In April, HarperCollins will release Stella Miles Franklin: A Biography, by Jill Roe. Roe, who was recently named an Officer of the Order of Australia, is the emeritus professor of history at Macquarie University in Sydney and has written numerous papers on the author who became a publishing sensation at 21 years of age with My Brilliant Career.

In mid-April, Black Inc. will release a biography of another famous Australian dame—Nellie Melba. I am Melba (Ann Blainey) promises to capture ‘the exuberance, controversy and pathos of Melba’s remarkable career.’

Finally, in Desert Queen Susanna de Vries presents a portrait of Daisy Bates, the controversial Irish woman who spent years studying the languages and stories of Indigenous Australians in the 1800s.

This article from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker