Burial Rites

I've been meaning to read Burial Rites since it came out in 2013. It was huge, everyone was reading it, everyone was saying how amazing it was. I listened to the buzz, but didn't get to reading the book.  I asked for a copy of Burial Rites that Christmas and that copy been sitting in my bedside stack ever since. Debut author Hannah Kent even had an episode of Australian Story which I watched and was even more fascinated. (I just rewatched it via the magic of Youtube). Recently I had the opportunity to see Hannah Kent speak at the Melbourne Writers Festival 2017 and that finally spurred me on to read it. Actually I was trying to fit in other festival reads so I borrowed the audiobook from my library and popped it on in the car.

Oh, I'm so, so glad that I did. I absolutely loved it. Burial Rites is perhaps an unusual tale from a debut Australian author, and a young one at that. Set in Iceland in the 1820s it tells the rather sad, and oft times completely harrowing tale of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman executed in Iceland.

Agnes was a poor servant, in the cold, desolate north of Iceland. She lived and worked on the remote farms of the area. She is charged with murder and arson along with two others for her role in the deaths of her boss, farmer Natan Ketilsson and a guest on the farm, Pétur Jónsson.

Hannah Kent has done an amazing job telling this story. She uses an interesting structure to great effect. Much of the storytelling is in third person, with smaller sections first person in Agnes' voice, 
Those first person segments are particularly poignant and compelling. Interwoven are historical documents and letters regarding Agnes and the events at Ilugastadir.

The writing is ethereal and atmospheric. Hannah Kent invokes the sparse, barren landscape of northern Iceland. It is lyrical, it is moving. I sat listening to Chapter 6 as I arrived at the work car park, mesmerised as Agnes described a particular defining moment in her childhood. I think I held my breath. The audiobook is beautifully read, and helps with the difficult Icelandic names (well to an Australian mind at least) roll ever so easily off the tongue, where I feel I would have stumbled over them reading the actual book. 

Burial Rites makes you consider the clustered, hard lives of the people living in remote Iceland at the time. Such a harsh, difficult, inhospitable place to live. So hard just to survive there. Hannah Kent does an amazing job of making you feel like you're right there in the cramped badstofa (a combined living/sleeping area where all the people of the farm lived, masters and servants alike). Hannah makes us realise what a stifling existence their lives were, with no privacy possible.

The other thing that I thought about a lot while I was listening to Burial Rites was the history of "justice" over time. We get things wrong even now with all of our forensics and technology, how many centuries of injustice have been handed out by superstitious folks?

Burial Rites is deservedly already being studied in schools. It's so fantastic. See Hannah's FAQ.  If like me you are one of the few people left who hadn't read it then rush to your bookshop or library right now and get a copy. At first I wasn't sold on the premise of Hannah's second book, The Good People, also set in the 1820s but in Ireland this time- the story of three women and a child with some magical elements I believe, generally not an appealing type of story to me, but I'm so in love with Burial Rites that I'm now intrigued and will trust Hannah to tell another amazing tale with her breathtaking prose.

In Iceland in September there was a retrial of Agnes and her Fridrik Sigurdsson, news reports say that Iceland was "riveted". Although it seems that the murders of Natan and Pétur and the subsequent executions of Agnes and Fridrik are not forgotten in Iceland I do wonder if the retrial would have garnered such interest without such a sympathetic portrayal of Agnes in Burial Rites.

I was surprised to read in the Author's Note at the end of Burial Rites that Hannah says that she wrote the book to write a "more ambiguous portrayal" of Agnes. Which I was confused about initially, but most of the portrayals of Agnes have apparently conveyed her as an evil figure and she has repeatedly said that she wanted to create an empathetic, rather than a sympathetic portrayal of Agnes. I thought the book did give a rather sympathetic  view of Agnes, not in a sentimental way, just that Agnes was trapped by the circumstances of her birth, her personal history, her gender and status as a servant. 

