Thelma Forshaw

Thelma Forshaw (1 August 1923 - 8 October 1995) was an Australian short story writer and journalist.

Born at Glebe Point (a suburb of Sydney), she was educated at convent and state schools, and afterwards at Sydney Teachers' College. She was in the WAAAF during World War II,^[1] and also worked as a secretary and an advertising writer before marrying in 1948. Subsequently she worked as a freelance writer and book reviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian, The Bulletin (since defunct), Meanjin, Nation, and Quadrant, amongst other publications.

Her short stories appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. In 1968, a collection of her short stories, An Affair of Clowns, was published by Angus and Robertson. These storiers were notable for their realistic characters set within her gritty, penetrating and humorous depictions of Australian city life in the first half of the 20th century, with a focus on outsiders, working class lifestyles and the migrant experience. She died on 8 October 1995 of a stroke in her sleep.

Works

Short story collection

• An Affair of Clowns, (Angus & Robertson, 1967)

Selected anthologised short stories

Thelma Forshaw's short stories have been published in numerous publications and have been widely anthologised.

• “Love-Life of a Boozer”, Modern Australian Humour, Bill Wannan (ed), Lansdowne Press Pty Ltd, 1962
• “Better than Australia, No?”, Two Ways Meet: Stories of Migrants in Australia, Louise E. Rorabacher (ed), FW Cheshire, 1963
• “The Widow”, “The One That Got Away”, Australian Pavements: An Urban Anthology, Bill Wannan (ed), Lansdowne Press Pty Ltd, 1964
• “Love-Life of a Boozer”, An Overland Muster: Selections from Overland, 1954-1964, Stephen Murray-Smith (ed), Jacaranda Press, 1965
• “The Wowser”, Short Stories of Australia: The Moderns, Beatrice Davis (ed), Angus & Robertson, 1967
• “The Widow”, Australian Writing Today, Charles Higham (ed), Penguin Books, 1968
• “Love-Life of a Boozer”, The Pick of Modern Australian Humour: A sparkling collection from the work of Australia's foremost humorists, Bill Wannan (ed), Lansdowne Press Pty Ltd, 1968
• “The Mateship Syndrome”, Modern Australian Short Stories, Mary Lord (ed), Edward Arnold, 1971
• “The Wowser”, Best Australian Short Stories, Douglas Stewart and Beatrice Davis (ed), Lloyd O'Neil, 1973
• “The Ace (Mateship Syndrome)”, Stories from Down Under, AG Ayre (ed), Longman, 1976
• “The Demo”, The Penguin Book of Australian Short Stories, Harry Heseltine (ed), Penguin Books, 1976
• “The Lampoonist”, The White Chrysanthemum: Changing Images of Australian Motherhood, Nancy Keesing (ed), Angus & Robertson, 1977
• “On Our Safari”, Australian Short Stories, Kerryn Goldsworthy (ed), JM Dent Pty Ltd, 1983
• “A tuntetes (The Demo)”, Vilagirodalmi Folyoirat (World Literary Magazine) 1985/8, Kardos Laszlo (ed), World, 1985
• “The Demo”, Impressions of Australia, Eva Laegdsgaard, Inger Marie Dahl (ed), Systime, 1986
• “The Mateship Syndrome”, The Australian Short Story: An anthology from the 1890s to the 1980s, Laurie Hergenhan (ed), University of Queensland Press, 1986
• “Better than Australia, No?”, Living Here: Short Stories from Australasia 1938-1988, Edmund Campion (ed), Allen & Unwin, 1988
• “The Demo”, Ourselves Among Others: Cross Cultural Readings for Writers, Carl J Verberg (ed), Bedford Books, 1988
• “The Procurer”, Feeling Restless: Australin Women's Short Stories 1940-1969, Connie Burns and Marygai McNamara (ed), Imprint, 1989
• “The Grand Passion”, Goodbye to Romance: Stories by New Zealand and Australian Women Writers, Elizabeth Webby and Lydia Wevers (ed), Allen & Unwin, 1989
• “Underdogging”, Stop Me if You've Heard It: Anthology of Humorous Short Stories, Jane Arms (ed), ABC Enterprises, 1989
• “The Mateship Syndrome”, Under Southern Skies, Eva Laegdsgaard and Inger Marie Dahl (ed), Systime, 1989
• “The Widow”, The Oxford Book of Australian Short Stories, Michael Wilding (ed), Oxford University Press, 1994

Notes

References

• Adelaide, Debra (1988) Australian women writers: a bibliographic guide, London, Pandora