Bee Miles: Australia's famous bohemian rebel, and the untold story behind the legend

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Bee Miles was famous for appearing in public in towns and cities across Australia, breaking their rules, and living, she said 'recklessly'. But she was no ordinary wanderer.

Born into a wealthy family, Bee moved in Sydney's literary and artistic circles in the 1920s and 1930s, before she took up residence on the streets. A consummate performer and a perceptive critic, she caught the public's imagination with her spectacular acts of defiance, emerging majestically from the surf with a knife strapped to each thigh, stopping a country train in its tracks, hitchhiking across remote Australia, and drawing large crowds in the cities with her Shakespeare recitations. She was once even voted more famous than the Prime Minister. She was also repeatedly incarcerated in prisons and mental hospitals and treated brutally by a succession of figures in authority, starting with her father.


A truly larger than life character, Bee constantly defied conventional expectations of female behaviour. The public found her captivating and fragments of her story have been told again and again in many forms. Until now, no-one has uncovered the real story behind the colourful legend. This first full biography offers a fascinating glimpse into a dark side of Australia's history.


'These pages dance with details of a forgotten Australia, in which the sane were in asylums, the rich were on the left, and clever Bee Miles dominated the city of Sydney.' -Alison Bashford, author of An Intimate History of Evolution



'The remarkable tale of an eternal vagabond, Bohemian to her core.' -Lucy Frost, historian and author

Author Bio

Rose Ellis is a writer, editor and researcher based in Sydney.