Peter Carey

Peter Carey is one of the most successful and recognized contemporary Australian authors. He was born in 1943 in the town of Bacchus Marsh, just outside of Melbourne. After studying science at Monash University, Carey worked as as a copywriter at various advertising agencies. Thankfully his writing talent was not wasted in that capacity for long.

His earlist writings were mainly short stories, including
The FatMan in History University of Queensland Press 1974
War Crimes UQP 1979 and
Exotic Pleasures Picador 1981

Carey's first novel, Bliss UQP 1981 was made into a film directed by Ray Lawrence and starring Barry Otto. Other novels by Carey are,
Illywhacker UQP 1985
Oscar and Lucinda UQP 1988 also made into a film,
The Tax Inspector UQP 1991
The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith UQP 1994
Jack Maggs UQP 1997
True History of the Kelly Gang UQP 2000
My Life as a Fake Random House 2003

He currently lives in New York, Teaching creative writing at New York University, oh and did I mention that his books are really good?

Peter Carey won his first Booker Prize for fiction in 1988 with Oscar and Lucinda, and has just scored a second one in 2001 for True History of the Kelly Gang. This makes him one of the half dozen foremost figures in English language writing today.

The first was filmed with Cate Blanchett and Ralph Fiennes.

Carey was born in Bacchus Marsh, a small country town north-west of Melbourne, in 1943. His father was a car dealer. This figured in Illywhacker and The Tax Inspector.