Lesbia Harford: Australia’s anti-war, socialist poet

Lesbia Harford was one of the first women to graduate as a lawyer from Melbourne University in the First World War, but followed her socialist ideals by working as a machinist in a factory. She went on to become one of the first female trade union leaders in Australia and a leader in the anti-war, anti-conscription movement. All the time she wrote poetry, mostly about love for both men and women, but also about the conditions for workers and the impact of war.  Lesbia's poems were frank and fearless, and startlingly modern -  a far leap from the flowery, archaic forms of the time. Her work was largely unpublished during her short lifetime, or for years after, but those who discovered her found her work profoundly relatable. “Lesbia’s was a radical poetry of everyday life, accessible but intellectually sumptuous, and quite unlike what anyone else was writing,” says academic and author, Jeff Sparrow, who has written the first full biography of her life.    Guest:  Jeff Sparrow, author, ‘Somewhere Here the Future's Hid - the Extraordinary Life of Lesbia Harford’ published by Monash University PublishingProducer: Catherine Zengerer