Careful, He Might Hear You: Text Classics

Sumner Locke Elliott

Apr 2012 · Text Publishing

About this ebook

Winner of the Miles Franklin Award 1963, this edition includes an introduction by Robyn Nevin.

It's the Great Depression. Six-year-old PS is an orphan. He lives in Sydney with his Aunt Lila. But all that is about to change. Now his Aunt Vanessa has decided to take proper care of him.

Careful, He Might Hear You is one of the most extraordinary portraits of childhood in Australian fiction.

'Graceful and assured.' New York Times

Sumner Locke Elliott was born in Sydney on 17 October 1917. His mother was the writer Helena Sumner Locke. She died of eclampsia the day after his birth, and the boy was raised by his aunts. Careful, He Might Hear You was Elliott's debut novel. It won the Miles Franklin Award in 1963, was translated into a number of languages and became an international bestseller.

Robyn Nevin AM has been a leading Australian actress for over fifty years and has directed for more than twenty-five years, directing for all state theatre companies. Robyn held the position of Associate Director with the Sydney and Melbourne theatre companies before being appointed Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre Company. Robyn was Artistic Director and CEO of Sydney Theatre Company from 1999 to 2007.

textclassics.com.au

Ratings and reviews

Good oz novel which was turned into a movie.

About the author

SUMNER LOCKE ELLIOTT was born in Sydney on 17 October 1917. His mother was the writer Helena Sumner Locke. She died of eclampsia the day after his birth, and the boy was raised by his aunts.

Elliott wrote his first play when he was twelve, and while he was still at school joined Sydney’s Independent Theatre. In 1942 he was drafted and served out much of the war as a typist in remote parts of Australia. But he was besotted with the theatre and with play writing. He found success after the war with plays including Rusty Bugles and Invisible Circus.

Elliott went to the United States in 1948. Three years later his play Buy Me Blue Ribbons premiered on Broadway. He launched a prominent career writing plays for the television networks, and based himself in New York. He became an American citizen in 1955 and did not visit Australia again until 1974.

Careful, He Might Hear You was Elliott’s debut novel. It won the Miles Franklin Award in 1963, was translated into a number of languages and became an international bestseller. In 1983 it was made into an outstanding film directed by Carl Schultz, starring Wendy Hughes, Robyn Nevin and Nicholas Gledhill.

Elliott wrote ten novels in all. He won the Patrick White Literary Award in 1977. After a lifetime of concealing his homosexuality, he spent his final years living with his partner Whitfield Cook. Sumner Locke Elliott died in New York City in 1991.
em