Biographers face a range of ethical issues. The most difficult is how to protect the academic integrity of a biographical project against pressure to conform to the views of the family and friends of the subject. What does one do, in the worst case scenario, if a family, which had been co-operating with a biographer, withdraw complete or partial support for the project near the end of it?
* Niki Francis is completing a PhD, on the artist Rosalie Gascoigne, at the National Centre of Biography. Professor Kim Rubenstein is writing a biography of the former Principal of Presbyterian Ladies College Melbourne, Joan Montgomery.