AustLit

'Nell Aston was born in Geraldton, W.A., but did not see the town until fifty years later. That was because women then travelled hundreds of miles to the only maternity hospital north of Perth. Her childhood was spent on several remote farms with plenty of animals but no human playmates and a somewhat patchy education. After a couple of infants schools came two years of correspondence lessons - before any School of the Air. Then there was a short time in a real school, followed by nearly four years in a one-teacher school among the giant karri trees. After that, a scholarship took her away to boarding school. She became a teacher in W. A. but marriage brought her to Sydney. After eleven years at home with her two young children she went back to teaching until retirement. After a very long time in the Lower Blue Mountains, Nell moved to Bankstown where she now lives with her family She has always loved writing and hopes to do much more of it.'

Apart from her play for children Bailed Up, Aston is the author of the local histories: Rails, Roads & Ridges: History of Lapstone Hill - Glenbrook [1986] and Glimpses of Glenbrook (1999). She has also written a history of the Blue Mountains Creative Arts Centre and edited a history of the Glenbrook Public School.

Source of quotation: author's website, http://www.users.bigpond.com/carneyvaughan/naston.htm
Sighted 02/02/2009