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My Accidental Career
Brenda Niall, arguably Australia’s foremost biographer, looks back on her own life and the circumstances, events and choices that shaped her career.
My Accidental Career spans nine decades, from her childhood in the Melbourne suburb of Kew—where powerful neighbours included prime minister Menzies, millionaire gambler John Wren and Archbishop Daniel Mannix—to her university days, her first job writing reviews for a magazine and her travels in Ireland after breaking off her engagement to a suitable young man. It’s a lively account of academic life at the newly established Monash University in the 1960s, a time when women were rare in university departments and even more rarely promoted, the snakes and ladders ups and downs of her time in the US, and of her charting new territory in Australian biography with acclaimed works on artists, writers and leaders.
Brenda Niall’s career isn’t one of struggle against the odds in a man’s world but one of quiet, confident work that couldn’t be ignored. Her Jane Austen-like wit and elegant prose enlivens this story of Australian women’s history seen through the lens of her remarkable life.
Brenda Niall is the author of five award-winning biographies, including her acclaimed accounts of the Boyd family and her portrait of the Durack sisters, True North . In 2016 she won the Australian Literature Society’s Gold Medal and the National Biography Award for Mannix . In 2004 she was awarded the Order of Australia for ‘services to Australian literature, as an academic, biographer and literary critic’.
‘Brenda Niall is in a class of her own…Her books have all been works of insight and substance, their observations carefully considered.’
Michael McGirr, Age
My Accidental Career spans nine decades, from her childhood in the Melbourne suburb of Kew—where powerful neighbours included prime minister Menzies, millionaire gambler John Wren and Archbishop Daniel Mannix—to her university days, her first job writing reviews for a magazine and her travels in Ireland after breaking off her engagement to a suitable young man. It’s a lively account of academic life at the newly established Monash University in the 1960s, a time when women were rare in university departments and even more rarely promoted, the snakes and ladders ups and downs of her time in the US, and of her charting new territory in Australian biography with acclaimed works on artists, writers and leaders.
Brenda Niall’s career isn’t one of struggle against the odds in a man’s world but one of quiet, confident work that couldn’t be ignored. Her Jane Austen-like wit and elegant prose enlivens this story of Australian women’s history seen through the lens of her remarkable life.
Brenda Niall is the author of five award-winning biographies, including her acclaimed accounts of the Boyd family and her portrait of the Durack sisters, True North . In 2016 she won the Australian Literature Society’s Gold Medal and the National Biography Award for Mannix . In 2004 she was awarded the Order of Australia for ‘services to Australian literature, as an academic, biographer and literary critic’.
‘Brenda Niall is in a class of her own…Her books have all been works of insight and substance, their observations carefully considered.’
Michael McGirr, Age
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
320 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2022
3 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Brenda Niall
24 books7 followersBrenda Niall is one of Australia’s foremost biographers. She is the author of several award-winning biographies, including her acclaimed accounts of the Boyd family and her portrait of the Durack sisters, True North. In 2016 she won the Australian Literature Society’s Gold Medal and the National Biography Award for Mannix. In 2004 she was awarded the Order of Australia for ‘services to Australian literature, as an academic, biographer and literary critic’.
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December 9, 2022The following book reviews have been shared by Text Publishing – publisher of My Accidental Career :
‘A detail-filled autobiography that journeys through various university departments, dinner parties and a life well lived. This is not a story of struggle, but rather a sensitive recall of a writing life from a women who was there, successfully and unapologetically, and lived to tell the tale.’
Readings Monthly
'A chronicle of intellectual determination twinned with personal diffidence…with wit to make one rejoice.’
Age/SMH
'Niall is a sharp observer...If you love reading biographies, this book will be particularly enlightening.’
Frances Devlin-Glass, Tinteán
‘My Accidental Career repays close and attentive reading, for much is going on beneath the even surface of [Brenda Niall’s] words….This, then, is the story of a rich and satisfying life of creative achievement.’
