Renowned for her wit and warmth, Margaret Scott was a poet, novelist, essayist, scholar, editor, critic and mentor. In later life, she delighted ABC viewers with her hilarious performances on Good News Week. Born in Bristol, she studied literature at Cambridge, after winning scholarships to both Cambridge and Oxford universities. She emigrated to Tasmania in 1959.
Scott’s works in prose include the novels The Baby-Farmer (1990), and Family Album: a novel of secrets and memories (2000), and the non-fiction work Port Arthur: A Story of Strength and Courage (1997), about the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
Her poetry, which filled numerous collections, traversed many topics. A recurrent feature in Scott’s poetry was the everyday and the domestic illuminating the depths and complexities of human experience. Scott accumulated many awards in her life including the Emeritus Award of the Australia Council’s Literature Board. Her legacy continues to encourage emerging writers – every second year, the Margaret Scott Young Tasmanian Writer’s Fellowship is awarded to a promising young wordsmith.
