Nancy Phelan

Nancy Phelan (1913-2008) was an Australian fiction-writer, biographer, and memoirist. Born in Sydney, she studied music at the Conservatorium and lived in England for a few years before returning to Australia. She also travelled extensively in the Pacific Islands, Europe, Asia and the Middle East – travels recorded in a string of books from Atoll Holiday (1958) to Morocco Is a Lion (1982). In 2004, she received the Patrick White Award.

Nancy Phelan reviews 'Heddy and Me' by Susan Varga

July 1994, no. 162 • 01 July 1994

Heddy is a survivor. She is good looking, intelligent, strong, determined, businesslike, materialistic, positive, rather like those formidable Middle-European ladies who run dress shops and control their customers with a mixture of bullying and continental charm. She has tremendous vitality, guts and initiative, has taken great risks and worked hard to ensure freedom from fear and material securit ... (read more)

Nancy Phelan reviews 'The Rose Crossing' by Nicholas Jose

October 1994, no. 165 • 01 October 1994

Occasionally after you have read a book that pleased, baffled, irritated, or bored you, someone points out all the subtleties, virtues, and faults you have missed. This could perhaps happen to readers of The Rose Crossing. We know from Anna Russell that in opera it doesn’t matter what the characters do so long as they sing it; the same could be said of novels, providing the author can convince ... (read more)