Laurence Collinson Explained

Laurence Henry Collinson (7 September 1925 – 10 November 1986) was a British and Australian playwright, actor, poet, journalist, and secondary school teacher.

Biography

Born in Leeds, England,^[1] Collinson's family moved to Australia in 1930. While still at Brisbane State High School, Collinson and fellow students Barrett Reid and Cecel Knopke started the magazine Barjai: A Meeting Place for Youth, which from 1943 to 1944 published the literary avant-garde in Adelaide and Melbourne.^[2] He received a secondary teaching diploma from Merrer House in Melbourne and from 1955 to 1961 taught mathematics and English in various Melbourne secondary schools.

From 1961 to 1964, Collinson worked as the editor of The Educational Magazine.^[3] In 1964, he returned to England. His play Thinking Straight was produced by Inter-Action as part of their Homosexual Acts season, opening 10 March 1975 at the Almost Free Theatre.^[4] In the 1970s he worked in his West Hampstead apartment as a gestalt / transactional analysis group therapist.

Collinson died in London on 10 November 1986.

Select credits

• Nude with Violin (1965)

Bibliography

• Cupid's Crescent, Grandma Press, 1973 (self-published)

Notes and References

1. William Wilde, Australian Poets and Their Works, Oxford University Press, 1996.
2. Web site: From Barjai to Overland: A Note on Barrie Reid - No 64 Spring 1999 - La Trobe Journal . 2008-08-23 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080730032625/http://calisto.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-64/t1-g-t6.html . 30 July 2008 . dmy-all . "From Barjai to Overland A Note on Barrie Reid", La Trobe Journal, No. 64, Spring 1999.
3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms6327 National Library of Australia.
4. Web site: Homosexual Acts – Unfinished Histories.