Miles Franklin Undercover
Kerrie Davies | Paperback | March 2025
The little-known years when she created her own brilliant career
After the success and celebrity of her coming of age novel My Brilliant Career, published when Miles Franklin was only 21, she disappeared. This is the story of the decade that made her second career as a fearless advocate for working women.
She dazzled Australia with her rebellious novel My Brilliant Career, inspiring generations of young women chafing under conventional expectations. Only 21, Miles Franklin was lauded as the Bronte of the bush, and feted by the rich and influential.
But fame can be deceptive. In reality, the book earned her a pittance. The family farm was sold, her new novels were rejected, and she was broke. Just two years after her debut, Miles disappeared.
In this real-life sequel to My Brilliant Career, author Kerrie Davies uncovers a little-known period in Miles' life, from the servant's quarters of Sydney and Melbourne's wealthy houses to volatile Chicago, in the turbulent years after her early success. Davies draws on a never-before-published manuscript and diary extracts from Miles' year undercover as a servant, intimate correspondence with poet Banjo Paterson, and archival sources from Australia and Chicago.
Miles Franklin Undercover is a powerful story of a young woman's enduring resilience, and her determination to always be her own heroine.
'A fascinating page turner.' - Gillian Armstrong AM
'I now feel I know Miles intimately' - Jane Caro AM
'A triumph of enthralling storytelling.' - Sue Williams
Kerrie Davies is the author of A Wife's Heart, that created national discussion about the iconic poet Henry Lawson and his marriage. She has appeared at the Sydney and Brisbane Writers Festivals, and the National Folk festival, Canberra. A former journalist for Vogue and the Sunday Telegraph, Kerrie is Senior Lecturer at the School of the Arts & Media, UNSW Sydney, a 2024 Visiting Fellow at the State Library of New South Wales, and writes for the Conversation.
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