Brenda Niall AO (b. 1930), writer, academic and reviewer, is one of Australia's foremost biographers. Niall grew up in Melbourne where she attended the University of Melbourne and worked in the English department at Monash University. In 1974 she published Martin Boyd, a biography of the writer born into the Boyd family of artists; it was republished in 1977, 1989, 1990 and 2004. Her subsequent writings on the family include The Boyds: A family biography (2002), which won the Queensland Premier's and Victorian Premier's Literary Awards; Martin Boyd: A life (2004), which won the National Book Council Award; and Brenda Niall on Arthur Boyd (2005). Her other biographies include Georgiana: A biography of Georgiana McCrae, painter, diarist, pioneer (1994), which won the Victorian Premier's Award; Judy Cassab: A portrait (2005); The riddle of Father Hackett (2009); True North: The story of Mary and Elizabeth Durack (2012); Mannix (2015), which won the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal and the National Biography Award; and Friends and Rivals: Four Great Australian Writers (2020). Her autobiographical works include Life Class (2007) and Can You Hear the Sea? My grandmother's story (2018). Niall has also written on Australian children's literature, and edited collections of letters and stories. She is a regular reviewer for the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Book Review.
