose towards poetry: "Poetry gets to the crux of things in a beautiful and arresting way ... That's the sort of writing I would like to be able to do. I don't know that I will ever get there. It's a very difficult job, writing, isn't it?"

Awards and nominations 1950: The Sydney Morning Herald novel competition. Third prize for The Voice Beyond the Tree 1984: Braille Book of the Year Award for The Swift Foot of Time 1987: Miles Franklin Award. Nominated for Home is the Sailor 1988: Foundation of Australian Literary Studies award for Home is the Sailor, and The Best of Intentions 2004: Patrick White Award

Works

Novels The River and the Brook (1962) Serpents in Paradise (1967) The Voice Beyond the Trees (1985) Home Is the Sailor; and The Best of Intentions (1987)

Autobiographies and memoirs A Kingdom by the Sea (1969) The Swift Foot of Time: An Australian in England (1983) Setting Out on the Voyage: The World of an Incorrigible Adventurer (contains A Kingdom by the Sea and Hearts of Oak) (1998) Writing Round the Edges: A Selective Memoir (2003)

Biographies Charles Mackerras: A Musicians' Musician (1987) The Romantic Lives of Louise Mack (1991)

Travel Atoll Holiday (1958) Welcome the Wayfarer: A Traveller in Modern Turkey (1965) Pillow of Grass (1969) The Chilean Way: Travels in Chile (1973) Morocco Is a Lion (1982)

Other non-fiction How to Make Your Own Filmstrips (1954) Yoga for Women (with Michael Volin) (1963) Yoga Over Forty (with Michael Volin) (1965) Yoga Breathing (with Michael Volin) (1966) Sex and Yoga (with Michael Volin) (1967) Some Came Early, Some Came Late (1970) Beginner's Guide to Yoga (1973) Mosman Impressions (1993) Pieces of Heaven in the South Seas (1996)