AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Nance was a week short of her sixth birthday when she and Frank were roused out of bed in the dark and lifted into the buggy, squashed in with bedding, the cooking pots rattling around in the back, and her mother shouting back towards the house: Goodbye, Rothsay, I hope I never see you again!
'When Kate Grenville’s mother died she left behind many fragments of memoir. These were the starting point for One Life, the story of a woman whose life spanned a century of tumult and change. In many ways Nance’s story echoes that of many mothers and grandmothers, for whom the spectacular shifts of the twentieth century offered a path to new freedoms and choices. In other ways Nance was exceptional. In an era when women were expected to have no ambitions beyond the domestic, she ran successful businesses as a registered pharmacist, laid the bricks for the family home, and discovered her husband’s secret life as a revolutionary.
'One Life is an act of great imaginative sympathy, a daughter’s intimate account of the patterns in her mother’s life. It is a deeply moving homage by one of Australia’s finest writers.' (Publication summary)
Notes
-
Dedication:
For Stephen
and in memory of Christopher
with my love
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Discarding the Disclaimer? Reappraising Fiction as a Mode of Biography
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , April vol. 20 no. 1 2016; 'While the biographical novel has created an openness to representing lives in fiction it is usually expected to provide a disclaimer certifying the work’s unreliability despite its potential for truth-telling and rich tools for writers wishing to tell the stories of real people. Even so, more serious attention to the historical novel since Lukács, the impact of the postmodern novel, plus the variety of published works that have adopted fictional strategies to tell lives over the last half century suggest this perspective is shifting. Using Ina Schabert’s seminal work on fictional biography as a scholarly reference point, this paper explores fiction’s biographical capacity, turning to published works and personal writing practice to try to reappraise the potential of fiction as a mode of biography.' (Publication abstract) -
Three Biographies
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 75 no. 2 2016; (p. 268-270)
— Review of Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather 2015 single work biography ; One Life : My Mother's Story 2015 single work biography ; Wild Bleak Bohemia : Marcus Clarke, Adam Lindsay Gordon and Henry Kendall - A Documentary 2014 single work biography - y One Life : My Mother's Story by Kate Grenville Melbourne : CAE Book Group , 2015 9463693 2015 single work criticism
-
Best Reads – End of Story
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 20 December 2015; (p. 24) -
Book Review : One Life: My Mother's Story
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Good Reading , June 2015; (p. 59)
— Review of One Life : My Mother's Story 2015 single work biography
-
Review : One Life : My Mother's Story
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , vol. 94 no. 3 2015; (p. 23)
— Review of One Life : My Mother's Story 2015 single work biography -
Life Reflected in Fragments
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 28-29 March 2015; (p. 21)
— Review of One Life : My Mother's Story 2015 single work biography -
The Myths and Legacy of Family
Literary Love Runs in the Family
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4-5 April 2015; (p. 32) The Canberra Times , 1 April 2015; (p. 19) The Age , 4 April 2015; (p. 32)
— Review of One Life : My Mother's Story 2015 single work biography -
A Woman of Substance
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 4 April 2015; (p. 14-15)
— Review of One Life : My Mother's Story 2015 single work biography 'Kate Grenville's latest book pays homage to the powerful influence her trailblazing mother had on her life and writing career...' -
Grenville Inhabits Her Mother's Life
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 20 April 2015; (p. 17)
— Review of One Life : My Mother's Story 2015 single work biography -
Best Reads – End of Story
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 20 December 2015; (p. 24) - y One Life : My Mother's Story by Kate Grenville Melbourne : CAE Book Group , 2015 9463693 2015 single work criticism
-
Discarding the Disclaimer? Reappraising Fiction as a Mode of Biography
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , April vol. 20 no. 1 2016; 'While the biographical novel has created an openness to representing lives in fiction it is usually expected to provide a disclaimer certifying the work’s unreliability despite its potential for truth-telling and rich tools for writers wishing to tell the stories of real people. Even so, more serious attention to the historical novel since Lukács, the impact of the postmodern novel, plus the variety of published works that have adopted fictional strategies to tell lives over the last half century suggest this perspective is shifting. Using Ina Schabert’s seminal work on fictional biography as a scholarly reference point, this paper explores fiction’s biographical capacity, turning to published works and personal writing practice to try to reappraise the potential of fiction as a mode of biography.' (Publication abstract)
Awards
- 2016 shortlisted ASAL Awards — The Australian Historical Association Awards — Magarey Medal for Biography
- 2016 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
- 2016 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian General Non-Fiction Book of the Year
- 2016 shortlisted Indie Awards — Nonfiction