We live in such a magical age wherein we can so easily see some of Hannah Kent's own photos of Iceland, the site of the murders, the site of Agnes's execution. There is lots of content online.

I will treasure my now autographed copy of Burial Rites, and will hope to reread it sometime. 

http://australianwomenwriters.com

Book Launch - The Sorry Tale of Fox & Bear

Last week I was very lucky and got to attend the regional launch of The Sorry Tale of Fox & Bear. 

This was a very special event. The Sorry Tale of Fox & Bear is the first book published by Dirt Lane Press, a new publisher based in Orange, NSW. Naturally I became a friend of Dirt Lane Press as soon as I heard about it last year. 

There was lots of delicious, organic local wine. I believe that there was white wine as well, but I didn't notice. 

I don't believe I'd had this before,
but took quite a liking to it 

Special guest Freya Blackwood
was there to launch the book

Mark MacLeod, Margrete Lamond and Heather Vallance

 The launch was held at the new Botanica Flora, and was also the opening of an exhibition of the gorgeous art work Heather Vallance made for The Sorry Tale of Fox & Bear.

http://australianwomenwriters.com

Saturday Snapshot is a wonderful weekly memenow hosted by WestMetroMommy

Wasted

Elspeth Muir's Wasted was long listed for the Stella Award 2017. For some reason it really called to me to read it. I really like the double entendre title, although not the cover particularly, and didn't really know much more about the book than the subtitle: A story of alcohol, grief and a death in Brisbane.  I almost got to see Elspeth talk at Newcastle Writer's Festival this year, but sadly didn't manage it.

Wasted is part-memoir, part-nonfiction and grew from Elspeth's grief, despair and anger at the death of her youngest brother, Alexander. 

My brother died because he was drunk, and because the drink made him stupid. 

Alexander had quite the proclivity for drinking, he started sneaking out of home to drink from the age of 13. A year before he was to drown in the Brisbane River at 21, Alexander woke up one morning passed out under the mangroves of the river bank. 

I thought this was hilarious. 

Elspeth documents her own hazardous drinking in much the same way. 

I drank more than ever. On rare nights I could remember getting home but usually I had no idea what had happened past midnight. I shed personal objects- cards, wallets and phones. I spent Saturdays and Sundays vomiting bile into a saucepan. I started to feel darkness when I drank: a grasping, anxious slide from euphoria into deep nervous anger. It started with small tendrils of anxiety, then my breath became shallow and I started kicking as hard as I could to stay afloat. I drank more to stave off the fall but it was inevitable, and drinking more just made me black out. 

Alexander drank heavily, he had frequent blackouts and would often disappear for days at a time. He was arrested for the first time at just fifteen, and had some minor skirmishes with the police. Of course many young Australians drink this way, most will survive it, some don't, and her brother was one of the unlucky ones.  Each week one young Australian between 16 and 25 will die, and more than 60 will be hospitalised from alcohol related incidents. 

Drugs were expensive, and tricky to get because their procurement needed to be planned in advance, but alcohol was cheap- five dollars for a cleanskin, ten for a cask- and there were bottle shops all around us, including a twenty-four-hour one a fifteen minute walk away.

The second half of the book is more nonfiction than memoir, where Elspeth looks at the role of alcohol in our culture. There are interesting discussions about white versus Aboriginal drinking, and Elspeth spends an eyeopening night with Red Frogs volunteers at Schoolies on the Gold Coast. 

Yet there is something unsettling and unsettled about the place of alcohol in Australian society. At its best the drinking culture is characterised by egalitarianism, a laid-back attitude and a spirit of creativity. Australians invented the goon bag and the stubby, while the first tubs of Vegemite were by-products of discarded Carlton and United Brewery yeast. At its worst the nation's drinking can be characterised by violent and recklessness, exclusion and a pattern of boozing to extremes. 

