Barbara Anderson (writer)

Barbara Anderson, Lady Anderson (14 April 1926 – 24 March 2013) was a New Zealand fiction writer who became internationally recognized despite only starting her writing career in her late fifties. The bulk of her writing can be seen as being somewhat similar in style that of Anita Brookner, Raymond Carver, Margaret Drabble and Bernice Rubens.

Born Barbara Lillian Romaine in Hastings, New Zealand, she was educated at the University of Otago where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1947. After a career as a medical technologist and as a teacher, she went back to college in Wellington, New Zealand, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Victoria University of Wellington in 1984.

In 1951, she married Sir Neil Anderson, a Royal New Zealand Navy officer later to become Chief of New Zealand Defence Staff. They had two sons. Lady Anderson died in Auckland on 24 March 2013, at the age of 86.

• I Think We Should Go Into the Jungle : Short Stories. Wellington : Victoria University Press, 1989; London: Secker & Warburg, 1993.
• Girls' High. Wellington : Victoria University Press, 1990, 1999; London: Secker & Warburg, 1991.
• Portrait of the Artist's Wife. Wellington : Victoria University Press, 1992; London: Secker & Warburg, 1992; New York: Norton, 1993; London: Minerva, 1993.
• All the Nice Girls. Wellington : Victoria University Press, 1993, 1999; London: Cape, 1994; London: Vintage, 1995.
• The House Guest. Wellington : Victoria University Press, 1995; London: Cape, 1995; London: Vintage, 1997.
• Proud Garments. Wellington : Victoria University Press, 1996.
• The Peacocks : and Other Stories. Wellington : Victoria University Press, 1997.
• Glorious things, and other stories. London: Cape, 1999.
• Long Hot Summer. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1999; London: Cape, 2000.
• The Swing Around. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2001.