Philip Jones is a man of unusually varied achievement. He was raised in country Victoria to Anglo-Australian parents. He studied acting in London and went on to have a successful career on stage and in radio around Australia, acting with the likes of Sybil Thorndike and Ralph Richardson. In his late twenties, he relinquished his theatrical career to become assistant director of the Museum of Modern Art in Tavistock Place, Melbourne (now MOMA at Heide). In the early sixties, he established Eastend Booksellers with Sunday Reed, the business eventually transforming into a hugely successful supplier of books to libraries across Australia. Still not satisfied, Philip Jones reinvented himself aged 60, becoming Australia's foremost obituarist a task he regards as 'a rare honour'. He is a regular contributor to the Times, the Guardian and the Telegraph in London, in addition to the Australian and Fairfax presses. Art + Life is his first book.
