Sunday Blog 233 – 10th May 2026 There is a trigger warning for this post which contains the details and reflections of sexual assault. Please take care when reading or scroll on by if this is not for you. “One day this date won’t mean anything. You won’t even remember it.” So said a friend …
Tag Archives: Memoir
New Salt Path revelations…
Sunday Blog 227 – 22nd March 2026 When The Observer article first dropped in July 2025, questioning the truth of the memoir The Salt Path, I was riveted. The article is entitled ‘The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were spun from lies, deceit and desperation.’ Let me summarise for you. The Salt Path author’s nom-de-plume is …
Never a Cross Word
Sunday Blog 218 – 18th January 2026 Like many teachers, my parents married in January. On an excruciatingly hot January day they embarked on more than six decades of wedded bliss adventure. The in-joke each anniversary was like a nervous tick “X number of years and Never a Cross Word.” For their fiftieth wedding anniversary …
Memory Jar
Sunday Blog 216 – 4th January 2026 Last week I tantalised with a picture of the contents from my 2025 memory jar; this week I thought I would write them out like pearls. Here goes. This is such an incomplete list of 2025 highlights. It cuts out before the August and September trip to Ireland, …
Notes from our past selves
Sunday Blog 209 – 16th November 2025 Last week I noted that my mother was a diarist. She also obsessively catalogued her photos. Even, or perhaps especially the unflattering ones. Aesthetics were not her jam; it was all about capturing the moment. I have ended up with the floor to just-about-ceiling bookshelf stuffed with her …
Having a say
Sunday Blog 207 – 2nd November 2025 This Sunday Blog comes with a trigger warning. I’m going to talk about sexual assault so if that is not the right topic for you today, please scroll on. This week I had a major breakthrough with a stale writing goal. The kind that gets written out in …
That’s more like it…
Sunday Blog 201 – 21st September 2025 The Greek writing retreat I’ve been immersed in since last week has many repeat customers, including me. This is my third time at Limnisa, near Methana in Greece. With its ocean, olive trees, choice of apartment living or retreat centre it’s the perfect mix for me. Memories of …
Dates remembered
Sunday Blog 196 – 3rd August 2025 On the 3rd of August 1979, I was fourteen years old, and I’d never left Australia. I was about to head off for sixteen glorious weeks in Europe with my parents and my (plentiful) siblings. I flicked through the photo album from that time today, marinading in the …
Kalgoorlie dreaming
Sunday Blog 195 – 27th July 2025 This week I had a mini-break in the mining town of Kalgoorlie, a 6-hour train ride from Perth. Kalgoorlie was my home from age 8 months to 3 years. No, I don’t remember it really. But I also went on several work trips there in 1988 and 1989 …
A lesson in longing
Sunday Blog 188 – 8th June 2025 In this post-birthday week I’ve been enjoying some guilt-free voucher purchases, and bought a copy of Hannah Kent’s memoir Always Home, Always Homesick. It’s a compelling book unpacking her student exchange experience in Iceland in 2003 which inspired her first novel, Burial Rites. The true story of the …