author
William Harvey Christie
1808–1873
A 19th-century writer whose fiction grew out of a life in the British Army and colonial New South Wales. Best known for A Love Story, he also had a long public career that gives his work an unusual historical backdrop.
1 Audiobook
A Love Story
by William Harvey Christie
About the author
Born in Ceylon in 1808, William Harvie Christie was educated in England and trained for a military career before moving to New South Wales in the 1830s. He served in the British Army, later became a senior colonial public servant, and was also active in New South Wales politics.
Alongside that public life, he published fiction under the name William Harvey Christie. His best-known work is A Love Story, a 19th-century novel that has remained accessible through digital archives, helping keep his writing in circulation.
Christie died in 1873. What makes him interesting today is the mix of roles he carried through his life: soldier, administrator, politician, and novelist, with his writing shaped by the world of the British Empire and colonial Australia.