| John Bryson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1935 Melbourne, Australia |
| Occupation | Writer and author |
| Genres | Biography, Fiction, Non-fiction |
John Bryson, (born in 1935 in Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian author and former lawyer. He has authored works of fiction, biography and other non-fiction.
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John Bryson was educated at the University of Melbourne, where he studied law.[1]
In 1971, after practising law for ten years, first as a solicitor and later as a barrister, he became a chairman and managing director for a Melbourne public company. In 1978, he re-joined the Victorian Bar. He was a member of the Literature Board of the Australian Council, later becoming acting Chairman.
Since 1973, Bryson's articles and stories have been published in Australian newspapers.
Bryson's best known work is his 1985 book Evil Angels which chronicles the story of Lindy Chamberlain's trial for murder, following the disappearance of her baby daughter, Azaria. It was made into a film starring Meryl Streep in 1988. It was released under its original title Evil Angels in Australia, and as A Cry in the Dark in the United States.
He is also the author of a 1981 collection of short fiction, Whoring Around and a collection of reportage, Backstage at the Revolution. His novel of the Spanish Civil War, To the Death, Amic was published by Viking in 1994, and as Hasta la Muerte, Amigo by Editorial Milenio Spain in 2006. In 2004 he originated and co-produced Secrets of the Juryroom, a documentary for SBS-TV.
The Routine, one of the stories that was later included in Whoring Around, received the 1979 Patricia Hackett Award at the University of Western Australia. In 1985, Evil Angels was awarded winner of Penguin Books' first Allen Lane award, the Victorian Premiers Award for Non Fiction, the British Crime Writers' Golden Dagger, and the ANA Award. In 2000, a panel of Journalism Schools included him in "The 100 Australian Journalists of the Century."