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Sara Hardy Writes

queerly historical theatrical and Edna Walling inspirational

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May 21, 2020

No words coming forth currently ... so I thought this Lavender Yellow Pansy could say it for me. If you listen closely you'll hear ... something about ... loveliness ...

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Theory, Practice, and Speaking Out

May 25, 2025

Michelle de Kretser and I became friends when I was a mature student at University of Melbourne back in the late 1980s. Michelle was my tutor and, perhaps because I was a mature student with a theatre background, she took a liking to me and I of course liked and admired her. This was about a decade before she began to win major prizes for her novels. A few days ago, Michelle was announced as the winner of the prestigious Stella Prize - named after Stella Miles Franklin, author of My Brilliant Career. Michelle de Kretser's prize-winning novel is called Theory and Practice - and it's a fabulous read. But what I really want to record here is Michelle's acceptance speech. Please read it in full. It is very important, to all of us. Hello everyone. Thank you all so much for being here. The 2025 Stella Prize does my work great honour, and I’m so happy to accept it. I wish I could join you in person to celebrate all the long and shortlisted writers. As that’s not possible, I’m reco...

Edna Walling's Autumn musings in Victoria

May 05, 2025

Born in England, Edna Walling was deeply influenced by the beauties of childhood walks through her adored Devonshire landscape, especially the diverse natural glories of Dartmoor. Such influences would inform her Australian garden designs ever after. Even so, Edna embraced Australia and the Australian natural landscape with all her heart and ingenuity, and the affect of that embrace is still with us today. Here follows a snippet of Edna's musings on Autumn in Victoria from A Gardener's Log, first published in 1948. 'There is so much to tell that I hardly know where to start: with the Russian cranberry jam; with the fun I am having taking cuttings of everything in the garden (everything with a reasonable chance of striking); with the joy the medlars have been this autumn, and the Cornus kousa , a dogwood that has outdone the pink-flowering C. florida rubra in leaf coloration this year. The mistress of Lynton Lee [Lorna Fielden ] said, ...

Once a biographer, always a biographer...

November 28, 2023

I recently returned from a brief holiday at a B&B called The Burrow at Wombat Bend, a wonderful mudbrick cottage set in a wildlife retreat at Dixon's Creek in the Yarra Valley, about an hour north-east of Melbourne. I have been meaning to go there for many, many years - since I'd published The Unusual Life of Edna Walling in fact, because during my research for that biography I had met Sue Forrester, the daughter of one of Edna's dear friends - and Wombat Bend is Sue's home and co-creation. 'The Burrow' is the B&B mudbrick cottage that overlooks a vast billabong surrounded by all manner of native trees and plants - and native wildlife, including wombats. This paradise was once a basic cow paddock and its creation echoes Edna Walling's magnificent self-made Bickleigh Vale Village in nearby Mooroolbark - also once a cow paddock. (See previous blogs re Walling's career as a landscape designer etc.) Sue and I had much to catch up on - and I wished ...

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Sara Hardy Writes: My debut novel is A Secretive Life, published 2021 - and this blog follows the journey of that book towards publication via the scenic route - and explores some of the real characters to be found in the story. I am also the author of two biographies: The Unusual Life of Edna Walling (Allen & Unwin 2005) and Dame Joan Hammond - Love & Music (Allen & Unwin 2008). My play titles include Vita! - a fantasy (published in Heroines, Penguin 1991) and More Female Parts (performed Fairfax Studio, Melbourne 2015) staring Evelyn Krape, directed by Lois Ellis. I was awarded the Peter Blazey Fellowship for Life Writing for my work on Edna Walling in 2004. The award is managed by the University of Melbourne. Other published works include: Queer Fruit in Still More Monologues for Women By Women (Heinemann Books, USA, 2001); and Rosie Fingered Dawn, co-written with Lois Ellis, in Weddings and Wives, a Penguin Anthology edited by the wonderful Dale Spender. I trained in Drama & Dance at Dartington College of Arts, Devon, UK, and have acted with various theatre companies in UK and Australia.

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