From pioneer to page-turner: Dame Roma's life in print
 History
Dame Roma Mitchell was a woman of many firsts. She was the first female Queen's Counsel in Australia, the first woman in Australia to be appointed a judge in the Supreme Court, the first woman in Australia to become a university Chancellor, and the first female Governor of an Australian State. Arguably one of the most significant figures in Australian history, her life is now the subject of a detailed and extensive - and page-turning - biography, Roma the First. Roma the First depicts the sources of Dame Roma's ambition and achievements, and explores the complexities and contradictions of her personal life and her career. It asks questions about her sex life and her politics, and also provides a rich social and historical context for the events as they unfold, adding depth to the personal tale. The biography is co-authored by two researchers in the 成人大片's Discipline of History, Adjunct Professor Susan Magarey and Visiting Research Fellow Dr Kerrie Round. Professor Magarey said she wanted to write the biography because Dame Roma (who lived from 1913 to 2000) was a pioneer of women in public life in Australia. "Roma became prominent at a time when it was most unusual for a woman to do so. I often wondered where she got the courage to do that, and how different it was for her being a woman who was a public person," Professor Magarey said. "Another thing that attracted me to the project was, quite simply, that I liked her. I thought she was an immensely generous person. She had been a friend and colleague of one of my uncles and both of my parents. She wrote to me a letter of sympathy about my father's death on the day that her appointment as Governor of South Australia was announced. I think that takes the cake! You'd think, wouldn't you, that if you were just made Governor you'd be a bit pre-occupied with your own matters!" Professor Magarey won an Australian Research Council (ARC) grant to support the biography project, and began collaborating with Dr Kerrie Round, who had co-edited the Wakefield Companion to South Australian History. The biography took five years to research and write, and has now been published by Wakefield Press. One of the more controversial aspects of the book is its treatment of Dame Roma's sex life. "Everybody who knew Roma has a view about her sex life. Even the plumber. So if we didn't write anything about it, it would have suggested that either we were ignorant and hadn't done our job properly, or we hadn't asked," Professor Magarey said. "The hardest information to find out was about her politics. She always said that she had no interest in politics, but I think that was a way of avoiding the issue." Professor Magarey said she was proud of the biography, which has received positive reviews across Australia and was selected for The Advertiser's Big Book Club. "I learned a lot in the process, and writing the book was a great adventure. We've done our best to make it a real page-turner; people tell me it is, so I hope that others who read it will enjoy it." Roma the First: A biography of Dame Roma Mitchell sells for a recommended retail price of $39.95. Story by David Ellis
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