Brief Biography

Ruth Park was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1922. After moving to Australia in 1942 she married the writer D'Arcy Niland. After their marriage the Nilands travelled through the outback of Australia for a time before settling in Surry Hills in Sydney where they earned a living writing full-time.

After Niland died in 1967, Ruth Park visited London before moving to Norfolk Island from 1973 to 1985.

Her most famous books are the trilogy of Missus, The Harp in the South and Poor Man's Orange, along with Swords and Crowns and Rings which won the Miles Franklin Award in 1977.

Bibliography

Novels
The Harp in the South 1948
Poor Man's Orange 1949, published in the USA as 12 1/2 Plymouth Street in 1951
The Witch's Thorn 1951
A Power of Roses 1953
Serpent's Delight 1953, also published as The Good Looking Women 1961
Pink Flannel 1955
One-a-Pecker, Two-a-Pecker 1957, published in the USA as The Frost and the Fire in 1958
Swords and Crowns and Rings 1977
Missus 1985

Drama
The Uninvited Guest 1948
The Harp in the South 1949, with Leslie Rees
No Decision 1961, with D'Arcy Niland, for British television

Children's
The Hole in the Hill 1961, also published in the USA as Secret of the Maori Cave 1961
The Ship's Cat 1961
Airlift for Grandee 1962
The Road to Christmas 1962
The Road Under the Sea 1962
The Shaky Island 1962
Uncle Matt's Mountain 1962
The Ring for the Sorcerer 1967
The Sixpenny Island 1968
Nuki and the Sea Serpent: a Maori Legend 1969
The Runaway Bus 1969
Callie's Castle 1974
The Gigantic Balloon 1975
Merchant Campbell 1976
Roger Bandy 1977
Come Danger, Come Darkness 1978
Playing Beattie Bow 1980
When the Wind Changed 1980
The Big Brass Key 1983
My Sister Sif 1986
Callie's Family 1988
Things in Corners 1989 - short stories
James 1991

The Muddle-Headed Wombat series
The Muddle-Headed Wombat 1962
The Muddle-Headed Wombat on Holiday 1964
The Muddle-Headed Wombat in the Treetops 1965
The Muddle-Headed Wombat at School 1966
The Muddle-Headed Wombat in the Snow 1966
The Muddle-Headed Wombat on a Rainy Day 1969
The Muddle Headed Wombat in the Springtime 1970
The Muddle-Headed Wombat on the River 1970
The Muddle-Headed Wombat and the Bush Band 1973
The Muddle-Headed Wombat and the Invention 1975
The Muddle-Headed Wombat on Clean-Up Day 1976
The Adventures of the Muddle-Headed Wombat 1979
More Adventures of the Muddle-Headed Wombat 1980
The Muddle-Headed Wombat is Very Bad 1981
The Muddle-Headed Wombat Stays at Home 1982

The Muddle-Headed Wombat 1979, contains:

The Muddle-Headed Wombat
The Muddle-Headed Wombat on Holiday
The Muddle-Headed Wombat in the Treetops
The Muddle-Headed Wombat at School

Edited
The Penguin Best Stories of D'Arcy Niland 1987

Autobiography
The Drums Go Bang! 1956, with D'Arcy Niland
A Fence Around the Cuckoo 1992
Fishing in the Styx 1993

Non-Fiction
Der Goldene Bumerang 1955, or The Golden Boomerang
The Companion Guide to Sydney 1973
Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island 1982
The Sydney We Love 1983
The Tasmania We Love 1987
Home Before Dark: The Story of Les Darcy, a Great Australian Hero 1995, with Rafe Champion

Film Adaptations
Playing Beattie Bow was filmed in 1986. The film was written by Peter Gawler and directed by Donald Crombie.

Other Web Sites
The National Library of Australia maintains a good Ruth Park site titled Ruth Park: A Celebration.

Swords and Crowns and Rings 1977

Dustjacket synopsis:
"Growing up in an Australian country town before World War I, Jackie Hanna and Cushie Moy are carefree and innocent in their love for each other. But Jackie is a dwarf, and his devotion to the beautiful Cushie is condemned by her parents. This is the story of their life-long odyssey, and of the triumph of a special kind of courage.

