Alison Dolling

Alison Mary Dolling (29 August 1917 – 25 July 2006), also known by the pen-name Mary Broughton, was an Australian writer.

She was born at St Peters in Adelaide, 29 August 1917. Her parents were Edward Bruno Dolling and Amy Caroline, née Thiselton.^[1] She attended Ellerslie College in Tranmere and Methodist Ladies' College in Wayville, before studying journalism at the University of Washington, Seattle University, and University of California, Berkeley. After a period in England studying at King's College London, she returned to Australia and finally graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics from the University of Adelaide.^[2] Dolling then worked as a secondary school teacher from 1941, and was also a part-time lecturer at the Adelaide Kindergarten Training College, teaching Australian literature and the history of education.^[3] In 1962 she was appointed the editor of Opinion, the journal of the South Australian English Teachers' Association.^[3]

Dolling was appointed women's editor of The Chronicle in 1966, using the pen-name Mary Broughton; she held the position until the Chronicle was discontinued in 1975.^[2] In 1977 she published a compilation of her writings entitled Chronicle Cameos, and in 1981 published a history of Marion, The History of Marion on the Sturt.^[1] The two books were runners-up for the Alexander Henderson Award, which is given by the Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies.^[2] Dolling continued to be active in the area of genealogical and women's history, serving as editor of From Shadows into Light, a study of South Australian women artists, in 1988.^[2] Her last book, a memoir entitled A Child Went Forth, was published in 2005.^[2]