Keneally was known as 'Mick' until 1964 but began using the name Thomas when he started publishing, after advice from his publisher to use his real first name. He worked as a Sydney schoolteacher before his success as a novelist and was a lecturer at the University of New England (1968–70).

Although he was ordained as a deacon while at the seminary, after six years there he left in a state of depression and without ordination in the priesthood. Keneally then entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly, to train as a Catholic priest. Keneally studied Honours English for his Leaving Certificate in 1952, under Brother James Athanasius McGlade, and won a Commonwealth scholarship. Shortly after, his brother John was born. By 1942, the family had moved to 7 Loftus Crescent, Homebush, a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney and Keneally was enrolled at Christian Brothers St Patrick's College, Strathfield. His father, Edmund Thomas Keneally, flew for the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II, then returned to work in a small business in Sydney. The book would later be adapted into Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.īoth Keneally's parents (Edmund Thomas Keneally and Elsie Margaret Coyle) were born to Irish fathers in the timber and dairy town of Kempsey, New South Wales, and, though born in Sydney, his early years were also spent in Kempsey. He is best known for his non-fiction novel Schindler's Ark, the story of Oskar Schindler's rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, which won the Booker Prize in 1982.

Thomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and actor. Recorded December 2007 from the BBC Radio 4 programme Bookclub

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