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y separately published work icon The Man on the Mantelpiece : A Memoir single work   biography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2018... 2018 The Man on the Mantelpiece : A Memoir
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'During a 1952 electric storm off Wattamolla NSW a waterspout drew in the CSIRO Cloud Physics Dakota, atomising all those aboard, including the writer’s father. Or did it? When his living body has disappeared, what to make of the uniformed man on the mantelpiece?

'Just as the waterspout gathers up living creatures and broken things to transport them elsewhere, this memoir dreams its way into the fragments of his life, along with the queer fall-out in its wake. When her grief-stricken mother deifies the disappeared, the daughter strives to become him. Sometimes it seems that fateful scenarios, including Cold War conspiracies and ill-conceived scientific projects, converge on the man on the mantelpiece; but at times of grace he steps down joyfully to resume the dance with the living.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Nedlands, Inner Perth, Perth, Western Australia,: UWA Publishing , 2018 .
      image of person or book cover 5037656493361993707.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 240p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published November 2018.

      ISBN: 9781760800031

Works about this Work

Milestones in Auto/Biography Moya Costello , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , April vol. 23 no. 1 2019;

— Review of The Happiness Glass Carol Lefevre , 2018 single work novel ; The Man on the Mantelpiece : A Memoir Marion Campbell , 2018 single work biography
Summoning the Lightning Francesca Sasnaitis , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 407 2018; (p. 15-16)

'In 1952, Marion May Campbell’s father was killed in an apocalyptic accident when his World War II RAAF Dakota was knocked out of control by contact with a waterspout and was ‘unable to effect recovery’. There were no survivors and little wreckage. The outmoded Dakota was on loan to the CSIRO to conduct experiments in artificial rainmaking that required flying into turbulent cumulonimbus clouds. ‘Rainmaking is the work of the Devil,’ his daughter heard. Had the radio physicists on those flights discovered how to make it rain over drought-stricken areas of Australia, they would have been hailed as heroes. As it was, his grieving widow received a nasty anonymous letter intimating that the crew got what they deserved for ‘interfering with nature’.' (Introduction)

Milestones in Auto/Biography Moya Costello , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , April vol. 23 no. 1 2019;

— Review of The Happiness Glass Carol Lefevre , 2018 single work novel ; The Man on the Mantelpiece : A Memoir Marion Campbell , 2018 single work biography
Summoning the Lightning Francesca Sasnaitis , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 407 2018; (p. 15-16)

'In 1952, Marion May Campbell’s father was killed in an apocalyptic accident when his World War II RAAF Dakota was knocked out of control by contact with a waterspout and was ‘unable to effect recovery’. There were no survivors and little wreckage. The outmoded Dakota was on loan to the CSIRO to conduct experiments in artificial rainmaking that required flying into turbulent cumulonimbus clouds. ‘Rainmaking is the work of the Devil,’ his daughter heard. Had the radio physicists on those flights discovered how to make it rain over drought-stricken areas of Australia, they would have been hailed as heroes. As it was, his grieving widow received a nasty anonymous letter intimating that the crew got what they deserved for ‘interfering with nature’.' (Introduction)

Last amended 25 Sep 2018 15:50:41
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