The Forgotten Notebook

Betty Churcher AO was one of Australia's most loved cultural commentators. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, she was director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia from 1987 to 1990 and of the National Gallery of Australia from 1990 to 1997. She wrote several acclaimed books, including Notebooks, Australian Notebooks, The Art of War, Treasures of Canberra and Adam & Sarah Explore Turner, she was art critic for The Australian and wrote and presented successful television art programs such as Take Five and Hidden Treasures. Earlier in her life she was a painter and won a travelling scholarship to Europe, where she became an associate and graduate of the Royal College of Art, London and gained a Master of Arts from the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London. Betty had four sons and seven grandchildren and lived in sheep country in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales until her death in 2015.