Edna Walling - an upcoming Talk about this wonderfully creative woman

I am giving a talk on Edna Walling to the Australian Garden History Society, Victorian Branch on 18th August, 2022 – here are details in case some locals are interested. All welcome. Drinks from 5.30pm. Brief AGM at 6pm followed by my talk at approx. 6.15. I’ll be selling/signing copies of my biography The Unusual Life of Edna Walling and my novel A Secretive Life afterwards. Info and bookings via https://www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au/.../vic-branch.../ Venue: Mueller Hall, National Herbarium of Victoria, South Yarra, Melbourne. Edna Walling‘s trademark landscape features include fine flights of steps, flagstone paths, dry-stone walls and elegant sweeping boarders. Edna self-built her own cottage and created Bickleigh Vale Village in Mooroolbark, outer Melbourne. She had an extraordinary career: she was a landscape designer, gardener, photographer, builder, architect, journalist, author, sketcher, watercolourist, conservationist – and eco-visionary. In short, she was an Artist. Her work, which spans from the 1920s to 1960s, is still celebrated in books, exhibitions and existent gardens today. Yet who was Edna Walling? This talk explores the life and character of the woman behind those fabulous achievements – from the influences of a childhood spent in Devon, England – to some of the key friendships that helped her achieve so much. You can find copies of the book online such as https://www.amazon.com/Unusual-Life-Edna-Walling/dp/1741142296 or order from bookshops or borrow from your local library! The photo portrait was taken by Francie Young c1927.
I was first introduced to Edna Walling because I played her in an outdoor production called Edna For The Garden by Suzanne Spunner. I wish someone would produce that play again because the outdoor setting was so clever and lovely. Originally produced by Home Cooking Theatre Co 1989. Ponch Hawkes took the pic of me playing Edna (in jodhpurs) opposite Carmelina di Guglielmo.

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