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image of person or book cover 5892178194580624890.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon One Life : My Mother's Story single work   biography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2015... 2015 One Life : My Mother's Story
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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)

Exhibitions

17253996
17024147

Notes

  • Dedication:

    For Stephen

    and in memory of Christopher

    with my love

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2015 .
      image of person or book cover 5892178194580624890.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 257p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 25 March 2015
      ISBN: 9781922182050
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2016 .
      image of person or book cover 8556082444593246639.jpg
      Extent: 272p.
      Note/s:
      • Published April 2016
      ISBN: 9781925240962, 9781925095050

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.

Works about this Work

Discarding the Disclaimer? Reappraising Fiction as a Mode of Biography James Vicars , 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 Kate Livett , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 75 no. 2 2016; (p. 268-270)

— Review of Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather Karen Lamb , 2015 single work biography ; One Life : My Mother's Story Kate Grenville , 2015 single work biography ; Wild Bleak Bohemia : Marcus Clarke, Adam Lindsay Gordon and Henry Kendall - A Documentary Michael Wilding , 2014 single work biography
y separately published work icon One Life : My Mother's Story by Kate Grenville Kay Perry , Melbourne : CAE Book Group , 2015 9463693 2015 single work criticism
Best Reads – End of Story Deborah Bogle , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 20 December 2015; (p. 24)
Book Review : One Life: My Mother's Story Maryanne Vagg , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Good Reading , June 2015; (p. 59)

— Review of One Life : My Mother's Story Kate Grenville , 2015 single work biography
Review : One Life : My Mother's Story Joanne Shiells , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , vol. 94 no. 3 2015; (p. 23)

— Review of One Life : My Mother's Story Kate Grenville , 2015 single work biography
Life Reflected in Fragments Miriam Cosic , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 28-29 March 2015; (p. 21)

— Review of One Life : My Mother's Story Kate Grenville , 2015 single work biography
The Myths and Legacy of Family Literary Love Runs in the Family Peter Craven , 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 Kate Grenville , 2015 single work biography
A Woman of Substance Fiona Purdon , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 4 April 2015; (p. 14-15)

— Review of One Life : My Mother's Story Kate Grenville , 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 Eleanor Limprecht , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 20 April 2015; (p. 17)

— Review of One Life : My Mother's Story Kate Grenville , 2015 single work biography
Best Reads – End of Story Deborah Bogle , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 20 December 2015; (p. 24)
y separately published work icon One Life : My Mother's Story by Kate Grenville Kay Perry , Melbourne : CAE Book Group , 2015 9463693 2015 single work criticism
Discarding the Disclaimer? Reappraising Fiction as a Mode of Biography James Vicars , 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)
Last amended 29 Oct 2019 11:36:06
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