A Web of Friendship

'I am not a born writer, but I must say that when I have actually launched myself I get the profoundest and most passionate satisfaction from writing.'—Christina Stead

A Web of Friendship is a collection of Christina Stead's intimate correspondence with influential literary figures such as Stanley Burnshaw, Ettore Rella, Nettie Palmer, Clem Christesen, Elizabeth Harrower and A.D. Hope.

These letters span the life of one of Australia's most illustrious writers, offering a rare insight into the relationships that influenced and sustained her work. They reveal Stead's reflections on the art of literature, the development of her political thought, and the significance of a handful of friendships that would endure throughout her life and career.

The letters cover Stead's arrival in England in 1928, as well as her time abroad in Europe and the United States. They also detail her marriage to William Blake, their life in England where they settled in 1953, as well as her brief return to Australia and her final years in England following Blake's death.



Christina Stead was born in Sydney in 1902, and was educated at Sydney High School and at the Teachers' Training College at Sydney University. She left Australia in 1928 and lived in England, Europe and the United States, writing and travelling with her husband, the novelist and political economist William Blake. In 1953 she and Blake settled in England. Widowed, she returned to Sydney in 1974, and died in 1983.
The New York Times Book Review acclaimed her as 'one of the most distinguished novelists writing in English'.