Australian Book Review
‘Brenda has lived a remarkable life, blessed with admirable recollection and rational intellect, as told through this detail-filled autobiography. It’s not a story of struggle, but rather a sensitive recall of a writing life from a woman who was there, successfully and unapologetically, and lived to tell the tale.’
PS News
'The quality of Niall’s writing...lies in the clarity of her thought, her exact choice of words, the alternation of anecdote and reflection and the self-effacement that creates a direct link between the reader and the work itself. …[My Accidental Career] is at one level an account of events. At another level, however, it is a work of art, an act of creation and of re-creation, ordering the flux of the personal and institutional relationships of the past.’
Eureka Street
‘I never leave a book by Brenda Niall without feeling I’ve been guided somewhere special and her autobiographical My Accidental Career is no exception. This is her most vulnerable book.’
Michael McGirr, Australian
‘I found Brenda Niall’s My Accidental Career a moving and gratifyingly positive account of academic life for a woman in mid-century Australia. It is also a fascinating study of the making of a writer out of a character both diffident and determined. Curiosity helped. So did a honed mind, loyal friends, and loving encouragement.’
Morag Fraser, Australian Book Review
‘A detail-filled autobiography that journeys through various university departments, dinner parties and a life well lived. This is not a story of struggle, but rather a sensitive recall of a writing life from a women who was there, successfully and unapologetically, and lived to tell the tale.’
Readings Monthly
'A chronicle of intellectual determination twinned with personal diffidence…with wit to make one rejoice.’
Age/SMH
'Niall is a sharp observer...If you love reading biographies, this book will be particularly enlightening.’
Frances Devlin-Glass, Tinteán
‘My Accidental Career repays close and attentive reading, for much is going on beneath the even surface of [Brenda Niall’s] words….This, then, is the story of a rich and satisfying life of creative achievement.’
Australian Book Review
‘Brenda has lived a remarkable life, blessed with admirable recollection and rational intellect, as told through this detail-filled autobiography. It’s not a story of struggle, but rather a sensitive recall of a writing life from a woman who was there, successfully and unapologetically, and lived to tell the tale.’
PS News
'The quality of Niall’s writing...lies in the clarity of her thought, her exact choice of words, the alternation of anecdote and reflection and the self-effacement that creates a direct link between the reader and the work itself. …[My Accidental Career] is at one level an account of events. At another level, however, it is a work of art, an act of creation and of re-creation, ordering the flux of the personal and institutional relationships of the past.’
Eureka Street
‘I never leave a book by Brenda Niall without feeling I’ve been guided somewhere special and her autobiographical My Accidental Career is no exception. This is her most vulnerable book.’
Michael McGirr, Australian
‘I found Brenda Niall’s My Accidental Career a moving and gratifyingly positive account of academic life for a woman in mid-century Australia. It is also a fascinating study of the making of a writer out of a character both diffident and determined. Curiosity helped. So did a honed mind, loyal friends, and loving encouragement.’
Morag Fraser, Australian Book Review
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December 31, 2022I sensed throughout this book Niall's control in what she was telling, and what she was choosing not to tell. It is a quiet biography, where she is applying to herself the techniques she might use in narrating another's life. There is a reluctance to brag, a readiness to cede credit to others, and a sense of almost incredulity that these things occurred unbidden and so generously. The nuns taught her well.
For my complete review, please visit:
https://residentjudge.com/2022/12/23/...
For my complete review, please visit:
https://residentjudge.com/2022/12/23/...
September 2, 2024
Born in 1930, Brenda Niall grew up in an era when females were expected to marry and bring up a family, not have an academic career.
She holds little back in her autobiography, My Accidental Career, published by Text Publishing, Melbourne, Australia, 2022.
Almost by accident and because she had a brilliant mind, she became an academic. Sadly, she was denied the one man she did love.
Readers follow the young Brenda Niall as she grows up in a well-to-do Catholic family and goes to Genazzano Convent and the University of Melbourne. Their neighbours in Kew included Archbishop Daniel Mannix and Prime Minister Robert Menzies.
