I note that, in the non judgemental piece by Latika Bourke (who, by the way, seems to lead the most extraordinarily peripatetic existence for a journalist - I find it hard to believe her boss pays for so much travel, and wonder if she is independently wealthy) Dale notes another short term venture of hers in the past:
Her second novel will appear under her real name and there will be no pretences about its origins. Kingdom of the Wicked came about while she was studying at Oxford funded by a scholarship won through the US-based Institute of Humane Studies. When Dale realised she had six months left and there would be no 100,000-word doctoral thesis in the pipeline, but rather a follow-up to her vexed literary debut, she returned the remaining funds.She does seem to have moved from job to job an unusually large number of times, if you ask me...
"I made sure I wrote to them personally and apologised for what I'd done. They weren't hugely happy but I did at least give some money back," she said.
Update: The Australian is running a lengthy, though apparently edited, extract from her introduction to the re-issue of her first book. I must say, unless it's the editing that has done it, but I don't think it is well written at all.
I don't think she has any idea how she sounds when she talks about herself: self aggrandisement seems always to be lurking so close to the surface. Yet she has her followers on the libertarian Right - Sinclair Davidson seems especially smitten with her and her writing. I find her tedious at the best of times...