Overall I enjoyed Wasted, especially the memoir sections, at times it was like Elspeth and I lived in the same share households... Wasted casts an interesting light on Australian drinking culture, a culture that I both participate in from time to time (although no longer as enthusiastically as in the past), and see as an observer.

http://australianwomenwriters.com

Welcome to Country

Welcome to Country has been popping up on a few award lists this year so I was keen to read it. Shortlisted for both the Indie Book Awards 2017 and the Crichton Award for New Illustrators 2017 and a CBCA Notable Picture Book of the Year 2017, it obviously needed to be read. 

I really love this illustration, a river at first glance,
but it is a face in the landscape too

A welcome to country ceremony is familiar to all Australians. A ceremony performed at the opening of events and meetings to recognise the traditional custodians of our land. I've been to many welcome to country ceremonies, the last being at the opening of a conference in Sydney in May- it was fantastic! Sometimes a simple speech, at other times they incorporate music or dance. In Sydney in May the man playing the didgeridoo made hand actions to indicate the animals that he was representing in sound. He indicated a kangaroo hopping as he made short sharp sounds and you could almost see the kangaroo jumping across a paddock. It was amazing and I heard the didgeridoo in a way that I'd never heard it before.

Welcome to Country is a picture book interpretation of this tradition. I was excited to think as I looked at the back cover 

and first page of Welcome to Country that this was a bilingual picture book. 

Sadly it's not fully bilingual, I do think that would have been amazing, especially as the theme for Naidoc Week this year is Our Languages Matter. But it is wonderful to see Aboriginal language incorporated in this way. 

Beautifully illustrated by Lisa Kennedy, Welcome to Country is a joy to read. I'm really hope that it is widely adopted and read in schools particularly. 

Great Teachers Notes available here.

I'm very pleased that ANZ Litlovers are once again celebrating Naidoc Week this week with Indigenous Literature Week. There's been quite a few really interesting programs about Aboriginal languages in the media this week including an SBS Feed segment on a program teaching Wiradjuri to all Year 7 kids at Young High School, sadly the video will only be online for a week. RN's Awaye program had a segment Why Indigenous Languages Matter. 

ANZ Litlovers ILW

http://australianwomenwriters.com

Wicker Interview: Anna Walker

I am so very excited and absolutely thrilled to present the inaugural Strong Belief in Wicker Interview! I wasn't particularly planning to conduct any interviews but I read Florette recently (see my review) and I was absolutely entranced. The Paris location, the charming illustrations and story. All so perfect. 

I began thinking of questions that I would ask author and illustrator Anna Walker if I had the opportunity, and then I decided to make the opportunity and I contacted Anna. Anna Walker was very gracious with her time and agreed to my interview, and shared lots of wonderful images showing her creative process writing and illustrating Florette. 

Is there a reason that you didn’t specifically mention Paris within the text or illustrations?

Paris is such a beautiful and evocative city that I wanted to give the reader a sense of place through the imagery. I try to use words sparingly and let the illustrations tell the story too. 

Do you see Florette as a particularly Parisian story? Could it have been set in Melbourne for instance?

Paris seemed like the perfect setting as this was where the idea came from. I don’t think Florette could be set in Melbourne as we don’t have the density of city living that I needed to express. I considered other European cities along with Copenhagen but kept coming back to Paris as there is an intimacy in the layered apartments that lent itself to the surroundings I needed for Mae.

Have you travelled to Paris? Do you have any favourite gardens or other spots in Paris?

I have been to Paris a few times. Most recently I travelled with my family which became the inspiration for the story. We were on our way to the Louvre when we passed a shop window filled with plants. It was a brief moment but one that I thought about later, being fascinated by the idea of a forest in a city.

One of my favourite places to visit in Paris is the Luxembourg Gardens. We spent time there on our last trip, we loved the tiny boats and puppet show, and we all enjoyed sitting under the elm trees for afternoon tea!

As well as Paris, I'm really interested in your design process. I love it when picture books have an illustrators note, it always adds so much for me. I don't know why the publishers don't include that more often. 

