Biography

Joan Lindsay was an Australian painter, novelist, and playwright. She was a daughter of the prominent judge Theyre à Beckett Weigall and the musician Ann Sophie Hamilton. Her maternal grandfather Robert Hamilton served as Governor of Tasmania from 1887 to 1892. Joan was married to the sketch artist and illustrator Daryl Lindsay.

During her literary career, Lindsay published a few moderately popular novels, such as the satirical travel novel "Through Darkest Pondelayo" (1936) and the autobiographical novel "Time Without Clocks" (1962). However, she owes most of her international fame to the Gothic novel "Picnic at Hanging Rock" (1967). It is set as a mystery novel with supernatural implications, but it provides no definite answers to its many questions. The novel was a best seller with many reprints over the decades, it has attracted critical and scholarly interest, and it has received several adaptations in film, television, and the theater. Lindsay's apparent conclusion to the story was published posthumously as the 12-page-long short story "The Secret of Hanging Rock" (1987), but it was considered far less successful.
- IMDb mini biography by: Dimos I