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My Accidental Career
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Australia’s leading biographer Brenda Niall, now in her nineties, turns the spotlight on her own story in this fascinating memoir of a remarkable life and career
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Brenda Niall, arguably Australia’s foremost biographer, looks back on her own life and the circumstances, events and choices that shaped her career.
My Accidental Career spans nine decades, from her childhood in the Melbourne suburb of Kew—where powerful neighbours included prime minister Menzies, millionaire gambler John Wren and Archbishop Daniel Mannix—to her university days, her first job writing reviews for a magazine and her travels in Ireland after breaking off her engagement to a suitable young man.
It’s a lively account of academic life at the newly established Monash University in the 1960s, a time when women were rare in university departments and even more rarely promoted, the snakes and ladders ups and downs of her time in the US, and of her charting new territory in Australian biography with acclaimed works on artists, writers and leaders.
Brenda Niall’s career isn’t one of struggle against the odds in a man’s world but one of quiet, confident work that couldn’t be ignored. Her Jane Austen-like wit and elegant prose enliven this story of Australian women’s history seen through the lens of her remarkable life.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Brenda Niall's My Accidental Career is lauded for its insightful and gracefully written recount of her life and career. Critics praise its intellectual depth and the seamless blend of personal anecdote with broader reflections on academic and writing life. The autobiography is noted for its clarity, emotional vulnerability, and the celebration of a life marked by creative achievement and determined curiosity. Readers are taken on a detailed journey through Niall's fascinating experiences, underscoring her keen observation and literary prowess.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781922458148
Publisher: Text Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 01 March 2022
Country: Australia
Imprint: The Text Publishing Company
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 153.0mm
Height: 234.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 320
About the Author
Brenda Niall is the author of five award-winning biographies, including her acclaimed accounts of the Boyd family and her portrait of the Durack sisters, True North. In 2016 she won the Australian Literature Society’s Gold Medal and the National Biography Award for Mannix. In 2004 she was awarded the Order of Australia for ‘services to Australian literature, as an academic, biographer and literary critic’.
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