Frances Letters

Frances Letters grew up in Armidale NSW, graduated from the University of New England in 1964, and worked as a journalist on the Sydney Morning Herald.

After years spent travelling she wrote The Surprising Asians: a Vietnam War-era hitch-hike around SE Asia  (Angus & Robertson 1968). It was studied by some quarter of a million NSW School Certificate English students in the 1960s and 1970s. A year's shoestring travel in India resulted in People of Shiva: Encounters in India (A&R 1971).

In Switzerland she became a teacher of Transcendental Meditation, and taught the technique in Spain for some years. She has one son, a doctor. Frances is an active member of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR), Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) and Women in Black (WIB, a peace vigil group begun by Israeli and Palestinian women). Her memoir about prejudice and racism – Razorwire round the heart: snipping bigotry away – will be published in 2023.