Simmons, Eric

Peter Cowan, born in Perth into a family long established in Western Australia, spent most of the 1930s working as an itinerant labourer in rural areas before becoming a student at the University of Western Australia in 1938. After serving with the RAAF in the Second World War, he became a teacher of English and geography at Scotch College. In Melbourne in the war years he was one of the group of artists and writers associated with the 'Angry Penguins' movement. In 1964 he became a senior tutor at the University of Western Australia. He has published seven short-story collections, four novels, and two biographies. He died in 2002.