Australian writer, Frank Moorhouse died in a Sydney hospital yesterday at the age of 83.
I first came across his writings in his four stories he described as a "discontinuous narrative', The Everlasting Secret Family and Other Secrets, about sex, tragedy, intrigue and political scandal. It was also adapted as a film in 1988. The book was republished din 2011 simply as The Everlasting Secret Family.
The handsome Mark Lee played a very young man. Among other films, he starred in Gallipoli.
Frank Moorhouse was a member of the Sydney Push, an anti-censorship movement along with writers like Germaine Greer, Clive James and Robert Hughes. They protested against right-wing politics and championed free speech and sexual liberation.
Frank Moorhouse spoke out in favour of the legslisation of homosexualty and promoted women's liberation.
He wrote about his own bisexuality and androgyny in Martini, his 2005 memoir. He said he wanted to explore "the idea of intimacy without family now that procreation isn't the only thing that gives sex meaning."
He is well known for his trilogy of novels.Grand Days (1993), Dark Palace (2000) and Cold Light (2011)with the main character Edith Campbell Berry a diplom,t who works for the League of Nations and in Canberra. He has been praised particularly, for his perceptive characterisation of women in his novels.
