Gillian Mears lived and loved with uninhibited intensity and produced novels
about rural Australia written in prose that was poetic and visceral, in a unique
combination of gritty and mythical award-winning novels and short stories.

She also had a shrewd and playful sense of posterity. When she left a vast
archive to the State Library of NSW, it was with the clear intention that one day, a
biographer would trawl the many boxes for treasure. Which is exactly what her
biographer, Bernadette Brennan has done, meticulously and sensitively.

Writing about Gillian meant facing the grief of her family, still mourning her loss
after her early death, and deciding how to treat her explicit sexual fantasies.

Gillians Mears lived life at full tilt in a full-frontal, uncompromising, always curious
but often infuriating way. Her narrative presents the biographer with irresistible
material: rich anecdotes from those who knew her best and priceless insight
into her creative process.

Listen to Alive in Ant and Bee here: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/firstperson/alive-in-ant-and-bee-by-gillian-mears/3175504

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