Feature Biography
Coral Magnolia Lansbury (1929–1991)

Coral Magnolia Lansbury (1929–1991), radio scriptwriter, academic, and novelist, was born at St Kilda, Melbourne, in 1929, second child of Australian-born Oscar Vincent Stephen Lansbury, and his English-born wife May, née Morle. Coral’s parents were London stage actors who toured New Zealand and Australia in 1928 and 1929 with a production of The Vagabond King before joining the cast of Show Boat; auspiciously, they gave Coral the second name Magnolia for the precocious heroine of the musical....