HOOD, Lynley (Jane) 1942-

PERSONAL: Born November 14, 1942, in Hamilton, New Zealand; daughter of Horace Everton (a wine and spirits merchant) and Flora Eveline (Preston) Calcott; married James Alfred Alexander Hood (a dentist and university professor), 1965; children: David, Christina, Lyndon. Education: University of Otago, B.Sc., 1965, M.Sc., 1968. Politics: "Socialistic tendencies." Religion: "Atheist."

ADDRESSES: Home and office—16 Marewa St., Kew, Dunedin, New Zealand. Agent—Richards Literary Agency, Box 31240, Milford, Auckland, New Zealand.

CAREER: University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, research physiologist at medical school, 1965-68; freelance writer, 1973—. University of Otago, Robert Burns fellow, 1991. La Leche League, member.

MEMBER: International PEN, Oral History Association of New Zealand, New Zealand Federation of University Women.

AWARDS, HONORS: Goodman Fielder Wattie Book of the Year Award, 1989, Best First Book of Prose Award, New Zealand PEN, 1989, and selection as talking book of the year, New Zealand Foundation for the Blind, all for Sylvia! The Biography of Sylvia Ashton-Warner; Montana Medal for Non-Fiction, history category, 2002, for A City Possessed: The Christchurch Civic Creche Case.

WRITINGS:

Sylvia! The Biography of Sylvia Ashton-Warner, Viking (New York, NY), 1988.

Who Is Sylvia? The Diary of a Biography, J. McIndoe (Dunedin, New Zealand), 1990.

Minnie Dean: Her Life and Crimes, Penguin (Auckland, New Zealand), 1994.

A City Possessed: The Christchurch Civic Creche Case—Child Abuse, Gender Politics, and the Law, Longacre Press (Dunedin, New Zealand), 2001.

Contributor to magazines and newspapers.

SIDELIGHTS: Lynley Hood once told CA: "The four obsessive years that I spent writing my biography of the creative and controversial educational writer Sylvia Ashton-Warner were the most challenging, extending, and enjoyable years of my life. They transformed me from a sociable, part-time scribbler to a full-time writer with all the changes of philosophy, lifestyle, and self-image that such a transformation implies."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Child Abuse and Neglect, May, 1996, Karen Zelas, review of Minnie Dean: Her Life and Crimes, p. 467.

New Zealand Law Journal, October, 2001, Ian Freckelton, review of A City Possessed: The Christchurch Civic Creche Case—Child Abuse, Gender Politics, and the Law, pp. 359-361.

Otago Law Review (annual), 2002, Megan Henaghan, review of A City Possessed, pp. 271-274.

Times (London, England), May 4, 1989.

ONLINE

Lynley Hood Web site,http://www.lynleyhood.org (May 17, 2004).*