AustLit

'You look into the mirror. There are a number around the house every now and then one of them becomes an attraction. Your skin is clear. Your hair is thick. The face looking back at you is as it should be when you are about to step outside. A bit serious perhaps. You think, while somehow entranced by the enigma of yourself in reverse image, that you'd better get a move on - but you don't think, in this, the twentieth year of your life, goodness, don't I look young. That's one thing, in front of a mirror, you have never thought and, personal history suggests, vanity notwithstanding, won't ever.' (Introduction)

'November 1952 : Bernard Marks has just arrived in northern Egypt from Salford, in the north of England, to begin two years of National Service in the Suez Canal Zone. Faced with a rising tide of Egyptian nationalism, Britain - its empire still largely intact - is determined to retain control of the strategic waterway linking Europe to the oilfields of the Middle East. Sixty thousand British and colonial troops are stationed in the Canal Zone, their camps and trucks coming under periodic attack. In Cairo, Gamal Abdel Nasser is consolidating power. The Suez Crisis is four years off.' (Introduction)

'When I turned sixty last year, I entered a year's worth of birthday celebrations with friends to mark the milestone. I was the first cab of the rank in March, with other birthday celebrations punctuating the subsequent months. There were seven of us in total, born in 1959, the same year as Barbie. To have your life run parallel to a plastic icon is more than a little strange, and although I may not have reached the heights of some of her sixtieth anniversary incarnations, such as Astronaut Barbie, I have tried to do my bit in the battle for gender equality waged by so many.' (Introduction)

'In 1975, just before my sixteenth birthday, I read in the summer issue of Dolly magazine that everyone needed some 'me' time. This sounded grown-up, enticing. The editor suggested checking into a hotel to unwind.'

'A few years ago, a pretty young woman approached me in the lunch room of the building where I began work on my novel, The Weekend (Allen & Unwin, 2019).