Peter Robb (author)

{{short description|Australian author (born 1946)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Use Australian English|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox writer  | name = Peter Robb | image = | caption = | image_size = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = 1946 | birth_place = Toorak, Victoria, Australia | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Novelist | period = | subject = | movement = | influences = | influenced = | signature = | website = | awards = 2004 The Age Book of the Year Award — Non-Fiction Prize, winner }}

'''Peter Robb''' (born 1946) is an Australian author, who has also written under the pen names '''B. Selkie''' and '''Ross Edwards'''.<ref>{{cite web|title= Austlit – Peter Robb|publisher= Austlit|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A30928|access-date= 29 April 2026}}</ref>

==Early life and education== Robb was born 1946 in Toorak, Melbourne. He spent his early years in Australia and was educated in New Zealand.<ref name=austlit>{{cite web | title=Peter Robb | website=AustLit| date=14 February 2012 | url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A30928 | access-date=23 October 2023}}</ref>

He was involved in a small Trotskyist organisation named the Communist League, which was sympathetic to the Fourth International, between 1972 and 1978, although Robb did not join the organisation until 1975.<ref name=spartacist1976/> Robb helped produced its newspaper, ''Militant'', and was also key in the departure of a section of the Communist League's leadership, through absorption by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in 1976. The group was co-founded by Queensland doctor John McCarthy (1948–2008), who played a major role in integrating the CL and the SWP,<ref>{{cite web | title=Vale John McCarthy, 1948 | website=Green Left | date=8 November 2008 | url=https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/vale-john-mccarthy-1948-%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%94-2008 | access-date=23 October 2023 | archive-date=24 October 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024054914/https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/vale-john-mccarthy-1948-%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%94-2008 | url-status=dead }}</ref> and activist and later academic Marcia Langton was the third member of the CL committee.<ref name=da1976>{{cite journal|url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/fi/LTF/1976/76-12-23.pdf|title=More Communist League members join SWP| page=13|quote=Their joining forces with the SWP followed the fusion on November 20 [1976] of three other former leaders of the CL, John McCarthy, Peter Robb, and Marcia Langton,...| date=16 December 1976| journal= Direct Action}}</ref> McCarthy broke away from the SWP (then Socialist Workers League) to create CL, and then, along with Robb and Langton, rejoined the SWP four years later, in November 1976.<ref name=spartacist1976>{{cite journal| url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/icl-spartacists/periodicals/australasian/038_December_1976_Austral_Spart.pdf| journal=Australasian Spartacist| date=December 1976| page=6| title= Whither the Communist League?}}</ref>

==Career== Robb left Australia for Europe in 1971, where he worked for several years before returning home. In 1978, he moved to Italy and spent the next 15 years primarily in Naples and southern Italy, with occasional sojourns to Brazil. He returned to Sydney at the end of 1992. His experiences in southern Italy formed the basis of his first book, ''Midnight in Sicily'' (1996).<ref name=austlit/><ref>{{cite book | last=Robb | first=P. | title=Midnight in Sicily | publisher=Vintage Books | year=1999 | isbn=978-0-375-70458-1}}</ref>

His 1998 biography of the Italian artist Caravaggio, titled ''M'', provoked significant controversy upon its British release two years later.<ref name=duffy/> He followed this in December 1999 with ''Pig's Blood and Other Fluids'', a collection of three crime fiction novellas.

Robb's later works continued to explore his interests in Italy and South America, including ''A Death in Brazil'' (2003) and ''Street Fight in Naples'', published by Allen & Unwin in October 2010. Throughout his career, Robb has also written under the pen names B. Selkie and Ross Edwards.<ref name=austlit/>

==Plagiarism allegations==

In 2004, former Veja editor Mario Sergio Conti accused Robb of appropriating material from Conti's Brazil-published book ''Noticias do Planalto (News from the Presidential Palace)'' for ''A Death in Brazil''. Conti branded Robb "a rude thief, a colonial predator, a privateer sure of his own impunity" who "just copied [my book] because it is written in a language that no one in the rich countries understands."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bellos |first1=Alex |title=Gained in translation |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/aug/24/news.alexbellos |work=The Guardian |date=24 August 2004 |access-date=24 August 2004}}</ref> Robb denied he had plagiarised from Conti and responded: "It is normal practice for historians and journalists to draw on previous published sources for their own work, and correct practice to acknowledge and cite them. I do both. Facts are public property."<ref>{{cite web |title=Plagiarism claim adds an extra ingredient to novel of intrigue |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/plagiarism-claim-adds-an-extra-ingredient-to-novel-of-intrigue-20040703-gdj9ca.html |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=3 July 2004 |publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=3 July 2004}}</ref>

==Academia== Robb has taught at the University of Melbourne, the University of Oulu in Finland, and the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples.<ref name=duffy>{{cite web | title=Peter Robb | website=Duffy & Snellgrove | date=26 January 2001 | url=http://www.duffyandsnellgrove.com.au/authors/robb.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050906061336/http://www.duffyandsnellgrove.com.au/authors/robb.htm | archive-date=6 September 2005 | url-status=dead | access-date=23 October 2023}}</ref>

==Recognition and awards==  *1997: Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction (the non-fiction prize of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award), for ''Midnight in Sicily''<ref>{{cite web|title="'Drowner' awarded top prize " |publisher= The Age 18 October 1997, p14|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2521622477|access-date= 29 April 2026|id= {{ProQuest|2521622477}}}}</ref> *2004: The Age Book of the Year Awards – Non-fiction, for ''A Death in Brazil''<ref>{{Cite web |date=2004-08-21 |title=Totem wins The Age Book of the Year |url=https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/totem-wins-the-age-book-of-the-year-20040821-gdyhwi.html |access-date=29 April 2026 |website=The Age |language=en |archive-date=25 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625102656/https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/totem-wins-the-age-book-of-the-year-20040821-gdyhwi.html |url-status=live }}</ref> *2012: Appointed the first CAL Non-Fiction Writer-in-Residence at the University of Technology, Sydney.<ref name=austlit/>

==Selected works== ===Books=== *''Midnight in Sicily'' (1996) *''M'' (1998) *''Pig's Blood and Other Fluids'' (1999) *''A Death in Brazil'' (2003) *''Street Fight in Naples'' (2010) *''Lives'' (2012)

===Essays === *{{cite journal |author=Robb, Peter |date=Aug 2014 |title=Brand management : the peripatetic director of the Art Gallery of NSW |journal=The Monthly |volume=103 |pages=32–37 |url=https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2014/august/1406815200/peter-robb/art-gallery-nsw%E2%80%99s-michael-brand |archive-date=3 January 2018 |access-date=12 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103202002/https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2014/august/1406815200/peter-robb/art-gallery-nsw%E2%80%99s-michael-brand |url-status=dead }}<ref>Online version is titled "Art Gallery NSW's Michael Brand".</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robb, Peter}} Category:Australian crime writers Category:Australian non-fiction writers Category:Living people Category:The Monthly people Category:1946 births Category:Writers from Melbourne Category:Australian male novelists Category:Australian male non-fiction writers Category:People from Toorak, Victoria Category:Australian expatriates in Italy