Nicholas Hasluck

Nicholas Paul Hasluck AM (born 17 October 1942) is an Australian novelist, poet and short story writer, and judge.

Nicholas Hasluck

AM
Nicholas Hasluck at the Mosman Library, July 2011
BornNicholas Paul Hasluck
(1942-10-17) 17 October 1942
Canberra, A.C.T.
OccupationNovelist, judge
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAustralian
Notable worksThe Bellarmine Jug, The Country Without Music
Notable awardsThe Age Book of the Year, Western Australian Premier's Book Awards

Early life

Nicholas Hasluck was born in Canberra. His father, Sir Paul Hasluck was a minister in the Federal Government under Robert Menzies, and was later appointed Governor-General of Australia. Nicholas went to school at Scotch College, Perth, and Canberra Grammar School, before studying law at the University of Western Australia (1963) and Oxford (1966). After completing his studies he worked briefly in Fleet Street in London as an editorial assistant before returning to Australia in 1967 to work as a solicitor, initially in partnership with Robert Holmes à Court.[1] He was a partner in the law firm Keall Brinsden from 1971 to 1984. While working as a barrister from 1985 to 2000 he was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1988 and served as part-time President of the Equal Opportunity Tribunal (WA). He was deputy chair of the Australia Council from 1978 to 1982 and was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).[2] He served as Chair of the Literature Board from 1998 to 2001 and as Chair of the Art Gallery of Western Australia from 2014 to 2018.

Judicial career

On 1 May 2000, Hasluck was appointed a judge on the Supreme Court of Western Australia, which is the highest ranking court in the State of Western Australia. He retired as a judge on 5 May 2010.

Writing career

Hasluck started writing at school, producing poetry and essays for the school magazine and was first professionally published in 1964 with a poem appearing in Westerly literary magazine.[3]

Hasluck's books fall into two categories, which he describes as 'moral thriller genre and satire', with the thriller interesting him the most.[4] He cites the American writers William Faulkner, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal as his main literary influences.[5]

In 2006, Hasluck became Chairperson of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. He completed his term in 2011.

Awards

Bibliography

Novels
  • Quarantine (1978)[6]
  • The Blue Guitar (1980)
  • The Hand That Feeds You (1982)
  • The Bellarmine Jug (1984)
  • Truant State (1987)
  • The Country Without Music (1990)
  • The Blosseville File (1992)
  • A Grain of Truth (1994)
  • Our Man K (1999)
  • Dismissal (2011)[7]
  • Rooms in the City (2014)
  • The Bradshaw Case (2016)

Short story collections
  • The Hat on the Letter 'O' and Other Stories (1978; revised edition 1990)
  • Wobbling the Whiteboard (under the pseudonym "Kim Lee") (2003)

Poetry
  • Anchor and Other Poems (1976)
  • On the Edge (1981)
  • A Dream Divided (2004)

Non-fiction
  • Chinese Journey (1985) (with Christopher Koch)
  • Collage: Recollections and Images of the University of Western Australia (1987), essays
  • Offcuts From a Legal Literary Life (1993), essays[8]
  • The Legal Labyrinth (2003)
  • The Hasluck Banner (2006)
  • Somewhere in the Atlas: The Road to Khe Sanh and Other Travel Pieces (2007)[9]
  • Legal Limits (2013)
  • Jigsaw: Patterns in law and literature (2018)
  • Beyond the Equator: An Australian Memoir (2019)[10]

Plays
  • Van M (1990)

Articles
  • "Keating takes the Comets on a learning curve". Quadrant. 39 (7–8): 12–15. July–August 1995.
  • "Gore Vidal: Radical Contrarian". Quadrant. January–February 2015.
  • "Judicial Activism". Quadrant. May 2016.
  • "Recognition Roulette". Quadrant. October 2017.

References
  1. McIlwraith, John (2007). "Holmes à Court, Michael Robert (1937–1990)". Holmes à Court, Michael Robert Hamilton (1937 - 1990). Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition. 17. Melbourne University Publishing, The Australian National University. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  2. "Nicholas Paul Hasluck". honours.pmc.gov.au. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  3. Baker (1986) p. 163
  4. Baker (1986) p. 162
  5. Baker (1986) p. 177
  6. Hasluck, Nicholas (1978), Quarantine, The Macmillan Co. of Australia, ISBN 978-0-333-23011-4
  7. Hasluck, Nicholas; Hasluck, Nicholas, 1942- (2011), Dismissal, Fourth Estate, ISBN 978-0-7322-9303-1CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. Hasluck, Nicholas (1993), Offcuts : from a legal literary life, University of Western Australia Press, ISBN 978-1-875560-17-2
  9. Hasluck, Nicholas (2007), Somewhere in the atlas : the road to Khe Sanh and other travel pieces, Freshwater Bay Press, ISBN 978-1-74008-440-6
  10. Hasluck, Nicholas, 1942- (7 November 2019). Beyond the equator : an Australian memoir. North Melbourne, Vic. ISBN 978-1-925984-11-8. OCLC 1128812905.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

References
  • Baker, Candida (1986) Yacker: Australian writers talk about their work, Sydney, Picador
  • Daniel, Helen (1988) Liars: Australian New Novelists, Melbourne, Penguin

See also
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