In the spring of 1936, a writer planted roses. A while back, Sue from Whispering Gums alerted me to the fact that such a thing as The Orwell Foundation existed. Ever since, I have been slowly exploring the site, which has led to an increased interest in all things Orwell. When Rebecca Solnit's Orwell's Roses … Continue reading Orwell’s Roses | Rebecca Solnit #USAbio
Gillian Mears often likened herself to a Clarence Valley butcherbird, a creature filled with beautiful song who could also peck out the eyes of fledglings. I have put off writing this book response for weeks now. Reading Leaping Into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears by Bernadette Brennan was such a tremendous example of how to … Continue reading Leaping Into Waterfalls | Bernadette Brennan #AWWbiography
'All over the country, brooding on squatters' verandahs, or mooning in selectors' huts,' so A. G. Stephens wrote in the Bulletin in 1901, 'there are scattered here and there hundreds of lively, dreamy Australian girls whose queer uncomprehended ambitions are the despair of the household. They yearn, they aspire for they know not what...' I … Continue reading Friends & Rivals | Brenda Niall #AWWbiography
Eve Langley (1904 -1974) is an enigmatic figure in Australian literary history. One of the (many) reasons why Eve Langley is considered enigmatic is her writing. There was a LOT of it, but was it fiction or was it autobiographical? And how is it possible to tell the difference when the author deliberately leads you … Continue reading Eve Langley and The Pea Pickers | Helen Vines #AWWbiography
April 1939: The wisteria was heavy with blossoms; the roses scrambled around the windows of the old French farmhouse. Joyce Morgan's biography of Elizabeth von Armin, The Countess From Kirribilli, is an utter delight from start to finish. I could just leave that thought there and be done with this post. But, of course, I … Continue reading The Countess From Kirribilli | Joyce Morgan #AWWbiography
Week 2: (November 8-12) – Book Pairing with Katie at Doing Dewey: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real … Continue reading Nonfiction November – Week 2
In her childhood Virginia Woolf was a keen hunter of butterflies and moths. I first attempted to read Virginia Woolf in my early twenties - To the Lighthouse - I couldn't get into it, even though I really wanted to. There was something about Virginia that fascinated me, but her writing was too dense for … Continue reading Virginia Woolf | Nigel Nicolson #GBRbiography
My mother was blue, a pale blue mixed with the colour of ashes. I find myself drawn to memoirs that dive deep into difficult, complicated mother-daughter relationships. It's a dynamic fraught with push me/pull me tensions. Tensions that seem to only evolve with time. Is it possible to work them out? Come to terms with … Continue reading Nothing Holds Back the Night | Delphine de Vigan #FRAmemoir
In 1930 the woman who called herself Mrs Hill caught the Old Trans across the Nullarbor. She sat with a notebook propped on her knees, her suitcase, typewriter and thin swag slung in the rack overhead, revelling in the train's front-stall view of the weird and mournful wilderness all around. Sometimes books come into your … Continue reading Into the Loneliness | Eleanor Hogan #AWWbiography
A few minutes past midnight on Tuesday, 10 September 1940, an air raid struck Mecklenburgh Square. After a mini-reading slump in April, I needed something to capture my attention and my heart. Normally I would go to some cosy crime, or pick up a Jane Austen. Instead, this time, I found myself in the warm … Continue reading Square Haunting | Francesca Wade #GBRnonfiction
Marie Curie is one of my personal heroes. Ever since my Year 12 science depth-study on her, (which incidentally helped me to top the class and receive my one and only first-in-class medal) I have been constantly drawn to her story. As part of my depth-study research, I read Ève Curie's bio about her mother, … Continue reading Marie Curie & Her Daughters | Imogen & Isobel Greenberg
Gabrielle Carey, with this book about Elizabeth von Armin, had the honour of being the very first author event by zoom, that I participated in during this Covid year. Also in attendance was Lisa from ANZLitLovers, who had alerted me to the event in the first place. It was lovely to be able to … Continue reading Only Happiness Here | Gabrielle Carey #AWWmemoir
Writing regular blog posts seems to be something quite beyond right now. But thanks to Karen @Booker Talk I've be revisiting some of my older posts to find fresh inspiration. This post about the rather silent author, Randolph Stow, was originally published on the 29th August 2015. I've been thinking about Gabrielle Carey a lot, over … Continue reading Moving Among Strangers by Gabrielle Carey
Truganini: Journey through the apocalypse is an extraordinary read. Cassandra Pybus has compiled a thorough and very personal history of Truganini's life and times. I say personal, because what gives this book that little extra something special is Pybus' relationship to Truganini. As she says in her Preface, the 'rapid dispossession (of the original people of … Continue reading Truganini | Cassandra Pybus #AWW
Biography:Since my last post I've read a biography called Herman Melville - Mariner and Mystic by Raymond Melbourne Weaver. It was a fairly lacklustre, uninspiring bio in the end. It was a straight down the line linear look at Melville's life, as one might expect from a book first published in 1921. There was a lot … Continue reading Moby-Dick – Chapters 91 – 100
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