The Catherine Wheel Text Class

A young Sydney woman moves to London to study law. She soon becomes involved with an attractive but shady aspiring actor who will turn her small world upside down. First published in 1960, this is Harrower's only novel set outside Australia. It has never before been available in the United States.

Elizabeth Harrower was born in Sydney in 1928 and moved to London in 1951. She traveled extensively and began to write fiction. Her first novel Down in the City was published in 1957, and was followed by The Long Prospect a year later. In 1959 she returned to Sydney where she began working for the ABC and as a book reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald. In 1960 she published The Catherine Wheel, the story of an Australian law student in London, her only novel not set in Sydney.
The Watch Tower appeared in 1966. No further novels were published until May 2014 when Harrower's 'lost' novel, In Certain Circles, was released. Her work is austere, intelligent, ruthless in its perceptions about men and women. She was admired by many of her contemporaries, including Patrick White and Christina Stead, and is without doubt among the most important writers of the postwar period in Australia. Elizabeth Harrower lives in Sydney.