Nadia Wheatley is the author of The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift. Described by critic Peter Craven as 'one of the greatest Australian biographies, ' this was the Age Non-Fiction Book of the Year, 2001 and won the NSW Premier's Australian History Prize (2002). After twenty years it remains the classic account of the life and work of this transformational Australian writer. Nadia Wheatley's other works include the award-winning memoir Her Mother's Daughter. Her most recent book, Radicals - Remembering the Sixties, written in partnership with Meredith Burgmann was published by NewSouth in 2021. Charmian Clift was born in the coastal town of Kiama, New South Wales, on 31 August 1923. Fleeing the political claustrophobia of Australia under the Menzies government, in 1952 Charmian headed to London. Two years later, they escaped even further, to the Greek islands, where over the next decade they raised three children and created a legend. During this period, Clift wrote the memoirs, Mermaid Singing and Peel Me A Lotus, and her two novels, Honour's Mimic and Walk to the Paradise Gardens.