Kylie Tennant was born in Manly, NSW, in 1912. In the course of her working life she was employed as a journalist, barmaid, publicity officer for the ABC, church sister, reviewer and lecturer. She considered it important to gain first-hand knowledge of the social worlds which figure in her novels. In the interests of authenticity she took to the roads with the unemployed during the Great Depression, lived in the slums of Sydney and with Aboriginal communities, travelled with itinerant bee-keepers and went so far as to spend week in gaol. Kylie Tennant wrote a number of fiction and non-fiction works, including numerous novels, an autobiography, several works for children and a biography of the former Labor leader, H. V. Evatt. She was awarded the Order of Australia in 1980 and died in 1988.