While the blokes were off on the frontlines of WWI, Miles Franklin used writing as her weapon for changing the world. But was our much-loved matriarch of Australian literature a tad fascist? 

In the second part of Miles Franklin's story, we see her go from bush girl to political animal. Starting with Miles’s globe-trotting feminist and labour activist days, to her flirtations with not one but two millionaire brothers, it’s a wild ride. 

Warning: This episode discusses sexual assault. 

SOURCES 

Roe, Jill. Her brilliant career: the life of Stella Miles Franklin. Harvard University Press, 2009 

Barnard, Marjorie. Miles Franklin, Hill of Content, 1967 

Roe, Jill. Miles Franklin: A Short Biography, 2018 

Lapierre, Alexandre. The Very Secretive and Passionate Stella Miles Franklin, Allen & Unwin,  2026 

Sheridan, Susan. "Louisa Lawson, Miles Franklin and Feminist Writing, 1888–1901." Australian Feminist Studies 3.7-8 (1988): 29-47 

Knowles, Sandra. "The not quite real Miles Franklin: Diaries as performance." Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature 4 (2005): 185-200 

Franks, Rachel. "Miles Franklin." State Library of New South Wales, 2022 

Knowles, Sandra. The performances of a psychic privacy: waiting for the real Miles Franklin. Diss. UNSW Sydney, 2007 

Bird, David. Nazi Dreamtime: Australian Enthusiasts for Hitler's Germany. Anthem Press, 2014 

• Hosted by Alecia Simmonds and Leigh Boucher
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