‘Harrower's greatest novel [is] The Watch Tower (1966), the bitter story of two sisters, Laura and Clare, who lose their parents and fall under the sway of Felix Shaw, an abusive and controlling drunk...[It is] her masterpiece.’ James Wood, New Yorker After Laura and Clare are abandoned by their mother, Felix is there to help, even to marry Laura if she will have him. Little by little the two sisters grow complicit with his obsessions, his cruelty, his need to control. Set in the leafy northern suburbs of Sydney during the 1940s, The Watch Tower is a novel of relentless and acute psychological power. Elizabeth Harrower was born in Sydney in 1928 and moved to London in 1951. She travelled extensively and began to write fiction. Her first novel Down in the City was published in 1957, and was followed by The Long Prospect a year later. In 1959 she returned to Sydney where she began working for the ABC and as a book reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald. In 1960 she published The Catherine Wheel, the story of an Australian law student in London, her only novel not set in Sydney. The Watch Tower appeared in 1966. No further novels were published until May 2014 when Harrower's 'lost' novel, In Certain Circles, was released. Her work is austere, intelligent, ruthless in its perceptions about men and women. She was admired by many of her contemporaries, including Patrick White and Christina Stead, and is without doubt among the most important writers of the postwar period in Australia. Elizabeth Harrower died in Sydney on 7 July 2020 at the age of ninety-two. 'Haunting and delicate.' Kirkus Reviews 'This is a harrowing novel, relentless in its depiction of marital enslavement, spiritual self-destruction and the exploited condition of women in a masculinist society...It is a brilliant achievement.' Washington Post 'Haunting...Harrower captures brilliantly the struggle to retain a self.' Guardian ‘Each of Harrower’s four novels is concerned with entrapment of one sort or another, through family or youth or love. But The Watch Tower, her last novel, is almost like a distillation in its vision of the forces of good and evil. Something runs clear and strong through this wonderful, painful novel, the dark and the light. The victim and the survivor. Suffering and joy. The knowledge of both. Reality.’ Joan London, Lit Hub 'Elizabeth Harrower's thrilling 1966 novel The Watch Tower comes rampaging back from decades of disgraceful neglect: a wartime Sydney story of two abandoned sisters and the arrival in their lives of Felix, one of literature's most ferociously realised nasty pieces of work.' Helen Garner, Australian 'A superb psychological novel that will creep into your bones.' Michelle de Kretser, The Monthly 'I read The Watch Tower with a mixture of fascination and horror. It was impossible to put down...Her acute psychological assessments are made from gestures, language and glances and she is brilliant on power, isolation and class.' Ramona Koval, Australian ‘To create a monster as continually credible, comic and nauseating as Felix is a feat of a very high order. But to control that creation, as Miss Harrower does, so that Clare remains the centre of interest is an achievement even more rare. The Watch Tower is a triumph of art over virtuosity...a dense, profoundly moral novel of our time.’ H.G. Kippax, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 November 1966 ‘As gripping and terrifying as any horror story...An astonishing book.’ Guardian

Breaking their poses like trees snapping branches, the women urgently regarded each other, cleared away all signs of work in an instant, examined their souls for defects, in a sense crossed themselves, and waited. After Laura and Clare are abandoned by their mother, Felix is there to help, even to marry Laura if she will have him. Little by little the two sisters grow complicit with his obsessions, his cruelty, his need to control. Set in the leafy northern suburbs of Sydney during the 1940s, The Watch Tower is a novel of relentless and acute psychological power.

A devastating crisis has the Jehovah's Witness religion facing extinction. Chances are that you have never met a real “Jehovah’s Witness.” While those at your door may claim to be one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, their own publications plainly teach otherwise. So, who are the real Jehovah’s Witnesses? The Watchtower Society teaches that they are members of the 144,000 who will be the only ones going to heaven. Membership in this group began with the early apostles. Over the centuries others have been added but the Watchtower declared that the number was completed in 1935. Anyone who claims to be one of Jehovah’s’ Witnesses has to be one of the 144,000 and must be very old now. However, the Watchtower Society teaches that these are the only ones who hear from God and are responsible for Watchtower teaching and leadership. Because these people are dying, the Watchtower is facing a credibility crisis. So, the Watchtower is quietly manipulating these death figures to keep the Watchtower organization alive! And now, just last year, Watchtower literature quietly began to try to wiggle out of the 1935 closing date for the 144,000. But this only adds further opportunity for you to show the “JW” who comes to your door that he cannot trust the Watchtower with his precious eternal life. The Watchtower representative at your door believes he will remain on “Paradise Earth” after the coming Armageddon, since only the original 144,000 have any hope of going to heaven. In fact, they are the only ones allowed to take communion. He does not believe he can understand Bible truths without the Watchtower. He is dependent on a publication that, one day soon, will be left without writers to reveal God’s truths. Who are those writers? Those who remain of the original 144,000 and they are dying! Oddly enough, their founder, Charles Taze Russell, never taught the doctrine of the 144,000. In this book, you will learn the true history of this false Watchtower doctrine. You will be surprised to discover that this doctrine is not just a Bible issue. It is also a historical issue and a numbers game that the Watchtower Society has had to manipulate throughout the years to keep that organization alive! With the information and witnessing strategies in this book, you will be able to plant seeds of doubt and undermine the authority of the Watchtower. The Watchtower knows it is essential that this cornerstone doctrine remain alive if it is going to continue to exist as the spiritual leader for its followers. Time is the enemy of this teaching and they know it.

In a land brought to life by warriors and lovers, war and honor, the legendary tower Tornor Keep is invaded by raiders. No longer the watchtower at the winter end of a summer land, Tornor turns to a young prince with the hopes that he might protect the future of the enchanting land.

At first, the Watchtower Society seemed harmless to William J. Schnell, even valuable as a way to develop his faith in God and pass it on to others. This book is Schnell's fascinating account of his involvement with the cult, which effectively enticed him in the 1920s and continues to lure countless individuals today. Readers will learn, as Schnell did, that the Jehovah's Witness religion he had joined was anything but innocent. For thirty years he was enslaved by one of the most totalitarian religions of our day, and his story of finally becoming free is riveting. Readers will be alerted to the inner machinations, methods, and doctrines of the Watchtower Society, arming them to forewarn others and witness to their Jehovah's Witness friends, relatives, neighbors, and the stranger at the door. With more than 300,000 copies sold, 30 Years a Watchtower Slave is truly one of the classic testimonies of freedom from a powerful cult.

Sharply observed, bitter and humorous, The Long Prospect is a story of life in an Australian industrial town. Growing up neglected in a seedy boarding house, Emily Lawrence befriends Max, a middle-aged scientist who encourages her to pursue her intellectual interests. Innocent Emily will face scandal, suburban snobbery and psychological torment.

Esther Prescott has seen little of life outside her wealthy family's Rose Bay mansion—until flashy Stan Peterson comes roaring up the drive in his huge American car and barges into her life. Within a fortnight they are living in his Kings Cross flat. Moody and erratic, proud of his well-bred wife yet bitterly resentful of her privilege, Stan is involved with his former girlfriend and a series of shady business deals. Esther, innocent and desperate to please him, must endure his controlling ways. This story of a troubled and obsessive marriage, set against the backdrop of postwar Sydney, is devastating. First published in 1957, Down in the City announced Elizabeth Harrower as a major Australian writer.