Creative nonfiction - Ashley Hay's Gum: The Story of Eucalypts & their Champions

One of the few male participants in the AWW challenge, Mark Web, yesterday posted an interesting blog about his participation in the challenge. In his post, "In which I become less impressed with my AWWC achievements", Mark notes that, while completing the challenge and achieving his goal of reading and reviewing ten books by women, he gained the impression that he was reading a majority of women writers this year, but his actual tally for reading came out at, roughly, 50/50. His experience demonstrates just how insidious and tenacious unconscious gender bias can be.

As part of my task hosting the AWW challenge, I have approached numerous men of my acquaintance over the past six months or more, including a current editor of a kids literary magazine, a high school English teacher, an ex-book seller, the owner of a writing school, a journalist and a psychologist, a geologist and an ex-judge. Of these, only the latter two expressed any interest in reading and reviewing a book written by a woman for this blog; both, it may be significant to add, are retired and have elected to review nonfiction. The others all had good excuses, none of which, they claimed, had anything to do with gender bias. One did say, though, quite unselfconsciously, that he just wasn't that interested in books written by women.

Today's guest reviewer is author Dr John Martyn. He has elected to review Ashley Hay's 2002 nonfiction title, Gum: The Story of Eucalypts and Their Champions (Duffy & Snellgrove, 2002).

Martyn writes:
 
This highly readable book ought to become a classic. While its core theme is the eucalyptus tree in all its diverse forms, more-especially it's about the people who explored, studied, named, championed, painted and caricatured Eucalyptus and its sister genera, and it even extends to those who propagated and sold the trees in Australia and spread them around the globe. It covers a large spread of Australia's post-colonial history from an intriguing and novel angle.

For example, one chapter follows the life of Ferdinand Von Mueller (or "Baron Blue Gum" as he was known) the young German pharmacist and amateur botanist who became a champion of the eucalyptus tree. He established the National Herbarium of Victoria and in 1857 became the first director of Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens. The book also cameos the amazing journeys of Major Thomas Mitchell who accurately surveyed vast tracts of a eucalypt-mantled landscape through which there were almost no roads (and certainly no maps, mobile phones or GPS's to navigate by!). And in which it was often impossible to see the next-nearest hill or ridge-line through a never-ending frieze of forest trees.

These people, and others of their eras, worked amongst a flora that was largely alien to them, across a landscape that was virtually unknown to westerners, whilst also trying to sustain their family relationships at home during long absences in the bush. So as well as covering the establishment of the systematics of a vast and complex flora, the author highlights the ups and downs of their family lives, their interpersonal relationships, their personality quirks and also their inevitable struggles with the bureaucracies and politicians of their day.

The author also reaches into the artistic realm of the eucalypt, which was the subject of many of the magical paintings of artists like Hans Heysen and also the evocative cartoon drawings of May Gibb. Train driver and passionate eucalypt lover Stan Kelly faithfully recorded more than 600 species as watercolours, which have been published in two volumes; he desperately wanted to paint them all except that the botanists were working faster than he was in describing and defining new species, and he had to admit defeat. And the research on this beautiful and sometimes bizarre tree continues – there are decades, probably centuries of study still to be done but, in the meantime, please read this book!

Dr John Martyn was born in Cornwall and came to Australia in 1970 after mapping in the Rift Valley of Kenya for his PhD in geology. Although he has lived in Sydney since 1979, much of his fieldwork as a minerals exploration geologist over the last 30 years has been in Western Australia. He is the author of a number of nonfiction titles, including Field Guide to the Bushland of the Lane Cove Valley and Sydney's Natural World. 

Note: Ashely Hay's 2010 novel, The Body in the Clouds (Allen & Unwin 2010) has been received to great acclaim.

• Longlisted for the 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
• Nominated for the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first novel in the south-east Asia and Pacific Region
• Nominated for the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing in the 2011 NSW Premier's Literary Awards and 
• Shortlisted for the Fiction category of the 2010 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards.

Hay is also the author of a number of nonfiction titles, including The Secret: The Strange Marriage of Annabelle Milbanke & Lord Byron (2000), Herbarium (2004), and Museum: The Macleays, Their Collections, and the Search for Order (2007).

Susanna de Vries' Royal Mistresses of the House of Hanover-Windsor: reviewed by Hazel Edwards

Susanna de Vries is well known for her championing of Australian women in history. Today's guest reviewer, National Year of Reading Ambassador Hazel Edwards, has chosen to review de Vries' new nonfiction title, Royal Mistresses of the House of Hanover-Windsor: Secrets, Scandals and Betrayals. 

