Dorothy Johnson Biography

Australian novelist, born in Geelong, Victoria, educated at the University of Melbourne. She was a founding member of the Seven Writers group, which jointly wrote Canberra Tales (1988). Her works include Tunnel Vision (1984), a short novel set in a massage parlour; and Ruth (1986), a story of a middle-aged woman who leaves her husband and lives with her children at a women's refuge. Maralinga, My Love (1988) examines the British atomic tests in South Australia and their devastating effects; the novel also explores the neo-colonial relationship between Britain and Australia during that period, figured in terms of oedipal relationships between the male characters.