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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'The only child of two famous but self-absorbed artists, Zelda Steele is adopted by her parent's patrons when she is just a baby. Great things are expected of this privileged young woman, but at twenty-seven Zelda is dead, leaving two young children and a body of work that only hints at her promise.
'Years later, Zelda's daughter Ruth returns to her childhood home to find the diaries her mother is rumoured to have kept. What they reveal will send Ruth on a journey into the past - and transform her future in ways she can't even begin to imagine.
'Weaving together the narratives of three very different women, living in vastly different times, The Steele Diaries paints a rich and evocative portrait of the Sydney art scene from the thirties to the seventies, and examines the eternal conflict between maternity and creativity, motherhood and self.' (Publisher's blurb)
Notes
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Dedication: For Sam, Abi, Nell and Will : 90% inspiration; 10% perspiration (or thereabouts...)
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Epigraph: 'Now where should the effect of black on white, or white on black, begin, and where end? Where should separation appear and where merging?' - Hans Alexander Mueller, How I Make Woodcuts and Wood Engravings.
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Epigraph: 'One's life is not a case except of course it is.' - Les Murray, Three Poems in Memory of My Mother Miriam Murray nee Arnall.
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Epigraph: 'Where have you gone? The tide is over you
The turn of midnight water's over you,
As time is over you, and mystery,
And memory, the flood that does not flow...' - Kenneth Slessor, Five Bells.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Wendy James – Author Interview
2012
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Australian Literature Review , August 2012; -
[Review] The Steele Diaries
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Wet Ink , September no. 16 2009; (p. 64)
— Review of The Steele Diaries 2008 single work novel -
Don't Put a Good Painting in a Cheap Frame
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 23 no. 1 2009; (p. 97-98)
— Review of The Steele Diaries 2008 single work novel -
This Year's Work in Fiction 2008-2009
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Westerly , July vol. 54 no. 1 2009; (p. 51-64)
— Review of The Pages 2008 single work novel ; The Lieutenant 2008 single work novel ; The Spare Room 2008 single work novel ; The Anatomy of Wings 2006 single work novel ; Boy On A Wire 2009 single work novel ; The Sinkings 2008 single work novel ; Bird 2008 single work novel ; One Foot Wrong 2008 single work novel ; Avenue of Eternal Peace 1989 single work novel ; Life in Seven Mistakes 2008 single work novel ; The Steele Diaries 2008 single work novel ; Butterfly 2009 single work novel ; Dissection 2007 single work novel ; Fugitive Blue 2008 single work novel ; Sweet 2008 single work novel ; The Virtuoso 2009 single work novel ; Ransom 2009 single work novel ; The Good Parents 2008 single work novel ; Vertigo : A Pastoral 2008 single work novella ; The Boat 2008 selected work short story ; New Australian Stories 2009 anthology short story ; The Slap 2008 single work novel -
Women Under Pressure
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , July vol. 3 no. 6 2008; (p. 22-23)
— Review of Beneath the Bloodwood Tree 2008 single work novel ; The Steele Diaries 2008 single work novel ; Musk and Byrne 2008 single work novel
-
When the Story Is the Magnet
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 17 May 2008; (p. 23)
— Review of The Woman in the Lobby 2008 single work novel ; Nocturne : A Novel 2008 single work novel ; The Steele Diaries 2008 single work novel -
Thoroughly Modernist Capers
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 302 2008; (p. 28)
— Review of The Steele Diaries 2008 single work novel -
More Than a Romance
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 14 June 2008; (p. 10)
— Review of The Steele Diaries 2008 single work novel ; The Nearly Happy Family 2008 single work novel -
Take Three
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: Sunday Canberra Times , 22 June 2008; (p. 21)
— Review of The Steele Diaries 2008 single work novel -
Women Under Pressure
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , July vol. 3 no. 6 2008; (p. 22-23)
— Review of Beneath the Bloodwood Tree 2008 single work novel ; The Steele Diaries 2008 single work novel ; Musk and Byrne 2008 single work novel -
Wendy James – Author Interview
2012
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Australian Literature Review , August 2012;
Last amended 30 Jul 2021 06:47:29
Settings:
- Sydney, New South Wales,
- 1930s
- 1940s
- 1950s
- 1960s
- 1970s
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