"In Swords and Crowns and Rings, Ruth Park brilliantly captures the mood and tempo of Australian life from 1901 until 1931."

Quotes:
"The ever popular Ruth Park has written one of the best novels of the decade" - The Australian
"Almost impossible to put down...its characters keep on living in the imagination" - Sydney Sun
"A fairy tale of a novel..." - Sydney Morning Herald

First Paragraph

In a red weeping dawn the child was born at last. His mother gave a long cry of such peculiar poignancy that her husband, drowsing in the front room, started out of his chair and knocked the French china clock to the floor. This seemed to him to be the last straw. Tears squirted into his eys. The sleepless night, the awful anxiety of the day that had preceded it, the nightmarish dislocation of the routine, which was all that kept his irritable nerves on an even keel, were summed up in this one sharp, irremediable smash. He knelt amongst the lustrous shards and blubbered.

In the bedroom, Mrs Hanna, gasping and moaning, said, "What is it, what is it, doctor?"

"A boy, strong as an ox," he replied shortly.

From the Penguin paperback edition, 1988.

Notes:
This novel won the Miles Franklin Award in 1977.

Return to Bibliography

The Muddle-Headed Wombat 1979

Dustjacket synopsis:
"Wombat and his inseperable friends - the motherly and practical Mouse, and Tabby Cat whose pride, along with his tabby coat, is always being ruffled - began their careers in a daily children's serial on ABC radio. Since then their delightful adventures in the popular series of Muddle-headed Wombat books have entertained thousands of children in many parts of the world.

"This paperback edition brings together four stories - The Muddle-Headed Wombat, The Muddle-Headed Wombat at School, The Muddle-Headed Wombat on Holiday and The Muddle-Headed Wombat in the Treetops all presented with Noela Young's lively illustrations.

"To both parents and children, Wombat is an irrestible character and he and his mates will endure to bring pleasure to many generations more."

First Paragraph

There was once a muddle-headed wombat sitting in the grass and feeling very lonely.

A wombat is a square animal with thick hair like a door-mat, stumpy legs, and no tail to speak of. He has brown eyes and a comfortable, leathery flat nose like a koala.

This wombat was lonely because he had no sisters or brothers or aunties or uncles, and besides, he has spent all his pocket money.

"I wish I had a friend," he thought, "a nice, comfy little friend who would fit in my cardigan pocket. A wombat could have lots of adventures with a friend like that."

From the Penguin paperback edition, 1999.

Return to Bibliography

A Fence Around the Cuckoo 1992

Dustjacket synopsis:
"'What I am doing, I think, is walking softly behind this child as she creeps down a hallway. Her aunts are in the kitchen, the only warm room in the house, and she is going to eavesdrop...If I could put my hand on her bony little shoulder, I would feel her trembling.'

"This is how Ruth Park begins the first volume of her autobiography, written as vividly as any of her novels; a moving, passionate, often funny account of the people and places which influenced her early years. Her isolated childhood in the rainforests of New Zealand fed her fertile imagination; her convent education enouraged her love of words and writing and the bitter years of the Depression exposed her to poverty and injustice.

"She entered the rough and tumble of journalism and began a reluctant correspondence with a young Australian writer. In 1942 she left New Zealand for Sydney to meet and marry D'Arcy Niland and to write The Harp in the South, the first of her classic Australian novels."

Quotes:
"One of the best pieces of autobiographical writing in many years...a joy to read." - Clem Semmler, Courier Mail

First Paragraph

What I am doing, I think, is walking softly behind this child as she creeps down a hallway. Her aunts are in the kitchen, the only warm room in the house, and she is going to eavesdrop.

She doesn't know me, and I doubt whether I know her. One thing I do understand, she is very frightened. If I could put my hand on her bony little shoulder, I would feel her trembling.

It is a winter's night. The frost that will sparkle in the late starlight is already in the air. The dripping tap in the bathroom drips no more; a sword of ice deepens into the bath. But this child trembles because she fears her mother is going to die. No one tells her anything. No one has explained so she can comprehend.

From the Penguin paperback edition, 1992.

Return to Bibliography

This page and its contents are copyright © 1998-2001 by Perry Middlemiss, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Last modified: March 25, 2001.