Thea Astley is one of Australia’s most renowned authors. A former teacher, she was born in Brisbane in 1925 and lived out her retirement in Queensland before her death in 2004. In 1962, Thea won her first Miles Franklin Award for The Well Dressed Explorer, and she was subsequently awarded three more Miles Franklin Awards for The Slow Natives in 1965, The Acolyte in 1972 and for Drylands, in 2000. Thea’s The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow was the 1996 The Age Book of the Year.