Adrian Mitchell was born in Adelaide, and for many years taught and published in Australian literature, at the University of Adelaide and then at the University of Sydney, where he remains an Honorary Research Associate.

His interest now is in retrieving the stories of those who have been passed over or forgotten, and in finding new ways of re-presenting them, beginning with a book of memoirs about Adelaide, Drawing the Crow (2006); Dampier’s Monkey: A reading of the South Seas narratives of William Dampier (2010); Plein Airs and Graces: The life and times of George Collingridge, short-listed for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for non-fictional prose (2013); and The Profilist (2015), all with Wakefield Press.