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.Bennie (2008) p. 18 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 Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

near Chinamans Beach and The Spit on

Middle Harbour Middle Harbour (or ''Warrin ga''), a semi–mature tide dominated drowned valley estuary, is the northern arm of Port Jackson, an inlet of the Tasman Sea located north of Sydney central business district on the coast of New South Wales, Austr ...

with her friends and extended family". She studied at the Conservatorium of Music and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

.Adelaide (1988) p. 157) 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 Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

where she spent her war years while her husband was in the Navy. She returned to Australia with her family in 1945 and quickly joined the thriving arts scene of

Potts Point Potts Point is a small and densely populated suburb in inner-city Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Potts Point is located east of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney. Potts ...

, Kings Cross and Elizabeth Bay. In 1946, she obtained work as a visual aids officer with the South Pacific Commission, and travelled frequently to the South Pacific islands. In 1951, she became assistant organiser for Island literature in the Commission's Social Development Section, but she resigned in 1956 to write full-time. Her first book, ''Atoll Holiday'', published in 1958, was inspired by her three-month stay in the

Gilbert Islands The Gilbert Islands ( gil, Tungaru;Reilly Ridgell. ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.'' 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this n ...

. Her writings of her travelling alone in places such as Turkey and post-war Japan "shocked her readership". In addition to writing books, she also wrote short stories and articles, and was a reviewer for ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' in 1970 and the Melbourne ''

Age Age or AGE may refer to: Time and its effects * Age, the amount of time someone or something has been alive or has existed ** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1 * Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older ...

'' in 1972. Phelan was the niece of Amy (1876—1939) and Louise Mack (1870—1935), a

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

-born writer who became the first female war correspondent during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and the cousin of Australian conductor,

Charles Mackerras Mackerras in 2005 Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras (; 1925 2010) was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the Eng ...

. She wrote biographies of both. Her friends included writers like

Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was a British-born Australian writer who published 12 novels, three short-story collections, and eight plays, from 1935 to 1987. White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, ...

Kylie Tennant Kathleen Kylie Tennant AO (; 12 March 1912 – 28 February 1988) was an Australian novelist, playwright, short-story writer, critic, biographer, and historian. Early life and career Tennant was born in Manly, New South Wales; she was educat ...

, Dorothy Hewett, Jessica Anderson, Nancy Keesing, Elizabeth Harrower and Peter Porter, and the artist

Jeffrey Smart Frank Jeffrey Edson Smart (26 July 1921 – 20 June 2013) was an expatriate Australian painter known for his precisionist depictions of urban landscapes that are "full of private jokes and playful allusions". Smart was born and educated ...

. The Patrick White Award judges said that she wrote with "delicious verve and humour" and that her "passion for life has led her to explore other cultures and to write memorably about them whether in fiction or non-fiction". 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?"Phelan cited by Bennie (2008) p. 18

Awards and nominations

*1950: ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' novel competition. Third prize for ''The Voice Beyond the Tree''Wilde et al. (1994) p. 614 *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 The Patrick White Award is an annual literary prize established by Patrick White. White used his 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature award to establish a trust for this prize. The $25,000 cash award is given to a writer who has been highly creative o ...

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) ()

Notes

References

* Adelaide, Debra (1988) ''Australian women writers: a bibliographic guide'', London, Pandora
AustLit: Nancy Phelan
* Bennie, Angela (2008) "A friend of words and writers" in ''

'', 2008-01-16, p. 18
First Person: A Kingdom by the Sea

Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors an ...

, 1 August 2005 * Wilde, William H., Hooton, Joy and Andrews, Barry (1994) ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature'' 2nd ed., Melbourne, Oxford University Press

External links

Nancy Phelan interviewed by Hazel de Berg for the Hazel de Berg collection
– sound recording {{DEFAULTSORT:Phelan, Nancy 1913 births 2008 deaths Australian memoirists Australian travel writers Writers from Sydney Patrick White Award winners Women travel writers Australian women memoirists Australian women novelists 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian women writers 20th-century memoirists