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'How does a daughter tell the story of her father?
Sheila Fitzpatrick was taught from an early age to question authority. She learnt it from her father, the journalist and radical historian Brian Fitzpatrick. But very soon, she began to turn her questioning gaze on him.
Teasing apart the many layers of memory, Fitzpatrick reveals a complex portrait of an Australian family against a Cold War backdrop. As her relationship with her father fades from girlhood adoration to adolescent scepticism, she flees Melbourne for Oxford to start a new life. But it's not so easy to escape being her father's daughter.
My Father's Daughter is a vivid evocation of an Australian childhood; a personal memoir told with the piercing insight of a historian.' (From the publisher's website.)
Notes
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Dedication: To my brother
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Writing History/Writing about Yourself : What’s the Difference?
single work
criticism
'According to Philippe Lejeune, writers of autobiography implicitly sign a pact with the reader to tell the truth, or at least the truth as they know it, about themselves.2 That is, primarily a subjective truth. As for facts, the expectation is presumably that autobiographers will convey the facts as they know or remember them, but without a necessary obligation to check their memory through documentary or other research. There is no autobiographer’s commitment to objectivity, rather the contrary. The autobiographical truth is, by definition, a subjective one.' (Introduction)
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Walvin, Fitzpatrick and Rickard : Three Autobiographies of Childhood and Coming of Age
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Clio’s Lives : Biographies and Autobiographies of Historians 2017; (p. 39-64)'Once a comparatively rare beast, historians’ autobiographies are becoming prevalent to the point of being commonplace. Since the 1980s, such works have crystallised into a genre and have become a historiographic growth area. Limiting the head count to monograph-length works, a dozen historians’ memoirs were published in the 1970s, rising to three dozen in the 1980s, five dozen in the 1990s, and the contributions continue apace. Once on the fringes of the historical enterprise, historians’ memoirs are now edging closer to centre stage. Increasing frequency has lent respectability. There remain significant pockets of resistance, the usual canards being that autobiography is inescapably egotistical, self-indulgent and narcissistic. Nonetheless, the genre is rapidly gaining acceptance and being treated seriously – and not simply historians’ autobiographies but autobiography by academics generally. Almost without exception, historians’ autobiographies contain a chapter or chapters on childhood and coming of age. In parallel with the increasing prevalence of historians’ autobiographies, a subgenre devoted to the childhoods through to the young adulthoods of historians has also become a growth area. We are concerned in this chapter with three such works: Sheila Fitzpatrick’s My Father’s Daughter (2010); John Rickard’s An Imperial Affair (2013); and James Walvin’s Different Times (2014).' (Introduction)
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Demoyte's Grey Suit : Writing Memoirs, Writing History
2014
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 362 2014; (p. 26-30) -
Tears Open Doors
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 21 July 2012; (p. 5) -
Untitled
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Reviews in Australian Studies , vol. 6 no. 1 2012; (p. 1-2)
— Review of My Father's Daughter : Memories of an Australian Childhood 2010 single work autobiography
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Non-Fiction Reviews
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 7 - 8 August 2010; (p. 24)
— Review of My Father's Daughter : Memories of an Australian Childhood 2010 single work autobiography -
Flaws in the Family
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 7 August 2010; (p. 25)
— Review of My Father's Daughter : Memories of an Australian Childhood 2010 single work autobiography -
Cover Notes
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 8 August 2010; (p. 21)
— Review of My Father's Daughter : Memories of an Australian Childhood 2010 single work autobiography ; Holy Water 2010 single work novel ; Spinning Out 2010 single work novel -
Untitled
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , August vol. 90 no. 1 2010; (p. 45)
— Review of My Father's Daughter : Memories of an Australian Childhood 2010 single work autobiography -
Engaging Personal History
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 28 August 2010; (p. 27)
— Review of My Father's Daughter : Memories of an Australian Childhood 2010 single work autobiography -
Sheila Fitzpatrick
2010
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 August 2010; (p. 30) -
Can You Write a History of Yourself
2011
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: Griffith Review , Spring no. 33 2011; -
Tears Open Doors
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 21 July 2012; (p. 5) -
Demoyte's Grey Suit : Writing Memoirs, Writing History
2014
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 362 2014; (p. 26-30) -
Writing History/Writing about Yourself : What’s the Difference?
single work
criticism
'According to Philippe Lejeune, writers of autobiography implicitly sign a pact with the reader to tell the truth, or at least the truth as they know it, about themselves.2 That is, primarily a subjective truth. As for facts, the expectation is presumably that autobiographers will convey the facts as they know or remember them, but without a necessary obligation to check their memory through documentary or other research. There is no autobiographer’s commitment to objectivity, rather the contrary. The autobiographical truth is, by definition, a subjective one.' (Introduction)
Awards
- Melbourne, Victoria,
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cEngland,ccUnited Kingdom (UK),cWestern Europe, Europe,
- 1940s
- 1950s
- 1960s