The Life, Loves and Books of Katharine Susannah Prichard, the Red Witch of Greenmount

Join biographer, writer and librarian Nathan Hobby at Dianella Library to hear about Katharine Susannah Prichard, known as the Red Witch of Greenmount.

Katharine Susannah Prichard (1883-1969) was one of Australia's greatest novelists of the 1920s and 1930s, chronicling the lives of people in the back-blocks of our country in novels such as Coonardoo, Haxby's Circus and Working Bullocks. In this talk, Prichard's biographer, Nathan Hobby, will reveal her dramatic and tragic life and career, from the myth about her birth in Fiji to her war-time romances with a communist playboy and a Victoria Cross winner, her literary triumphs and her idealistic beliefs which hardened into type of political fundamentalism by the end of her life.

Dr Nathan Hobby is a Perth biographer. The Red Witch: A biography of Katharine Susannah Prichard (Melbourne University Publishing 2022) won the 2023 WA Premier's Prize for Book of the Year and was described by the Sydney Morning Herald as 'an eloquent and powerful tracing of the life of one of Australia’s once most celebrated writers'. Nathan's previous book, The Fur (Fremantle Press 2004), won the TAG Hungerford Award. He is an honorary research fellow at the University of Western Australia and works as a special collections librarian.

Dr Hobby will have some books for sale, please bring cash with you if you wish to purchase.

Date: Wednesday, 24 July 2024

Time: 5:00pm - 6:30pm

Venue: Stirling Libraries - Dianella, Waverley Street, Dianella WA 6059

Free event; bookings are essential as places are limited.

Tea and coffee will be provided; attendees are encouraged to BYO reusable coffee cup.

Stirling Libraries - Dianella is wheelchair accessible. Parking is available in the adjacent carpark.

For more information, contact Stirling Libraries - Dianella on (08) 9205 7740 or email dianella.library@stirling.wa.gov.au

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