‘Every arranged marriage provides a vacancy for a mistress.’ Translation of an old French proverb.

The UK marriage of Prince William and Kate seems a love match.  Charles’ marriage with Diana was arranged.  His ancestors (Hanover to Windsor name change during wartime to remove the apparent Germanic link) married Protestant, European aristocracy for love-less, political reasons, and then kept multiple mistresses.

Former royal marriages were political and religious property arrangements involving land, big dowries, titles and the need for healthy, legitimate male heirs.  The trade of Royal Mistress was precarious, but recognised with temporary prestige and social acceptance.  Thus many of the mistresses sought to accumulate jewels and money before falling from favour and being replaced by a younger model.

In the confusion of titles and names, de Vries tells a readable story, clarifying the roles and contexts. The various, former ‘Princes’ (plural) of Wales seemed to suffer from over- indulgence, lack of a job and the need for the constant attention of a mother-lover mistress who would tolerate gambling, drinking, over-eating and provide all kinds of entertainment to relieve boredom.

Catering for the whims of royalty was a short-term occupation: with easy falls from favour. Hard to say ‘no’ to an all powerful, potential ruler who could ostracise you into poverty, or make your fortune, by providing access to him.

Because the mistresses were so reliant on financial handouts, usually in the form of jewellery, they seemed mercenary, but didn’t have many other options.  Even if they were personable and intelligent, (as well as beautiful and accommodating) they were rarely independent financially. And if a child had to be supported, as in the case of Perdita Robinson who originally had paid work as an actor, and was forced by Prince George of Wales to give up her career, she still lost out on the promised house he was going to gift her. Others had multiple illegitimate children to aristocratic lovers and since DNA testing was not used then, the parent was problematic. Some claimed to be Royal bastards. And others were.

The dilemma was that gambling princes ran up big debts against their eventual gaining of the throne, and had to marry Protestant princesses with big dowries, despite being fond of their mistresses. Religion was an important variable, but money was greater.

Being a mistress appeared to be a trade. But with no trade union. So, many mistresses spent up quickly, on clothes and fashionable property while they could.

Today’s readers will be more familiar with the relationship of Mrs Wallis Simpson and Edward, or Camilla and Prince Charles, both of which are interesting chapters with new content.

However, some of the lesser known, married mistresses appeared to have a genuine fondness for their prince and tried to keep him healthier and doing some actual kingly business.  Many retiring husbands appeared to benefit financially or politically from their wife becoming the royal mistress. Winston Churchill’s mother Lady Jennie Churchill, and the heiress, Daisy, Countess of Warwick who in later life created worthwhile occupations for herself, make fascinating reading. Alice Keppel became the love of Edward's life and the great grandmother of Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles, now Duchess of Cornwall. Camilla's story and that of her Aussie rival, Lady Dale Tryon are included.

Edward V11 (later Duke of Windsor) was a sad case having suffered an attack of mumps that ensured he remained physically and mentally immature and obsessively dependent upon manipulative Mrs Simpson.

The ‘Royal Mistresses’ title will attract readers, as will the subtitle of ‘Secrets, Scandal and Betrayals’ but de Vries' ‘readability’ in portraying well researched history in an accessible fashion for the general reader, make all her books the kind that avid readers share.

De Vries is especially good at placing her characters in context. The endnotes are well documented and the index works, and the photos indicate the beauty of some of the mistresses. But I found it hard to be sympathetic to the expensive mistress lifestyle and aristocratic spending when the general population was struggling, and this included tenants providing the income from the Prince of Wales' estates. I preferred reading about the heroic women in de Vries' other histories of significant working women during wartime and pioneering times.

As well as being a well-known children's writer, Hazel Edwards is the author of Writing a Non Boring Family History. She has also contributed to the Aussie Heroes series with Sir Edward ‘Weary Dunlop’ and Professor Fred Hollows.

de Vries, Susanna, Royal Mistresses of the House of Hanover-Windsor: Secrets, Scandals and Betrayals ($34.95) ISBN: 978-0-9806216-2-1, First Published 2012

Other books by Susanna de Vries:

• Great Australian Women: From Federation to Freedom
• Great Australian Women: From Pioneering Days to the Present
• The Complete Book of Great Australian Women

A reviewer's perspective & Meg Mundell's Black Glass: Annabel Smith

Author Annabel Smith gives her perspective on reading and reviewing books by Australian women, including Barbara Jefferis Award shortlisted novel Black Glass by Meg Mundell. Mundell's book was also recently shortlisted for The Australian Science Fiction Foundation's Norma K Hemming Award which recognises "excellence in the exploration of themes of race, gender, sexuality, class and disability."

