Ruth Park

Her literary debut, The Harp in the South, depicted Irish slum life in Sydney, stirring controversy among critics who denied the existence of such slums despite Ruth's own experiences living in Surry Hills. This novel has been translated into ten languages. She also wrote about New Zealand's gold mining history in "One-a-pecker, Two-a-pecker," later renamed "The Frost and The Fire." Ruth Park's contributions to literature and media were recognized with several awards in Australia and internationally.

The best place to start is the Harp in the South series, the earliest of Ruth Park's multi-book series: it opens with Poor Man's Orange (1949) and runs to 3 books across 1949–1985, ending with Missus (1985). Ruth Park's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Ruth Park has 50 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1949 and 2010. 17 of them belong to 2 named series — the largest being the Muddle-Headed Wombat series with 14 books — and 33 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Ruth Park's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Harp in the South (1949–1985, 3 books) and Muddle-Headed Wombat (1963–1982, 14 books).

This guide splits Ruth Park's 50 books into 2 named series and 33 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Muddle-Headed Wombat (14 books, 1963–1982); Harp in the South (3 books, 1949–1985).