Fulham goalie's facelift for Sydney home angers authors

Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer has angered senior figures in the arts world with "unsympathetic" plans to renovate his historic Sydney house.

The Australian is spending £2million on a swimming pool, three-car garage and glass pavilion for his waterfront home, which used to belong to Christina Stead, one of the country's best-known novelists.

The £7million heritage-listed property in the suburb of Watsons Bay is thought to be the inspiration for Stead's most famous work, The Man Who Loved Children.

When the 38-year-old goalie had his plans approved many writers objected, including Jonathan Franzen and Fay Weldon.

"Christina Stead gave the world one of the truly great novels of the 20th century, and although she moved the setting of it to America at the insistence of her American publisher, its heart is clearly in Watsons Bay," Franzen said.

Roger Bayliss, of the Watsons Bay Association, said the removal of nine "historic trees" and the "unsympathetic" extensions will block views of Sydney harbour and "do not recognise its heritage and historic significance".

Stead lived in the Victorian house, known as Boongarre, as a child for 10 years from 1918. Her 1940 novel The Man Who Loved Children drew on her childhood to paint what Time magazine called "the greatest picture ever of the lousiest family of all time".

Schwarzer's solicitor Carl Reid said: "The simple fact is, this is a compliant development and it is within the controls."