Restless spirit

‘Who is E L Grant Watson?’ could well be the first response of most readers on encountering this biography. Elliot Lovegood Grant Watson has remained almost unknown in Australia, despite the respect his novels were accorded in Britain and America during his lifetime, and the acclaim they received from literary historian Henry Mackenzie Green and critic Dorothy Green. More recently several critics, including this reviewer, have ‘discovered’ his six Australian novels (published 1914–35) set in the Western Australian desert, and been struck by his evocative descriptions of the landscape. This biography considerably expands our knowledge of this elusive author and helpfully summarises the Australian novels in an Appendix. Hopefully it will encourage readers to unearth copies of the novels (five now out of print) and even prompt publishers to reprint them.