Roger McDonald

Last updated

Roger McDonald
BornHugh Roger McDonald
(1941-06-23) 23 June 1941 (age 83)
Young, New South Wales
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAustralian
Years active1962-
Notable works The Ballad of Desmond Kale
Notable awards Miles Franklin Award, 2006

Hugh Roger McDonald (born 23 June 1941 in Young, New South Wales) is an Australian author of several novels and a number of non-fiction works. He is also an accomplished poet and TV scriptwriter.

Contents

Life and career

The middle son of a Presbyterian minister, Hugh Fraser McDonald (1909–81), and Central Queensland historian Lorna McDonald (1916–2017), his childhood was spent in the NSW country towns of Bribbaree, Temora, and Bourke, before the family moved to Sydney. He attended Scots College and the University of Sydney.

He was briefly a teacher, ABC producer, and publisher's editor in NSW, Tasmania, and Queensland, before moving to Canberra and taking up writing full-time in 1976, in order to complete his first novel, 1915 . McDonald has since 1980 lived near Braidwood, NSW, apart from periods in Sydney and New Zealand.

His novels are 1915, Slipstream, Rough Wallaby, Water Man, The Slap, Mr. Darwin's Shooter, The Ballad of Desmond Kale, When Colts Ran, The Following and A Sea-Chase. Non-fiction: Shearers' Motel and The Tree in Changing Light.

1915 won The Age Book of the Year Award in 1979 and the South Australian Biennial Literature Prize in 1980. In 1982 it was made into a seven-part ABC-TV television series. (Scripting: Peter Yeldham)

Shearers' Motel won the 1993 Banjo National Book Council Banjo Award for non-fiction. It was filmed as Cross Turning Over for ABC-TV in 1996 (Director: Robert Klenner)

McDonald was nominated for the Miles Franklin Award in 1994 for Water Man, and in 1999 for Mr. Darwin's Shooter , which in that year won the New South Wales Premier's Literary Award, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, the South Australian Premier's Awards, and the Adelaide Festival Book of the Year.

The Ballad of Desmond Kale won the Miles Franklin Award in 2006 and the Adelaide Festival Prize for Fiction in 2008. McDonald won the O. Henry Award in 2008 for "The Bullock Run" (USA). This story forms the basis of chapters 15 and 16 of When Colts Ran.

McDonald's eighth novel, When Colts Ran, 2010, was shortlisted for the 2011 Miles Franklin Award, the 2011 Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, and the 2011 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction.

His ninth novel, The Following, was published in 2013. A fictionalised reimagining of the life of Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley, the story centres on the rise to prominence and legacy of Marcus Friendly. Of the book, Sydney Morning Herald reviewer Daniel Herborn wrote: 'The Following is just as interested in the sweep of history as in those who are caught up in, and occasionally influence, the great social changes it surveys. Its themes of destiny, sectarianism and political patronage echo across generations as the influence of Friendly rises and wanes.' [1]

His tenth novel, A Sea-Chase was published in October 2017. The book follows the fortunes of young teacher Judy Compton. After fleeing a rioting classroom one dismal Friday, she gets drunk and wakes up on a boat. Overnight her life changes; she is in love with being on the water and in love with Wes Bannister. But then events at sea challenge everything she holds dearest.

Bibliography

Novels

Non-fiction

Poetry

Edited

Television scripts

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banjo Paterson</span> Australian journalist, author and poet

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author, widely considered one of the greatest writers of Australia's colonial period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian literature</span> Literature by Australian writers

Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies; as such, its recognised literary tradition begins with and is linked to the broader tradition of English literature. However, the narrative art of Australian writers has, since 1788, introduced the character of a new continent into literature—exploring such themes as Aboriginality, mateship, egalitarianism, democracy, national identity, migration, Australia's unique location and geography, the complexities of urban living, and "the beauty and the terror" of life in the Australian bush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Funder</span> Australian author (born 1966)

Anna Funder is an Australian author. She is the author of Stasiland, All That I Am, the novella The Girl With the Dogs and Wifedom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Suburbs Rugby Club</span> Rugby team

Northern Suburbs Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club in Sydney, Australia, that was formed in 1900 from the merger of the Pirates and Wallaroos clubs. The club competes in the Shute Shield competition run by the New South Wales Rugby Union. The club has produced 42 Wallaby representatives. The club's home ground is the historic North Sydney Oval on the North Shore of Sydney. The ground has been a venue for both codes of rugby and for cricket over more than a century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Sydney Two Blues</span> Rugby team

Western Sydney Two Blues Rugby, formerly Parramatta Two Blues Rugby, is a rugby union club based in Parramatta, the second CBD of Sydney, Australia. The club was formed in 1879 and competes in the Shute Shield run by the New South Wales Rugby Union. One of the oldest clubs in the Sydney Premier Rugby competition the club has produced nineteen Wallabies over the years, starting with the great Bill Cerutti in 1936 through to the club's current, Tatafu Polota-Nau. To date Parramatta has played in eight First grade grand finals.

<i>The Secret River</i> 2005 novel by Kate Grenville

The Secret River is a 2005 historical novel by Kate Grenville about an early 19th-century Englishman transported to Australia for theft. The story explores what might have happened when Europeans colonised land already inhabited by Aboriginal people. The book has been compared to Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and to Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang for its style and historical theme.

Gail Jones is an Australian novelist and academic.

David Gordon Brooks is an Australian poet, novelist, short-fiction writer and essayist. He is the author of four published novels, four collections of short stories and five collections of poetry, and his work has won or been shortlisted for major prizes. Brooks is a highly intellectual writer, and his fiction has drawn frequent comparison with the writers Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges.

The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tara June Winch</span> Australian writer

Tara June Winch is an Australian writer. She is the 2020 winner of the Miles Franklin Award for her book The Yield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wesley College, University of Sydney</span>

Wesley College is a co-residential college of 265 students within the University of Sydney. The college occupies a site on the main campus of the University of Sydney and was built on a sub-grant of Crown land. Wesley is one of six on-campus colleges at the University of Sydney which provide accommodation. In 1923 the college averaged 45 students. Originally the college accommodated only men but when women were admitted in 1969 Wesley became the first of the colleges within the University of Sydney to become co-educational. Its current head is Lisa Sutherland, who has held the position since 2010.

<i>The Ballad of Desmond Kale</i> 2005 novel by Roger McDonald

The Ballad of Desmond Kale is a Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Australian author Roger McDonald.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Meredith (folklorist)</span> Australian folk singer and folklore collector

John Stanley Raymond Meredith OAM was an Australian pioneer folklorist from Holbrook, New South Wales whose work influenced the Australian folk music revival of the 1950s, in particular as a founding member of the Australia's first revivalist bush band The Bushwhackers. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1986 for service to Australian folklore and music, and became a Member of the Order of Australia in 1992 for service to the Arts, particularly in the collection and preservation of Australian folklore.

<i>Three Dog Night</i> (novel) 2003 novel by Peter Goldsworthy

Three Dog Night is a 2003 novel by Australian author Peter Goldsworthy.

<i>Mr. Darwins Shooter</i> 1998 novel by Roger McDonald

Mr Darwin's Shooter is a 1998 novel by Roger McDonald. It describes the life of Syms Covington, manservant to Charles Darwin during Darwin's voyage aboard HMS Beagle.

The National Book Council Banjo Awards were presented by the National Book Council of Australia from 1974 to 1997 for works of fiction and non-fiction.

The Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, from 2024 the South Australian Literary Awards, comprise a group of biennially-granted literary awards established in 1986 by the Government of South Australia, announced during Adelaide Writers' Week, as part of the Adelaide Festival. The awards include national as well as state-based prizes, and offer three fellowships for South Australian writers. Several categories have been added to the original four.

<i>When Colts Ran</i> Book by Roger McDonald

When Colts Ran is a 2010 novel by Australian novelist Roger McDonald.

<i>Golden Boys</i> (novel) 2014 novel by Sonya Hartnett

Golden Boys (2014) is a novel by Australian author Sonya Hartnett.

<i>1915: A Novel of Gallipoli</i> 1979 novel by Roger McDonald

1915: A Novel of Gallipoli is the debut novel by Roger McDonald, published in 1979.

References

  1. Herborn, Daniel (30 November 2013). "The Following review". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 October 2017.