The shortlist includes the following outstanding AWW novels: 

• Bell, A.A. Hindsight
• Douglass, Sara. The Devil's Diadem
• Falconer, Kim. Road to the Soul
• Goodman, Alison. Eona
• Hannett, Lisa L. Bluegrass Symphony
• Isle, Sue. Nightsiders
• Mundell, Meg. Black Glass
• Roberts, Tansy Rayner. The Shattered City

Annabel Smith writes:

Almost a decade ago I saw David Malouf read from his collection of short stories Dream Stuff at the Victorian State Library. During question time, someone asked Malouf if he had read Ulysses. Malouf had already responded to several idiotic questions during this session and this one had me squirming in my seat. But Malouf replied graciously that he had, and waited, along with everyone else, to see where this might lead. “I just can’t get to grips with it!” the questioner blurted out, confessionally. “Can you give me some advice?” Malouf’s advice was that life was short, and if a book wasn’t speaking to you, you should move onto one that did.

This is advice that I have always followed as a reader. When asked to write a review of the year in Australian fiction for Westerly, I decided, after some thought to apply that same practice to my reviewing. A book review is understood to be subjective. However, I believe a good review strives for objectivity wherever possible, or at least admits to its limits in that regard. As a writer, I’ve been on the receiving end of reviews that have seemed unfair; one in particular, where it was clear to me that the reviewer had read only the first section of my novel, and that his review did not represent my work as a whole, and was not therefore a balanced review. I believe struggling though a book that I don’t connect with is guaranteed to result in a review that is resentful and therefore perhaps unfair to the book in question.  Books I dislike or am unmoved by are not necessarily bad, they are just not for me.

One of the reasons I undertook the Westerly fiction review was because I knew I was guilty of cultural cringe when it came to Australian fiction, and I thought being forced to read more of it would give me an opportunity to adjust my perspective. And I did read some fantastic Australian books published in the last twelve months.  Only a handful of those, however, were by women writers so when I came across the Australian Women Writers Reading and Reviewing Challenge I saw it as a good opportunity to acquaint myself with more great writing by Australian Women Writers.

The books I’ve read and reviewed (on Goodreads) so far are:

Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville

When We Have Wings by Claire Corbett

Inherited (Short Stories) by Amanda Curtin

Shooting the Fox (Short Stories) by Marion Halligan

The Courier’s New Bicycle by Kim Westwood

A Common Loss by Kristen Tranter

Black Glass by Meg Mundell

The books I want to read are:

Five Bells by Gail Jones

Dog Boy by Eva Hornung

What the Dead Said by DJ Daniels

One Man Zeitgeist: Dave Eggers, Publishing and Publicity by Caroline D. Hamilton

Too Close to Home by Georgia Blain

Gone by Jennifer Mills

Above and Below by Stephanie Campisi

My Sister Chaos by Lara Fergus

Here is my review of Black Glass by Meg Mundell:

Meg Mundell’s debut novel Black Glass is the story of two sisters and their search for each other in a city of the not-too-distant future. The black glass of the title is the glass of surveillance. Those who inhabit the city’s various zones are not only watched but manipulated by technicians who subtly influence behaviour through the use of scents, sounds and lighting at a subliminal level. The text includes email exchanges, transcripts of conversations and internet search results, adding to the sense that in this brave new world nothing is private.

The novel is richly detailed, containing brief, beautiful descriptions and surprising metaphors. Mundell’s dialogue is one of the novel’s great strengths - witty, pacey and authentic, it positively crackles with energy and renders the characters perfectly.

A former journalist and government advisor, Mundell conveys a great deal of cynicism about the relationship between the media and the government. At one point, one of the characters reflects on how the media relies on “an endless supply of human folly and greed, criminality, bad luck and exploitation.” And this is exactly what Mundell serves up in her exciting debut: a blackly funny, sinister and gritty exploration of marginalisation.

AnnabelSmith’s first novel, A New Map of the Universe, was published by UWA Publishing in 2005 and shortlisted for the WA Premier’s Prize for Fiction. She has had short fiction published in Westerly and Southerly, been a writer-in-residence at Katherine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre and holds a PhD in writing from Edith Cowan University. Her second novel, Whisky Charlie Foxtrot will be published by Fremantle Press in November 2012.