[1] She returned to Australia with her family in 1945 and quickly joined the thriving arts scene of Potts Point, Kings Cross and Elizabeth Bay.
In 1951, she became assistant organiser for Island literature in the Commission's Social Development Section, but she resigned in 1956 to write full-time.
[1] In addition to writing books, she also wrote short stories and articles, and was a reviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald in 1970 and the Melbourne Age in 1972.
Her friends included writers like Patrick White, Kylie Tennant, Dorothy Hewett, Jessica Anderson, Nancy Keesing, Elizabeth Harrower and Peter Porter, and the artist Jeffrey Smart.
[1] The Patrick White Award judges said that she wrote with "delicious verve and humour" and that her "passion for life has led her to explore other cultures and to write memorably about them whether in fiction or non-fiction".