ENCORE: Miles Franklin — My Brilliant Career

Send us Fan MailThis week we're revisiting an Australian author — and the 1979 film adaptation of her work — which originally captured Kim and Amy’s fancy back in 2024. Published in 1901 and written when author Miles Franklin was only eighteen years old, My Brilliant Career became an instant classic of Australian literature and still delights readers with its feisty heroine, Sybylla Melvin, and its realistic depiction of Australian life and lingo at the turn of the 20th century. In our discussion of the novel and its film adaptation (starring Judy Davis and Sam Neill) we’ll explain why Franklin’s fear of being a literary one-hit-wonder proved unfounded, and why her name today graces one of Australia’s top annual literary prizes.Mentioned in this episode:Miles FranklinMy Brilliant Career filmMy Brilliant Career novelJudy DavisSam NeillDirector Gillain ArmstrongOscar and LucindaCharlotte GreyBlackwood’s publishing houseAnne of Green GablesThe Thorn BirdsBrent of Bin BinUp the Country by Brent of Bin BinLost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 128 on Margaret OliphantHenry LawsonCold Comfort Farm by Stella GibbonsBring the Monkey by Miles FranklinMy Career Goes Bung by Miles FranklinAll That Swagger by Miles FranklinS.H. Prior Memorial PrizeThe Miles Franklin AwardThe Stella PrizeMiles Franklin: A Short Biography by Jill RoeOf Foreign Lands and Peoples by Robert Schumann (soundtrack to film)Support the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter.Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast