ELIZABETH BANKES

ELIZABETH BANKES, née Rawlinson and Burke, was born in the north of England and emigrated to New Zealand with her family as a young child. In the 1970s, ‘80s and 2000s she moved between New Zealand, England and Australia, whilst travelling widely in the intervening and following years.

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Elizabeth has taught in high schools and at universities in Sydney, NSW, in New Zealand and in London. Her teaching career was interrupted by a few years’ work in the Publicity Department at SBS Television.

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Elizabeth gained a Bachelor of Arts at Canterbury University, New Zealand, 1974, a Master of Arts in English, The University of Sydney, 1980, and in 2014, completed a Master of Arts in Creative Writing (with Merit) at The University of Sydney.

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Love of The Beatles, teaching English as a literary subject and to international students, marriage and children, divorce, women’s liberation, the hippy movement, sexism and discrimination, the union movement, the Vietnam war and travel have all influenced her writing.

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The Body in the Boarding House: Does Gossip Kill? (2019) is her first published novel, a whodunit, and is followed by the prequel, The Body on the Beach: Paradise Lost (2021). A third in the series, set in Bondi, is a current work in progress. A novel-length romantic memoir is also being written. In 2020 she was one of the winners of the NSW Seniors’ Stories, a collection of memoirs.

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Elizabeth lives in Bondi Junction with her second husband, a much younger Liverpudlian, has two grown up children, three grandchildren with a fourth on the way. And their dog, Martha.