Ronald Cecil Hamlyn McKie (11 December 1909 – 8 May 1991) was an Australian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

. He was born on 11 May 1909 in

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

. After receiving his education at the Brisbane Grammar School and the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

, he worked as a journalist on newspapers in Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore, and China. He served in the AIF during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

from 1942–1943, following which he served as war correspondent for several Australian and UK newspapers. After the war he worked for Sydney's '' Daily Telegraph''. McKie died from kidney disease on 8 May 1991 in Canterbury, Melbourne, Australia.

Awards

* Miles Franklin Award, 1974, and FAW Barbara Ramsden Award (joint winner 1974) for ''The Mango Tree''.

Bibliography

The Australian Dictionary of Biography references a biography and cites other references.

Novels

* '' The Mango Tree'' (1974) * ''The Crushing'' (1977) * ''Bitter Bread'' (1978)

Autobiography

* ''Bali'' (1969) * ''We Have No Dreaming'' (1988)

Non-fiction

* ''This Was Singapore'' (1947) * ''Proud Echo'' (1953) * ''The Survivors'' (1953) * ''The Heroes'' (1960) * ''The Emergence of Malaysia'' (1963) * ''Malaysia in Focus'' (1964) * ''The Company of Animals'' (1966) * ''Singapore'' (1972) * ''Echoes from Forgotten Wars'' (1980)

References

1909 births 1991 deaths Australian non-fiction writers Miles Franklin Award winners People from Toowoomba Writers from Queensland 20th-century Australian novelists Australian male novelists Male non-fiction writers {{australia-writer-stub