Hugh Geddes Atkinson (19241994) was an Australian novelist, journalist, screenwriter and documentary film maker.

Early career

Hugh Atkinson was born in

Parkes Parkes may refer to: * Sir Henry Parkes (1815–1896), Australian politician, one of the earliest and most prominent advocates for Australian federation Named for Henry Parkes * Parkes, New South Wales, a regional town * Parkes Observatory, a radi ...

, New South Wales, Australia. In the course of his career, he worked at various jobs in the media industry in England, Germany, India, the Pacific and Australia. He worked as an advertising copywriter for the Lintas Group in the 1950s. He spent five years working as a technical officer for the Indian Government. He worked as a scriptwriter for the United Nations for two years. He became a full-time novelist in the late 1960s.

Writing career

Hugh Atkinson's first novel, ''The Pink and the Brown'', was published in 1957 and duly acclaimed as a critical success. Among other things, it looked at race relations in India in the 1950s. One of his later novels, ''The Longest Wire'', recounted the story of the

Overland Telegraph The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was a telegraphy system to send messages over long distances using cables and electric signals. It spanned between Darwin, in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia, and Adelaide, the capital o ...

, one of the most ambitious projects attempted in 19th-century Australia. He wrote several other novels set in Outback Australia, notably ''Billy Two-Toes' Rainbow'', which partly examines the lives of the

Pitjantjatjara The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are va ...

, an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert. His articles have appeared in '' The Bulletin'' and ''Nation''. In all, he published more than 15 books, including novels and children's books, and numerous short stories. Atkinson also wrote one novel under the pseudonym Hugh Geddes. It was a fictional recounting of the famous Pyjama Girl Case involving an apparently sordid murder which remained unsolved for many years. The book was based on a 1977 film of the same name, directed by Italian filmmaker Flavio Mogherini.

Screenwriting career

In addition to his extensive documentary film work, two of Hugh Atkinson’s novels were made into films. His novel ''The Games'', about the Olympics, was made into a film of the same name. His novel ''The Reckoning'' was made into a dramatic film entitled '' Weekend of Shadows''. He wrote the screenplays for both films, and also for ''L’amante végétale'', a short story which was made into a film in French, directed by Jean Valmont.

Works

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the 1992 edition "Authors Note" page 208, the story was originally published as a short story in Angus & Robertson anthology Coast to Coast in 1958 while the Author was in India, and later in 1962, it was also included in 'Australian Cavalcade', a school textbook of the time.

Last days

Hugh Atkinson was made an Emeritus Fellow of the Literature Board of the

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austr ...

.Wilde, H. W., et al., ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature'', Oxford University Press. 1994 He died in 1994.

Sources