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Biographical Register
ROLAND, Betty (1903-1996)
B. 22 July 1903, Kaniva, Vic. M. Ellis Davies, 1922 (separated 1932);
de facto wife of Guido Baracchi, marxist scholar and activist (q.v.),
1932-42. 1d. D. 12 February 1996, Sydney.
Spent childhood in Mallee district, writing poems and playlets.
Journalist on Sun News-Pictorial before writing first and most acclaimed
play, The Touch of Silk, first peformed in 1928. Formed association
with wealthy marxist intellectual Guido Baracchi in later 1920s,
leaving husband in 1932. With Baracchi, visited Britain and the
USSR in 1933-4, working as a journalist on the Moscow Daily News,
sharing room with Katherine Susannah Pritchard (q.v.) and keeping
diaries which became basis of first volume of autobiography; smuggled
literature into Nazi Germany. Returned to Australia 1935; with Baracchi
lived in Melbourne for two years, then Sydney, buying land and building
a house in Castlecrag and living with Baracchi until relationship
broke down. Immersed herself in left wing politics, establishing
the New Theatre League; from 1942, wrote radio serials. 1952, to
London with daughter, writing television drama and five children’s
books. Returned to Aust. in early 1960s, settling in artists’
colony, Montsalvat, outside Melbourne, developing friendship with
artist Justus Joegensen and continuing to write for radio. Founding
member of Australian Society of Authors, 1963; member of ASA management
commmittee; treasurer, 1965; re-elected to committee 1981; honorary
life member, 1993.
Plays, radio and movie scripts: The Touch of Silk (play,
1938; 1975); The Spur of the Moment (claimed to be Australia’s
first talking movie); 52 episodes of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
(radio), A Woman Scorned (radio); Granite Peak (1952);
autobiographical: Caviar For Breakfast (1979), The Eye
of the Beholder (1984), An Improbable Life (1989), The
Devious Being (1990); five children’s books; travel books
ABD, 13 (Baracchi); Australian, 16 Feb. 1996; information from Tom
Thompson, 1996.
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