Janet Frame was born on August 28, 1924 in Dunedin, New Zealand. She was a writer, known for A State of Siege (1978) and An Angel at My Table (1990). She died on January 29, 2004 in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Her father worked on the railways and her mother was a failed poet.
In 1973 she legally changed her surname to Clutha, after the river
south of Oamaru, New Zealand, where she grew up as child, but continued
to write under the name Janet Frame.
Her brother had epilepsy and became an alcoholic.
She was educated at Waitaki Girl's High School then did her teacher's
training at University of Otago.
She spent 7 years in a psychiatric institution where she underwent over
200 sessions of electro-convulsive therapy.