AustLit

'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)