Portrait of a Friendship

A fascinating insider's view of Australia's cultural life from two central figures, and a profoundly moving and inspiring portrait of a friendship.

'The funny bits are the great leavening of life and what makes us friends.'

Barbara Blackman, 23 February 1994



Love, marriage, births, deaths, poetry, art, politics, gardens, pets and philosophy- the letters of Barbara Blackman and Judith Wright in Portrait of a Friendship range over all of these topics and more with the wit and vitality of writers who relished the play and beauty of words.


In the late 1940s, poet Judith Wright and her partner, philosopher Jack McKinney, read some of their work at a meeting of writers in Brisbane. In the audience was young Barbara Patterson, who would, in a few years, marry the painter Charles Blackman. From this meeting grew a firm friendship, and the letters that nurtured it over half a century have created a fascinating and very personal record of Australian literary and artistic life.


Above all, it is a profoundly moving and inspiring portrait of a friendship.

Barbara Blackman is an essayist, journalist, librettist and oral historian. She was married to the painter Charles Blackman for thirty years.


Judith Wright was one of Australia's best known writers, publishing poetry, short stories, children's fiction, literary criticism and family memoirs. She was also a dedicated environmentalist and championed the rights of Aboriginal people.