Hilary McPhee, who has died, aged 85, was already a legend when I started working in publishing, nearly two decades ago.
McPhee Gribble, the publishing house she founded with friend Diana Gribble in 1975, was the first home for some of Australia’s beloved authors, including Helen Garner, Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette. It also published Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet, voted the nation’s best novel by the Australian Society of Authors in 2003 – the same year it topped a reader poll.
