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Joan Lindsay Joan Lindsay i(A7691 works by) (birth name: Joan a'Beckett Weigall) (a.k.a. Joan a'Beckett Lindsay; Lady Lindsay; Mrs Daryl Lindsay)
Also writes as: Serena Livingstone-Stanley ; Lindsay Ryan ; Rev. Barnaby Whitecorn (DD) ; Joan Weigall ; 'Joan' ; J. L. ; Beckett Lindsay ; J. W. ; Vandyck Browne ; A Victorian ; A Mainland Visitor ; B. Lindsay
Born: Established: 16 Nov 1896 St Kilda East, Caulfield - St Kilda area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria, ; Died: Ceased: 23 Dec 1984 Frankston, Frankston area, Melbourne South East, Melbourne, Victoria,
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Joan Lindsay grew up in her birthplace of East St Kilda in Victoria. Her father was Sir Theyre Weigall, while her mother, Annie Sophie Henrietta (aka A. S. H. Weigall, q.v.), was the daughter of the Governor of Tasmania, Sir Robert Hamilton. Lindsay attended Clyde Girls Grammar School in St Kilda, which became the model for Appelyard College in Picnic at Hanging Rock. From 1916 to 1920 she studied painting at the National Gallery of Victoria, where she shared a studio with Maie Casey, with whom she had a lifelong friendship. Lindsay was a promising artist and in 1921 exhibited for the first time with the Victorian Artists Society. On St Valentine's Day, 1922 in London, she married Daryl Lindsay (q.v.), artist and member of the famous Lindsay family.

In 1936 Lindsay published a parody, Through Darkest Pondelayo, under the pseudonym Serena Livingstone-Stanley. At about the same time she was writing plays and although they were not published, one of them, Wolf (written with Margot Neville, q.v.) was performed in Swanage, England, in 1930. In 1941 her husband was appointed Director of the National Gallery of Victoria, a position he held until 1956, the same year in which he received a knighthood. In 1941 Lindsay and her husband collaborated in the writing of The Story of the Red Cross. During the next few years Lindsay was joint author with Ursula Hoff and Alan McCulloch of Masterpieces of the National Gallery of Victoria (1949) and co-edited Early Melbourne Architecture, 1840-1888, with Maie Casey and others. She also joined with Maie Casey, Rosemary Dobson and Marnie Bassett in writing the words of A Company of Carols, which was set to music by Margaret Sutherland (1967).

Joan and Daryl Lindsay lived most of their married life at Mulberry Hill, Baxter, Victoria, which is now owned by the National Trust. Her neighbours and close friends were Keith Murdoch (q.v.) and Elisabeth Murdoch. Another close friend was her cousin Martin Boyd (q.v.) and she was particularly influential in the genesis of his novel Nuns in Jeopardy (1940). Her sister, Marian Weigall (q.v.), published poetry, while her brother Theyre Hamilton Weigall (q.v.) was the author of a novel. At Mulberry Hill Joan Lindsay wrote her autobiographical works Time Without Clocks (1962) and Facts Soft and Hard (1964), as well as her most famous book, Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967), which was later made into an internationally acclaimed film by Peter Weir. Her last book was the children's story Syd Sixpence (1982).

Note: Writing as A. S. H. Weigall, Joan Lindsay's mother published an autobiography My Little World: Recalled (1934); after Theyre Weigall's death, A.S.H. Weigall married T. G. Tucker (q.v.), whom Joan Lindsay greatly admired.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Picnic at Hanging Rock Melbourne : Cheshire , 1967 Z305085 1967 single work novel historical fiction mystery (taught in 2 units)

'It was a cloudless summer day in the year 1900. Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of the secluded volcanic outcropping. Farther, higher, until at last they disappeared. They never returned. ...'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Penguin Random House, 2014).

1998 winner The TDK Australian Audio Book Awards Abridged Audio Book Separate from the award for abridged fiction (awarded to Arundhati Roy).

Known archival holdings

National Library of Australia (ACT)
University of Queensland University of Queensland Library Fryer Library (QLD)
Albinski 130
Last amended 17 Nov 2016 07:31:41
Influence on:
Nuns in Jeopardy Martin Boyd , 1940 single work novel
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