'Sunday, 8 January 1978
'I have decided to keep a diary during Zelman's term of office as Governor-General. I am pleased, because I forget so much and the re-reading of a sentence brings whole occasions, scenes, and otherwise forgotten things, vividly back to mind... '
'And so begins an extraordinary record of the life of a Governor-General's wife. Lady Anna Cowen's edited diaries capture the day-to-day life-the wardrobe fittings, the running of an enormous household-as well as the pomp and circumstance of vice-regal duties during the term Sir Zelman Cowen, the 'healing Governor-General', served after the dismissal by Sir John Kerr of the Whitlam government. ' (Introduction)
'Lady Anna Cowen’s diaries have Helen Elliott keeping track of time
20 July: Gosh. I have been asked to review the diaries of Lady Anna Cowen and 'the book, large, shiny and black just landed. 362 pages. How nice it smells! When the editor asked me to review this I had to rack my brains. Lady Anna? Of course! The wife of the late Sir Zelman, our governor-general in 1978. After the odious (yes, he was) John Kerr finished his term, Malcolm Fraser had the idea of asking Zelman Cowen to take over. In the years after the dismissal half the nation would have condoned regicide, so it was a sublime choice.' (Introduction)
'Lady Anna Cowen’s diaries have Helen Elliott keeping track of time
20 July: Gosh. I have been asked to review the diaries of Lady Anna Cowen and 'the book, large, shiny and black just landed. 362 pages. How nice it smells! When the editor asked me to review this I had to rack my brains. Lady Anna? Of course! The wife of the late Sir Zelman, our governor-general in 1978. After the odious (yes, he was) John Kerr finished his term, Malcolm Fraser had the idea of asking Zelman Cowen to take over. In the years after the dismissal half the nation would have condoned regicide, so it was a sublime choice.' (Introduction)
