In one letter to Brand, her father included an original poem The Carpentaria Lightship which she unsuccessfully attempted to have published in The Bulletin.

[8] During World War II, she worked as a social worker and then as a research officer for the Department of Labour and National Service (1945–48).

She worked in London between 1948 and 1954, originally as a typist for the BBC, then in Hanoi, Vietnam in 1956–57 as an English teacher, subsequently returning to Australia.

Kisch, a communist and Anti-Nazi who was prohibited from entering Australia, is portrayed throughout the play as an intelligent, down to earth man, while the German officials are written as sycophants.

Brand read the file herself, and expressed her distaste for ASIO's actions in a satirical piece in The Sydney Morning Herald in 2002.

This group, which included writers Frank Hardy and Eric Lambert, recommended the play to Melbourne New Theatre and it was performed in 1948.

Written in 1953, the play was inspired by the Derek Bentley case, which saw a young, illiterate man hanged for being involved in a robbery that led to the murder of a policeman.

The political nature of this play and the issues confronted are reflected in the title's biblical reference, "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones."

Sydney's New Theatre, was concerned with the development of Australian women playwrights in the mid 20th century and provided unique insights of war and isolation, presenting feminist cases of internationalism.

During this period the New Theatre struggled for recognition, particularly in Sydney, as for fifteen years the commercial press did not publish reviews of their productions.

[31] Brand's works were, however, well received in Britain, Russia, China, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Germany, Rumania, Poland, Latvia and India.

Brand also regarded feminist literature at the time as a little irrational when words were simply changed to sound feminine rather than masculine.

[37] Unperformed works include: 'The Silent People', 'Flood Tide', 'Pavement Oasis', 'Inbye', 'Koorie Song', 'Hammer and Stars' and Here Comes Kisch, which was performed as a reading at the Australian Playwrights Conference in 1982.

[40] This Night, another early poem was inspired by the second line of Brand's favourite Wordsworth's sonnet: "This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon."

Brand early poetry was strongly influenced by English poets and are somewhat imitative of Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Walter de la Mare and Edna St Vincent Millay.

In her early work, she preferred a regular rhyme scheme to free verse although she adopted whichever suited the idea.

This also became a time for her development as a writer because she met Melbourne Workers' Educational Association tutor, William Fearn Wannan, who influenced and taught her.

[41] Contents: Homespun, Hyde Park Fountain, The Miser, Sequence, Sympathy (In Mid Winter), The Fashionable Hat, From A Station Bridge, Ageless, Vigil, Aspiration of An Earth Worm, Wander Through, Dream Garden, Shutters, The Queen's Breakfast, Death, Translation of ODE VII BY Horace, Pround Chime, Easter Hymn, The Primrose Flower, Forgetting, Zinnias, Radio Greeting, Sad Tale of a Musical Dove, The Idle Roam, This Night, My Song, Going up, A Simple Lesson The cover was designed by Albert Collins.

"The fact that the fine pen and ink drawing depicted a popular tree suggests my continuing pre-occupation with non-indigenous landscape features.

"[42] Contents: Promise, Clues, Silver Singing, Man's Destiny, Collins Street, The Civilised, The Blue Gum (Outside My Window), Twilight, Australian Christmas (Or Coming up to Scratch), The White Tree, Outside, Chintz, Panorama, At the Ballet, Eternity, The Idle Roam, The Miser, Zinnias, This Night, My Song, Hyde Park Fountain, Sequence, Going Up, Vigil.

[43] Contents: Lass in love, Young Mother, Sound and Sea, The Trust, Symphony of Man, Christmas Tree, Tomorrow, The Willow, Finale, Soundless, Cacophony, Instrument, All I Know, These Hands, To John (1940), Aconite ( Monk's Hood), Seashore, Sale Ad, Parrots, "Where Are Those Thine Accusers?

This collection includes "some previously unpublished pieces, as well as others that have appeared in the print media or have been performed in association with stage and television productions".

1928-1938: The Idle Roam, Zinnias, This Night, Hyde Park Fountain, My Song, The Miser, Forgetting, Ageless, Aspiration of an Earth Worm, Translation of Ode VII by Horace, Shy as a Deer, To A Fellow Poet.

1938-1946: These Hands, The Willow, Lass in Love, The White Tree, Soundless, All I Know, Cacophony, Instrument, Twilight, Man's Destiny, Panorama, Collins Street, The Blue Gum, Promise, Seashore, Sound and Sea, Parrots, Aconite (Monk's Hood), Sympathy, Silver Singing, Young Mother, The Civilised, Symphony of Man, Australian Christmas, At the Ballet, Eternity, The Trust, Clues, To John (1940), Sale Ad, Christmas Tree, Tomorrow.

Tilley collected many scripts and production details and as a result of her work, many of Brand's original manuscripts and letters are now held by the Fryer Library at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.