John Bryson (author)

John Bryson AM (25 December 1935 – 5 February 2022) was an Australian author and lawyer. He wrote works of fiction, biography and non-fiction.

Life

Bryson was born in Melbourne on 25 December 1935. He attended the University of Melbourne, where he studied law.

Career

In 1971, after practising law for 10 years, first as a solicitor and later as a barrister, he became chairman and managing director of a Melbourne public company. In 1978, he rejoined the Victorian Bar. He was a member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council, later becoming acting chairman.

Works

Since 1973, Bryson's articles and stories have been published in Australian newspapers.

Bryson's best known work is his 1985 book ''Evil Angels: The Case of Lindy Chamberlain'' which chronicles the story of Lindy Chamberlain's trial for murder, following the Death of Azaria Chamberlain. It was made into a film of the same name starring Meryl Streep in 1988. It was released under its original title in Australia and New Zealand and as ''A Cry in the Dark'' in other English-speaking territories, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa. It is also known by similar titles internationally.

Bryson was also the author of a 1981 collection of short fiction, ''Whoring Around'', and a collection of reportage, ''Backstage at the Revolution''. His novel of the Spanish Civil War, ''To the Death, Amic'', was published by Viking in 1994 and as ''Hasta la Muerte, Amigo'' by Editorial Milenio Spain in 2006. In 2004 he originated and co-produced ''Secrets of the Juryroom'', a documentary for SBS-TV.

In 2013, he was published in eBook format for his works of both fiction and non-fiction. Many of the non-fiction titles included collections of articles he had published as a journalist.

He died in Sydney on 5 February 2022, at the age of 86.

Awards

* 1979 ''The Routine'', one of the stories that was later included in ''Whoring Around'', received the 1979 Patricia Hackett Award at the University of Western Australia
* 1985 Victorian Premier's Award for non-fiction
* 1986 Allen Lane Award
* 1986 Nettie Palmer Prize for Australian Nonfiction
* 1986 British Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger
* 2000, a panel of journalism schools included him in "The 100 Australian Journalists of the Century".
* 2014 appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for services to Australian literature, support for Indigenous youth, and community.

Bibliography

Fiction

* ''Whoring Around'' Penguin Books (1981)
* ''Melodram fur eine Heldin aus Plast'' Spektrum, Berlin (1985)
* ''Children Aren't Supposed to be Here at All'' in the ''Penguin Century of Australian Stories'' (2000)
* ''To the Death, Amic'' Penguin (1994)
* ''Hasta la Muerte, Amigo'' Editorial Milenio, Spain (2006)
* ''A World This Size'', eBook (2013)
* ''Fancygoods Over the Mountain'', eBook (2013)
* ''Homage to a Born Insurgent'', eBook (2013)
* ''Whoring Around, a Novella'', eBook (2013)
* ''Stories of Laughter and Lament'', eBook (2013)

Non-fiction

* ''Evil Angels'' Penguin (1985) and Hachette (2000) and in 12 languages
* ''Backstage at the Revolution'' Penguin (1986)
* ''The Personality of War'', eBook (2013)
* ''A Long Weekend in Belfast,'' eBook (2013)
* ''Islanders, Far South'', eBook (2013)
* ''In Rage, Rebellion'', eBook (2013)
* ''Three Revolutions'', eBook (2013)
* ''Among the Very Foreign'', eBook (2013)
* ''Brilliant Artists in Trio'', eBook (2013)

Notes

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryson, John
1935 births
2022 deaths
Australian male short story writers
Writers from Melbourne
Australian biographers
Male biographers
Members of the Order of Australia
Male non-fiction writers