Cirrus@Austlit

'I was aware of the notebook before my grandmother Judy died. I did not read it, hold it in my hands, or flip through its pages until after her funeral. It is a small, spiral-bound book with no lines. Perhaps sold as an artist’s sketchbook, the paper slightly heavier than a regular notebook. A picture of white flannel flowers has been pasted onto the cover. In it Judy recorded quotes from writers such as Oscar Wilde, Vladimir Nabokov, William Morris, Lord Byron. I knew my grandmother read a lot and was an avid library user. I, naively and snobbishly, presumed she read the indistinguishable pastel-coloured shelf-fillers libraries stock in the thousands. Yet her notebook is full of handwritten quotes from the types of writers you aren’t likely to see in the large print section of the library.' (Introduction)