These small samples make it look as though the story came together quite simply but in reality there was almost two years of drafts, drawing, searching, painting and distilling ideas to become the story that is Florette! :)

The seed of an idea scribbled

Thumbnail sketches of storyboard

Setting/Place working drawings

Playing with characters and colours

Mae in her little outfit

Playing with colours

Final city colours

Working on roughs

Rainy courtyard final illustration
-developed from rough

Cover idea

Final cover

Could you describe your creative process for us? As an author/illustrator do you write the text first? Or do the words and pictures come together in an organic way?

When I think of an idea for a story it is always takes the form of an image first. The words develop in an organic way as I think about how the story will be told. All I had in the beginning for Florette was a tiny scribble of a shop window and a terrarium. 

What illustrative techniques/media did you use in Florette? 

The illustrative techniques I used in Florette was watercolour, ink, pencil and collage. The illustrations were layered together to create the final artwork. 

How long did it take you to create Florette?

Illustrating the story took approximately one year. A bit longer if you include pulling the words into shape!

Did you have a childhood love of reading, drawing and creativity?

My childhood was all about reading, drawing and making things! My mum was a librarian during my early childhood so I spent many happy hours at the library pouring over books. I drew constantly and loved making things for my doll’s house. I believed in fairies and created tiny homes for them in the garden. Illustrating children’s books is a joyful way of playing in that world that I love.

What were your favourite books as a child? Do you feel that they’ve influenced your work?

Some of my favourite books as a child were:

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Madeleine by Ludwig Bemelmans  (I visited The Carlyle in NY last year to see Ludwig's paintings and hear heavenly jazz!)

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig

Winnie the Pooh by A.A.Milne

These books and others have become part of my personal story. I think they shape the books I make today. I am inspired by the craftsmanship, the tradition, the bravery, the clear voice that rings out in these special books that is an art form in itself.

Do you read picture books?

I do read picture books! I love them.

Who are your favourite picture book authors or illustrators?

There are so many illustrators and authors making exciting stories. It’s always hard to only name a few.

Davina Bell and Alyson Colpoy’s ‘Under the Love Umbrella’ is one of my current favourites. I am looking forward to seeing Laura Carlin’s new book 'King of the Sky'. I covet my copy of 'Du Iz Tak?' by Carson Ellis and am constantly inspired by the work of Kitty Crowther.

Thank you so much to Anna Walker for her generosity with her time, her words and her images. Florette is even more fascinating to me now. And I've added more to my TBR as I haven't read any of Anna Walker's favourite picture books, nor even heard of some of those authors and illustrators. 

http://australianwomenwriters.com

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog  

The Helen 100

I was young once and I used to listen to JJJ back in the day and remember Helen Razer and her wit and humour from that time. But I'd kind of lost track of her for some years. It turns out she's written quite a few books now. Recently I saw this new release sitting on the shelves at my bookshop and I just had to buy it. I do suspect that if I hadn't been through my own rather recent breakup I may not have snatched it off the shelf quite so quickly, or read it so very soon. I can see a pattern emerging of reading books about misery and despair. 

The Helen 100 recounts the year or so after the end of Helen's fifteen year relationship. Helen's ex left her reasonably suddenly one afternoon with an 'I need to grow' speech. Helen falls to the floor with her cat, Eleven, and a home delivered chicken. I'm pretty sure I've lived in a small town for too long as I was most astonished by the concept of the home delivered roast chicken in this particular scenario. 

Helen felt burdened by the expectation that her same sex relationship should not fail. 

That my particular desertion happened to be of a homosexual flavour intensified my shame and my impatience with view on sexuality generally. 'Lesbians' are really not supposed to break up, these days. They are supposed to stay together forever and provide an inspiring liberal example to others. And, this, notwithstanding my actual intention to stay together forever, was an attitude that really ticked me off.

At least I didn't have to feel representative for my own particular subculture. Just one of the 40% or so of heterosexual marriages (the only sort allowed in Australia) that ends in divorce. 

At some point, gay became the new beige and we are today the class doomed to revive the discarded dream of marriage. We are the people charged with conspicuous carriage of rainbow babies in expensive baby slings. 

