// Workers AI · dad joke modeHas luck run out for Nicholas Hasluck?
Nicholas Hasluck | |
|---|---|
Nicholas Hasluck at the Mosman Library, July 2011 | |
| Born | Nicholas Paul Hasluck 17 October 1942 Canberra, A.C.T. |
| Occupation | Novelist, judge |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Notable works | The Bellarmine Jug, The Country Without Music |
| Notable awards | The Age Book of the Year, Western Australian Premier's Book Awards |
| Parents | |
Nicholas Paul Hasluck (born 17 October 1942) is an Australian novelist, poet, short story writer, and former judge.[1]
Early life
[edit]Nicholas Hasluck was born in Canberra. His father, Sir Paul Hasluck was a minister in the Federal Government under Robert Menzies, and was later appointed Governor-General of Australia. Nicholas went to school at Scotch College, Perth, and Canberra Grammar School, before studying law at University of Western Australia (1963) and Oxford (1966).
Legal career
[edit]After completing his studies, Hasluck worked briefly in Fleet Street in London as an editorial assistant before returning to Australia in 1967 to work as a solicitor, initially in partnership with Robert Holmes à Court.[2] He was a partner in the law firm Keall Brinsden from 1971 to 1984. While working as a barrister from 1985 to 2000 he was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1988 and served as part-time President of the Equal Opportunity Tribunal (WA). He was deputy chair of the Australia Council from 1978 to 1982 and was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).[3] He served as Chair of the Literature Board from 1998 to 2001 and as Chair of the Art Gallery of Western Australia from 2014 to 2018.
On 1 May 2000, Hasluck was appointed a judge on the Supreme Court of Western Australia, which is the highest ranking court in the State of Western Australia. He retired as a judge on 5 May 2010.
Writing career
[edit]Hasluck started writing at school, producing poetry and essays for the school magazine and was first professionally published in 1964 with a poem appearing in Westerly literary magazine.[4]
Hasluck's books fall into two categories, which he describes as "moral thriller genre and satire", with the thriller interesting him the most.[5] He cites the American writers William Faulkner, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal as his main literary influences.[6]
In 2006, Hasluck became Chairperson of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. He completed his term in 2011.
Awards
[edit]- 1984 - winner The Age Book of the Year Award Imaginative Writing Prize and Book of the Year The Bellarmine Jug[7]
- 1987 - shortlisted Miles Franklin Award for Truant State[8]
- 1991 - shortlisted Miles Franklin Award for The Country Without Music[9]
- 1991 - joint winner Western Australian Premier's Book Awards for The Country Without Music[10]
- 1999 - shortlisted Western Australian Premier's Book Awards for Our Man K[11]
Bibliography
[edit]Novels
[edit]- Quarantine (1978)[12][13]
- The Blue Guitar (1980)[14]
- The Hand That Feeds You (1982)[15]
- The Bellarmine Jug (1984)
- Truant State (1987)[16]
- The Country Without Music (1990)[17]
- The Blosseville File (1992)[18]
- A Grain of Truth (1994)[19]
- Our Man K (1999)[20]
- Dismissal (2011)[21]
- Rooms in the City (2014)[22]
- The Bradshaw Case (2016)[23]
- Che's Last Embrace (2022)
Short story collections
[edit]Poetry
[edit]Non-fiction
[edit]- Chinese Journey (1985) (with Christopher Koch)
- Collage: Recollections and Images of the University of Western Australia (1987), essays
- Offcuts From a Legal Literary Life (1993), essays[29]
- The Legal Labyrinth (2003)
- The Hasluck Banner (2006)
- Somewhere in the Atlas: The Road to Khe Sanh and Other Travel Pieces (2007)[30]
- Legal Limits (2013)
- Jigsaw: Patterns in law and literature (2018)
- Beyond the Equator: An Australian Memoir (2019)[31]
- Rollo's Way (2020)
Plays
[edit]- Van M (1990)
Selected articles
[edit]- "Keating takes the Comets on a learning curve". Quadrant. 39 (7–8): 12–15. July–August 1995.
- "Kafka's penal colony revisited". Quadrant. 40 (7–8 [328]): 45–47. July–August 1996.
- "Gore Vidal: Radical Contrarian". Quadrant. January–February 2015.
- "Judicial Activism". Quadrant. May 2016.
- "Recognition Roulette". Quadrant. October 2017.
