Born in London to parents from established Australian families, Patrick White became one of Australia’s most influential writers, his career culminating in his receipt of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973. After a sickly Australian childhood, he was sent to England in his early teens to attend boarding school, where he felt ostracized due to his colonial upbringing and his nascent homosexuality. After two years as a stockman on a ranch in Australia, White returned to England to attend Cambridge from 1932 to 1935, where he published his first works. He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. While stationed in Egypt, White met a Greek army officer named Manoly Lascaris, who became his lifelong companion.