Helen launches herself into the world of XXX dating apps to achieve her waxer's advice to go on 100 dates in a year. It is a world of which I was blissfully unaware, and which sounds particularly awful. She then baulks at the punctuation, spelling and grammar of her online contacts which isn't too successful a strategy for obtaining dates electronically.

I don't particularly like to think of myself as too much of a prude but I was often quite uncomfortable reading The Helen 100. Too much of the book was way over beyond the wrong side of Too Much Information. I kept reading because a) well I'd started and b) I really did still like Helen's voice. She has a vast vocabulary and powerful wit. There just aren't enough books using words like jejune, badinage or tonsure these days. 

And well, she did warn us, right there on the cover - Helen took her waxer's advice. And Bam, there she is on page one at the waxer's, having her lady parts waxed by the same waxer who also waxed her recently departed partner's intimate places. Oh what a complex world we live in.

I think I can take some of Helen's advice though (well actually her grandmother's advice):

Public Service Announcement: Have a bath

It has taken me decades of more everyday conflict to see that a nice bath can make life easier. It doesn't fix everything but it can fix a fuck of a lot. 

I haven't had a bath in some years, I think it's time. 

Listen to Richard Fidler's recent Conversation with Helen Razer which finally does explain why the cat is called Eleven. It's rather obvious actually. 

http://australianwomenwriters.com

Squishy Taylor and the First Three Adventures

I'd never heard of Squishy Taylor or any of her Adventures until the first story, Squishy Taylor and the Bonus Sisters, was nominated for the Readings Prize this year. Then Squishy and her Bonus Sisters turned up as a Notable Book for the CBCA Book of the Year Younger Readers list. Squishy definitely needed to be checked out.

Squishy Taylor is a new(ish) series from Melbourne writer and acrobat Ailsa Wild. There are six books in the series now I think. I read a volume that combines the first three books. Each book is about 120 pages, and involves Squishy and her sisters solving a mystery. 

Squishy is an 11 year old girl who lives with her blended family in a rather crowded Melbourne apartment. Her mum lives works for the UN in Geneva, and she lives with her dad, her stepmother Alice, her two bonus (twin) stepsisters, and her half brother Baby. That's some complicated family logistics right there. Squishy is of course a nickname, her real name is Sita which is her In Trouble name. Squishy is mixed race, her mum is Indian and her father caucasian, while her step mother and step-sisters are Asian.

In Squishy Taylor and the Bonus Sisters Squishy finds a boy living in the basement car park of her building. In Squishy Taylor and a Question of Trust there are diamond thieves about in Melbourne, and in Squishy Taylor and the Vase that Wasn't a valuable Chinese vase disappears from the apartment building and it seems a Chinese-Warrior ghost took it. 

All three stories are very fun, and a breeze to read. The text is broken up by words or phrases in a bigger different font (I've tried to find what that is called- it must be called something?), and there are fabulous illustrations throughout by Ben Wood. Ben shares how he designed Squishy here. 

The Melbourne setting is great. The girls travel about on the tram quite freely. In the first book Squishy hasn't really settled in with her step family yet since she moved in seven and a half weeks ago. She doesn't get along with her twin stepsisters, because "they are about 95% annoying and 5% really, really annoying" which is awkward when all three share the same room, and indeed a triple bunk bed. The girls do come together over their first adventure, and then share the exploits in the following books. It's a great idea to have Squishy live in a large apartment building, there's always a lot going on, and kids always notice the comings and goings of other resident, and know who's who in their surroundings. 

The Squishy Taylor series is a fabulous new series for young readers. I guess the covers will appeal to girls more as there is quite a bit of pink but there is plenty to appeal to boys too, with regular rock climbing, ninja tricks in and out of bed and plenty of action and often quite daring stunts required to solve the mysteries. 

http://australianwomenwriters.com

Florette

I didn't know a lot about Florette before I picked it up recently. I'd seen the cover a few times somewhere, maybe in a catalogue, or on a blog, and just knew that it would be charming. All that green on the cover is so pretty, so lush, so inviting. Florette just asks to be opened. The endpapers are just as green, just as delightful, and have a few hidden animals to delight young readers and old women.