Here is part of a succinct and telling pen portrait of Archbishop Mannix, p9: ‘He lived alone in Raheen, an austere and ferociously private man who put himself daily on display in the ritual of his walk to St Patrick’s Cathedral.’
Those readers who followed some of Niall’s footsteps at the university could know the buildings she described, could have sat in the lecture theatres she sat in and listened to some of the same lecturers. Later she worked at Monash University, where other readers might have studied. However, all readers would come to experience what Niall did by her recreation of her experiences.
Sadly, when she was twenty-one, Niall’s fifty-three-year-old doctor father died and life became difficult for his family. Thrust into the world, Niall was offered a job with Bob Santamaria, a controversial person in Australian politics, though not a politician. She wrote, “I had no idea what Bob did except that it had to do with Catholic Action.”
My Accidental Career includes Niall’s travels to Ireland and the US and paints a picture of people and life in those countries in those times.
This is the story of a strong-minded female making her way in a university and literary world dominated by males. Not only does she become an academic but also an award-winning biographer writing biographies of members of the Boyd and Durack families and others.
Niall has won prestigious awards including National Biography Award in 2016.
The 314 page paperback is an entertaining, informative and highly recommended read which is a social history as well as a biography. It is also available as an e-book.
She holds little back in her autobiography, My Accidental Career, published by Text Publishing, Melbourne, Australia, 2022.
Almost by accident and because she had a brilliant mind, she became an academic. Sadly, she was denied the one man she did love.
Readers follow the young Brenda Niall as she grows up in a well-to-do Catholic family and goes to Genazzano Convent and the University of Melbourne. Their neighbours in Kew included Archbishop Daniel Mannix and Prime Minister Robert Menzies.
Here is part of a succinct and telling pen portrait of Archbishop Mannix, p9: ‘He lived alone in Raheen, an austere and ferociously private man who put himself daily on display in the ritual of his walk to St Patrick’s Cathedral.’
Those readers who followed some of Niall’s footsteps at the university could know the buildings she described, could have sat in the lecture theatres she sat in and listened to some of the same lecturers. Later she worked at Monash University, where other readers might have studied. However, all readers would come to experience what Niall did by her recreation of her experiences.
Sadly, when she was twenty-one, Niall’s fifty-three-year-old doctor father died and life became difficult for his family. Thrust into the world, Niall was offered a job with Bob Santamaria, a controversial person in Australian politics, though not a politician. She wrote, “I had no idea what Bob did except that it had to do with Catholic Action.”
My Accidental Career includes Niall’s travels to Ireland and the US and paints a picture of people and life in those countries in those times.
This is the story of a strong-minded female making her way in a university and literary world dominated by males. Not only does she become an academic but also an award-winning biographer writing biographies of members of the Boyd and Durack families and others.
Niall has won prestigious awards including National Biography Award in 2016.
The 314 page paperback is an entertaining, informative and highly recommended read which is a social history as well as a biography. It is also available as an e-book.
June 15, 2022
This auto-biography is an interesting look into the career of renowned Australian biographer and academic, Brenda Niall. She carved a space and voice for women in academia in Australia and overseas. Included amongst her life stories is an overview of each of her significant biographies.
Read by Suzie
Read by Suzie
December 16, 2024
A great read -autobiography of a female academic, author whose name would be familiar to some Australians who were around in the 60's and those who know her as a biographer. Her story spans 9 decades from being born in middle class Kew , to an academic career when marriage was an expectation. Full of joys, some sorrows and the role of the church in lives of those faithful-so glad I read this.
May 3, 2022
This auto-biography is an interesting look into the career of renowned Australian biographer and academic, Brenda Niall. She carved a space and voice for women in academia in Australia and overseas. Included amongst her life stories is an overview of each of her significant biographies.
July 18, 2022
This was an enjoyable memoir as Brenda came from Melbourne and there were so many memories for me.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews