Joan Lindsay
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Lady Joan Lindsay (born Joan a'Beckett Weigall) (November 16, 1896 - December 23, 1984) was an Australian author.
Lady Lindsay was born in St Kilda East, Victoria, Australia, the third daughter of Sir Theyre and Ann Sophie Hamilton Weigall, and was related to the Boyd family, perhaps Australia's most famous and prolific artistic dynasty. From 1916 to 1920 she studied painting at the National Gallery School, Melbourne. In 1921 she first exhibited with the Victorian Artists Society.
In 1922 Joan Weigall married Daryl Lindsay, in London on St. Valentine's Day. The day was always a very special occasion for her, and she set her most famous work, Picnic at Hanging Rock on that day. Sir Daryl was the youngest of the famous Lindsay family of artists and writers, the most famous of whom was Norman. He was a painter who had moderate success, particularly with his works on white flowers - a difficult subject to paint. When the couple returned to live in Australia, they renovated a farmhouse in Baxter, Mulberry Hill, and lived happily there until the Great Depression forced them to take up humble lodgings in Bacchus Marsh and rent out their home until the worst was over. With that difficult experience behind them, Daryl abandoned painting to become the Director of the Art Gallery of Victoria. The post required they move to Melbourne until his retirement, but they retained their country home.
Her work Time Without Clocks describes her wedding and idyllic early married life. The work takes its title from the strange ability Joan had of stopping clocks and machinery that was in her near vicinity, and also from the idea that this period in her life was unstructured and free.
Her Books
- Through Darkest Pondelayo, 1936 a satire on English tourists abroad
- Time Without Clocks, 1962 an autobiographical sketch of her early married life
- Facts Soft and Hard, 1964 an account of her travels with Daryl in the USA while he was on a Fullbright Award
- Picnic at Hanging Rock, 1967 (released as a film in 1975) an inconclusive fictional work, the ending of which was written in draft form, but excised by her publisher prior to publication
- Syd Sixpence, 1983 (children's book)
Picnic at Hanging Rock is her best known work, and was made into a feature film by producers: Patricia Lovell, Hal and Jim McElroy and director Peter Weir in 1975. Lady Lindsay died in Melbourne.
Lindsay also wrote a number of plays which were never published, though one, "Wolf" was performed. She contributed articles, reviews and stories to various magazines and newspapers on art,literature and prominent people. With her husband Daryl, she wrote the History of the Australian Red Cross. She and Daryl, along with Lord and Lady Casey were founding members of the National Trust of Victoria, and encouraged others to bequeath to the Trust. Lady Lindsay was very interested in the development of a national identity, and her work - in Peter Weir's hands - was hailed as beginning the Renaissance in Australian film. A childless couple, the Lindsay's donated their home, Mulberry Hill, to the National Trust on her death. It is open to the public on weekends and some weekdays.