Green is so hard to photograph
The illustration is so much more lush

And naturally, I liked the name, Florette, which sounds somewhat French. I though that the child would be called Florette, but no, her name is Mae.

Mae and her family leave behind their country home with their apple trees and daffodils and move to the city.

Mae is sad that her new home has parks filled with tiny stones and empty chairs. She tries to recreate gardens and nature in the city.

Until she finds a beautiful enclosed garden called Florette. Florette is a beautiful book about the love of nature and the power of a one child's imagination to change the world.

As I read it I was increasingly sure that the city was Paris.

Haussmann style

It had to be Paris. Even though there is no specific mention of it, the imagery is so Paris. Or do I just see Paris everywhere?

You certainly can't walk on the grass in Paris

The chairs. The chairs.
Does anywhere else have Paris park chairs?

And no. I'm not imagining it!

The launch of Florette was an amazingly green event with library bags made with that amazing endpaper greenery gorgeousness. Jealous.

Best Book Trailer Ever?

Anna Walker is an author and illustrator based in Melbourne. She had great success last year with Mr Huff. Florette is released in Australia now but not released in the US until April 2018. I don't understand why publishers do that. Why wait a year to publish it in another market?

http://australianwomenwriters.com

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog  

The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen

I vaguely remember this book being published in 2009. I remember some intriguing reviews, and  liking the cover. Then I bought a copy of the audiobook at a used book sale in the Blue Mountains at least a year ago. Recently I found the audiobook again and one day popped it on in the car. I don't usually like listening to fiction. I find I get distracted and in fiction that matters more than nonfiction. But I (mostly) paid attention to The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen read by the talented Lucy Bell. Perhaps I'm getting better at audiobooks of whatever format. 

Twelve year old Aurelie Bonhoffen lives with her family on Gribblesea Pier. The Bonhoffen family have been running the fair on the pier for 100 years. But it is falling on hard times. The pier is in need  of major repairs and her family are struggling to keep up. 

I was in from the very start.

The girl lay in her coffin with a faint smile on her powder white face. She had been carefully laid out.  Gentle hands smoothed down her white silk dress, combed her soft curls, and brushed on her make up so that her cheeks looked like two faintly pink cherry blossoms. 

It's an intriguing start. The book is peopled with such wonderful Dickensian names- To and Fro the trapeze artists, Aurelie's school principal Mrs Farnhumple, and her teacher Miss Miel, surely a nod to that most lovely of teachers- Miss Honey from Roald Dahl's Matilda. The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen is a modern story set in England, but it is almost timeless, just a few mentions of cars to give it a modern feel. 

The Bonhoffen Seaside Pier location was inspired by Brighton Pier. Aurelie's family have lived on the Pier and worked the amusements there for 100 years. Time has taken it's toll though and the Pier has become a bit run down, and their are forces in town that would have the Bonhoffens removed from the Pier. 

It's beautifully descriptive but with action too. 

She stepped away from Argus' office and walked past the amusement arcade with its painted castle facade.  She noticed the flags were frayed and torn. One of the turrets had been worn through and was now home for a family of pigeons. Her eyes drifted to the merry-go-round. The noses of the horses were chipped, and so were their bellies where shoes had kicked into them from the stirrups. 

This book was published as The Ghosts of Gribblesea Pier in the US. I think The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen to be a vastly superior name. I'm not sure that I would have wanted to read it so much if I had known that this was a "ghost story". I feel that I outgrew ghost stories some decades ago. Having said that I ended up really enjoying it all even the ghostly aspects of the story. 

This is my first read of Deborah Abela, but I know it won't be my last. I'm very much looking forward to reading more of her work. 

Teachers notes for The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen

http://australianwomenwriters.com