References
[edit]- ↑ "Austlit — Nicholas Hasluck". Austlit. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
- ↑ "Michael Robert Holmes à Court (1937–1990) by John McIlwraith". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
- ↑ "Nicholas Paul Hasluck". honours.pmc.gov.au. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
- ↑ Baker (1986) p. 163.
- ↑ Baker (1986) p. 162.
- ↑ Baker (1986) p. 177.
- ↑ ""Book council president"". Canberra Times. The Canberra Times, 8 December 1984, p3. 8 December 1984. Retrieved 4 April 2025.
- ↑ ""Book award down to five"". The Age, 23 April 1988, p74. ProQuest 2526435376. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
- ↑ ""Malouf's sixth novel wins Miles Franklin award"". The Canberra Times, 26 June 1991, p5. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
- ↑ ""Australian Literary Awards: Western Australian Premier's"". University Libraries. Retrieved 4 April 2025.
- ↑ "Austlit — Our Man K by Nicholas Hasluck — Awards". Austlit. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas; Brissenden collection (23 August 1978), Quarantine, The Macmillan Co. of Australia (published 1978), ISBN 978-0-333-23011-4
- ↑ "TENSION REDUCED". The Canberra Times. Vol. 52, no. 15, 645. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 23 July 1978. p. 13. Retrieved 9 June 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas (23 August 1980), The blue guitar, Macmillan (published 1980), ISBN 978-0-333-29898-5
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas (23 August 1982), The hand that feeds you : a satiric nightmare, Fremantle Arts Centre Press (published 1982), ISBN 978-0-909144-55-5
- ↑ Nicholas P. Hasluck (23 August 1987), Truant state, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books (published 1987), ISBN 978-0-14-010466-0
- ↑ Nicholas P. Hasluck (23 August 1990), The country without music, Ringwood, Victoria Viking; assisted by the Literature Board of the Australia Council (published 1990), ISBN 978-0-670-83514-0
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas (23 August 1992), The Blosseville file, Penguin Books (published 1992), ISBN 978-0-14-015988-2
- ↑ Nicholas P. Hasluck (23 August 1994), A grain of truth, Ringwood, Vic Penguin (published 1994), ISBN 978-0-14-023769-6
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas (23 August 1999), Our man K, Penguin (published 1999), ISBN 978-0-14-028249-8
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas (2011), Dismissal, Fourth Estate, ISBN 978-0-7322-9303-1
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas (23 August 2023), Rooms in the city : a novel, Arcadia an imprint of Australian Scholarly Publishing (published 2014), ISBN 978-1-925003-68-0
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas (28 July 2016), The Bradshaw case, Arcadia (published 2016), ISBN 978-1-925333-48-0
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas; Walker, Peter (23 August 1978), The hat on the letter O and other stories, Fremantle Arts Centre Press (published 1978), ISBN 978-0-909144-11-1
- ↑ Lee, Kim Pat (23 August 2023), Wobbling the whiteboard : five satirical squibs, Freshwater Bay Press (published 2003), ISBN 978-1-74008-242-6
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas (23 August 1976), Anchor and other poems (2nd ed.), Fremantle Arts Centre Press (published 1976), ISBN 978-0-909144-02-9
- ↑ "On the Edge by William Grono and Nicholas Hasluck". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas (23 August 2023), A dream divided (1st ed.), Access Press (published 2005), ISBN 978-0-86445-175-0
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas (1993), Offcuts : from a legal literary life, University of Western Australia Press, ISBN 978-1-875560-17-2
- ↑ Hasluck, Nicholas (2007), Somewhere in the atlas : the road to Khe Sanh and other travel pieces, Freshwater Bay Press, ISBN 978-1-74008-440-6
- ↑ "Beyond the Equator: An Australian Memoir by Nicholas Hasluck". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
References
[edit]- Baker, Candida (1986) Yacker: Australian writers talk about their work, Sydney, Picador
- Daniel, Helen (1988) Liars: Australian New Novelists, Melbourne, Penguin
See also
[edit]- 1942 births
- Living people
- 20th-century Australian novelists
- 21st-century Australian novelists
- Australian male novelists
- Australian poets
- Australian male short story writers
- Members of the Order of Australia
- Judges of the Supreme Court of Western Australia
- Australian male poets
- 20th-century Australian short story writers
- 21st-century Australian short story writers
- 20th-century Australian male writers
- 21st-century Australian male writers
- Australian memoirists
- Quadrant (magazine) people
- People educated at Canberra Grammar School
- Australian King's Counsel