Eric Rolls (1923–2007) began his public career at the age of five telling stories before an adult audience. His first published poem, written when he was fifteen, was followed by twenty books and many hundreds of articles and essays on diverse topics. A vigorous and vital man, he farmed his own land for more than forty years, saying “It is an excellent background for a writer: it gives solid support yet maintains a sense of vulnerability; it produces marvels and disasters; it promises and retracts. It keeps life in balance and preserves a proper sense of the ridiculous, essential in a writer”. He was a Member of the Order of Australia for services to literature and environmental awareness, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and an Australian Creative Fellow.
