I’ve had Simon Mawer’s The Girl Who Fell from the Sky on my ever-groaning TBR since mid 2013, purchased as soon as I saw it because I really liked The Glass Room which was nominated for the Booker.  (See my review).  What prompted me to read it now was that the sequel Tightropehas just been released and I wanted to start with the war time exploits of Marion Sutro before reading about her Cold War career…

My father is going to love this book.  Published for some reason also under the title Trapeze in some editions, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is unputdownable.  I mean that: I started reading it at bedtime and didn’t turn out the light until I’d finished the book some six hours later.  And my heart was still thudding from the tension of the last few pages…

Marion Sutro is the bilingual…

It’s only a day or two since I read Simon Mawer’s The Girl Who Fell from the Sky (see my review) but I liked it so much I went straight to the newly published sequel Tightropeand finished it this morning.

The novel opens many years after the end of the war when Marion Sutro is an elderly woman meeting up again with Sam Wareham, twenty years her junior and still somewhat star-struck by this enigmatic heroine of WW2.  This opening enables Mawer to fill in the backstory so that Tightrope can be read independently of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky which covers her exploits for the British in Occupied France.  The action of the novel then returns to the last year of the war after Marion has escaped from Nazi captivity in Ravensbrück and her journey of physical and mental recovery from torture and trauma.

This novel is not as engaging…

Thousands of people have great vision and message to share with the world but lack the simple basics of effective communication. If you want help or want to be heard you need to learn how to communicate effectively.

How to communicate effectively

1. Simplify your message

Forget about all the big words, fancy jargon you know and complex sentences. say what you want to say. Keep it simple and clear. Speak in the language they understand, speak to their hearts

2. Know the person you are talking to

Don’t assume things about the person you are talking to. If you need help from someone, know exactly what you need with and ask accordingly

3. Show the truth

Believe in what you are saying and live what you say. Your words and actions should always be aligned and say the same thing. Be true to yourself, don’t pretend to be someone…

The Wicked King

By: Holly Black

Me: I’m not really bothered by anything in books anymore. Nothing surprises me.

Character burns childhood stuffed animals.

Me: That is the epitome of evil!

I would probably never have bothered to read this book if it hadn’t been written by the noted Australian biographer, Hazel Rowley (1951-2011). For a start, as an Australian I am naturally more interested in reading about our political leaders than American ones, but also I’m not interested in their private lives at all because I believe it’s none of my business, nor anyone else’s.

However I was attracted to Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage when I saw it at the library because it had received considerable publicity at the time of Rowley’s premature death last year and had received generous reviews. It turned out to be well worth reading, partly because it’s so well-written but also because it traverses territory that transcends the individuals concerned.

Franklin and Eleanor is about what is nowadays called an ‘open marriage‘, that is, one in which the couple tacitly or…

The 2019 Hazel Rowley Fellowship shortlist has been announced.  The Fellowship, established in memory of Hazel Rowley (1951–2011) awards $15,000 to an Australian biographer.

Hazel Rowley wrote four critically-acclaimed biographies before her sudden death in 2011:

• Christina Stead: A Biography (1993), see my review;
• Richard Wright: The Life and Times (2001);
• Tête-à-Tête: The Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre (2005) and
• Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage (2010) see my review.

The 2019 nominees are

• Maggie Tonkin (SA) for a biography of Australian choreographer Meryl Tankard
• Brigitta Olubas (NSW) for a biography of writer Shirley Hazzard
• Eleanor Hogan (NT) for her project on the friendship between Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates
• Stephenie Cahalan (TAS) writing about artist Jean Belette, ‘The Modern Woman of Australian Modernism’
• Gabrielle Carey (NSW) for a biography of Elizabeth von Arnim
• James Boyce (TAS) for a new biography of Governor Lachlan Macquarie
• James…