John Naish John Naish Archive. [Archive]
- Item Type
- Archive
- Collection
- Library Archives
- Location
- Townsville Campus Library
- Item Code
- 85R
- Related Links
- NQH: Peace Polony
- NQH: Mark, The Syrup and The Ashes
- NQH: The Lease of Life
- NQH: The Factory
- NQH: Picture Night
- NQH: That Men Should Fear
- NQH: Oliver in Aden
- JCU Library News Blog Post
- Subjects
- theatre; plays; drama; writers; literature; immigrants
Summary
John Naish (1923-1963), born Wales, served in the British Army during the Second World War and came to Australia in 1950. He worked as a cane-cutter, labourer, miner, barman, clerk and fruit-picker, spent some time in Fiji and returned to Australia in 1958. He published two novels, The Cruel Field (1962), which deals with the life on the canefields; That Men Should Fear (1963), a study of an affluent Australian farming family and its struggle with an incurable inherited disease; and an autobiography, The Clean Breast (1961). His plays include "The Claw" in Australian One-Act Plays Book II, ed. Greg Branson (1962), "Deuteronomy" in the Derwent Series of Australian One-Act Plays, 2nd series (1961) The First Mrs Peters, The Maoris, The Paul Davis Affair and The Strange Black Creatures.
Extract from The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature
List of this archive's contents
John Naish: Body of Work
John Naish: Brief Biography
The Plays of John Naish: Brief Synopses
Additional Information
Complementary documents 'John Naish: Brief Biography', 'John Naish: Body of Work', and 'The Plays of John Naish: Brief Synopses' contributed by Bianka Vidonja Balanzategui.
Bianka Vidonja Balanzategui is an historian and historical consultant. She graduated from James Cook University with an Honours degree and PhD in history and is presently a casual academic at JCU. She researches the sugar industry and migration history of tropical north Queensland, and her first book, published by JCU, Gentlemen of the Flashing Blade married those two themes. She also has a keen interest in the history of the Herbert River district where she has lived since her marriage. At present she is researching the role of women in various episodes of North Queensland history.
References
The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2nd Edition, 1994.