Circling the SunJuly 2015 | Virago | $29.99pb
The author of The Paris Wife takes readers to the heart of another true story: set in 1920s colonial Kenya, Circling the Sun is about an unforgettable woman who lived by nobody's rules but her own. As a young girl, Beryl Markham was brought to Kenya from Britain by parents dreaming of a new life. For her mother the dream quickly turned sour and she returned home. Beryl was brought up by her father, who switched between indulgence and heavy-handed authority, allowing her first to run wild on their farm, then incarcerating her in the classroom. The scourge of governesses and a serial absconder from boarding school, by the age of sixteen Beryl had been catapulted into a disastrous marriage - but it was in facing up to this reality that she took charge of her own destiny. Scandalizing high society with her errant behaviour, she left her husband and became the first woman ever to hold a professional racehorse trainer's licence. After falling in with the notoriously hedonistic and gin-soaked Happy Valley set, Beryl soon became embroiled in a complex love triangle with the writer Karen Blixen and big game-hunter Denys Finch Hatton (immortalized in Blixen's memoir Out of Africa). It was this unhappy affair which set tragedy in motion, while awakening Beryl to her truest self, and to her fate: to fly.
 |
| BiP staff review by Christine |
Endurance
Tim Griffiths
July 2015 | Allen & Unwin | $29.99pb
Well, what a ride, courtesy of Frank Hurley, photographer-extraordinaire and intrepid adventurer. You know the kind – traipsing through Antarctica with Douglas Mawson in sandshoes and a heavy coat and then, for some light relief, deciding to document the grinding terror that was the Western Front in 1917. Frank Hurley’s life and work have been well documented but Tim Griffiths has imagined his protagonist well, sticking closely to the truth and injecting a big dose of derring-do. If nothing else, Endurance is a great book for winter in Melbourne – it makes you feel that perhaps it is not that cold here after all!
 |
| BiP staff review by Christine |
Flesh Wounds
Richard Glover
Sept 2015 | ABC Books | $29.99pb
Sydney radio presenter and journalist Richard Glover was born into what we might now call a dysfunctional family. His mother concocted a variety of stories about her upbringing, always making it better than it was. His father was a drinker, always searching for happiness after his divorce, with wives, boats and expensive possessions. Richard was an afterthought and never knew his extended family. Conversational and self-effacing in tone, Flesh Wounds follows Richard’s life and search for a family and sense of self. It is a warm, engaging and satisfying book.
Long Bay
 |
| BiP staff review by Christine |
Long Bay
Eleanor Limprecht
Aug 2015 | Sleepers | $24.95pb
I picked this book up because of its intriguing cover and was not disappointed. The novel is based on Rebecca Sinclair, who was born into poverty in Sydney in 1885. She learned dressmaking skills at her widowed mother’s knee, unknowingly married a bigamist and ended up in Long Bay Women’s Reformatory after a short-lived career as an abortionist. The author has researched her subject thoroughly and this results in a satisfying and fascinating story. In this case you can judge a book by its cover.
