Guest Speaker: Peter Fitzpatrick whose book, The Two Frank Thrings, won the National Biography Prize in 2012.
Date: Thursday 27th March
Time: 12.00 midday – 2.00 p.m.
Venue: Seminar Room A, Coombs Bldg, ANU
Title: ‘How to outwit your biographer: a study of the contrasting challenges of misleading evidence in my two dual biographies, Pioneer Players: The Lives of Louis and Hilda Esson and The Two Frank Thrings.’

Peter Fitzpatrick is an Honorary Professor at Monash University, where he taught in the Literature and Drama departments for more than thirty years. He was foundation Head of the Performing Arts program there, and directed some thirty productions, mostly musicals, at Monash and at Melbourne’s National Theatre.

He has published widely in the field of Australian theatre, and is the author of two ‘dual biographies’: Pioneer Players: The Lives of Louis and Hilda Esson (1995), which was shortlisted for four national awards, and The Two Frank Thrings (2012), winner of the National Biography Prize.

Peter has also produced two novels, Death in the Back Pocket (1993, with Barbara Wenzel) and Promontory (2001), and two feature film screenplay adaptations – Hotel Sorrento (1995) for which he won an AFI Award, and Brilliant Lies (1997). He is the author of Flowerchildren: The Mamas and Papas Story, which had a highly successful season at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre in 2013, and, in collaboration with composer Anthony Costanzo, created the book for Life’s a Circus (2009) and Crossroads (professional premiere scheduled for 2015).

Inquiries: Malcolm Allbrook (Managing Editor, Australian Dictionary of Biography)
Email: Malcolm.Allbrook@anu.edu.au
Phone: 02 61244455