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Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Other People's Houses single work   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 Other People's Houses
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In Other People's Houses publishing legend Hilary McPhee exchanges one hemisphere for another. Fleeing the aftermath of a failed marriage, she embarks on a writing project in the Middle East, for a member of the Hashemite royal family, a man she greatly respects. Here she finds herself faced with different kinds of exile, new kinds of banishment.

'From apartments in Cortona and Amman and an attic in London, McPhee watches other women managing magnificently alone as she flounders through the mire of Extreme Loneliness.

'Other People's Houses is a brutally honest memoir, funny, sad, full of insights into worlds to which she was given privileged access, and of the friendships which sustained her.

'And ultimately, of course, this is the story of returning home, of picking up the pieces, and facing the music as her house and her life takes on new shapes.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Carlton, Parkville - Carlton area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Melbourne University Press , 2019 .
      image of person or book cover 3629649589670158893.jpeg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 226p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1 October 2019.
      ISBN: 9780522875645

Works about this Work

Editorial Interventions Fiona Wright , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , March 2020;

— Review of Other People's Houses Hilary McPhee , 2019 single work autobiography
Publisher and Writer Hilary McPhee Peter Craven , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 30 November - 6 December 2019;
'Once a powerhouse of Australian publishing, Hilary McPhee traded the comfortable life she knew for a mysterious job with Middle Eastern royalty. In writing about this adventure and the collapse of her marriage to Don Watson in her new memoir, Other People’s Houses, she traces her strange journey back to herself. “I dreaded coming back to Australia because I left feeling I’d lost everything, I’d lost my marriage. We’d been together for more than 20 years, so it was quite a lot of life.”' (Article summary)
Cracked Wide Open : A Second Memoir Shot through with Regret Jane Cadzow , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 416 2019; (p. 18-19)

— Review of Other People's Houses Hilary McPhee , 2019 single work autobiography

'In the spring of 2003, a person from Hilary McPhee’s past got in touch with her. McPhee did not remember the woman’s name but recognised her immediately when they met for coffee. At high school they had played hockey together for a team called the Colac Battlers. The woman had been working for years as a personal assistant at a palace in Jordan, and her purpose in contacting McPhee wasn’t merely to reminisce. At one point in their conversation, she lowered her voice, glanced around the busy inner-Melbourne café and said that McPhee might hear from someone in Amman, the Jordanian capital, about a writing project.' (Introduction)

Painful Road to Self-discovery Carmel Bird , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12 October 2019; (p. 24)

— Review of Other People's Houses Hilary McPhee , 2019 single work autobiography

In Islamic legend, and in the Victorian language of flowers, the yellow rose signifies infidelity in love. ‘‘Late one summer evening, outside in the heavy scent of the yellow roses he’d planted, he tells me that he wants to keep moving. And so, I flew to Amman a few weeks later, as if to another planet.’’ ‘‘He’’ is her husband of 20 years. The marriage is over. So concludes the first chapter of Hilary McPhee’s memoir, Other People’s Houses.'  (Introduction)

Painful Road to Self-discovery Carmel Bird , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12 October 2019; (p. 24)

— Review of Other People's Houses Hilary McPhee , 2019 single work autobiography

In Islamic legend, and in the Victorian language of flowers, the yellow rose signifies infidelity in love. ‘‘Late one summer evening, outside in the heavy scent of the yellow roses he’d planted, he tells me that he wants to keep moving. And so, I flew to Amman a few weeks later, as if to another planet.’’ ‘‘He’’ is her husband of 20 years. The marriage is over. So concludes the first chapter of Hilary McPhee’s memoir, Other People’s Houses.'  (Introduction)

Cracked Wide Open : A Second Memoir Shot through with Regret Jane Cadzow , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 416 2019; (p. 18-19)

— Review of Other People's Houses Hilary McPhee , 2019 single work autobiography

'In the spring of 2003, a person from Hilary McPhee’s past got in touch with her. McPhee did not remember the woman’s name but recognised her immediately when they met for coffee. At high school they had played hockey together for a team called the Colac Battlers. The woman had been working for years as a personal assistant at a palace in Jordan, and her purpose in contacting McPhee wasn’t merely to reminisce. At one point in their conversation, she lowered her voice, glanced around the busy inner-Melbourne café and said that McPhee might hear from someone in Amman, the Jordanian capital, about a writing project.' (Introduction)

Editorial Interventions Fiona Wright , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , March 2020;

— Review of Other People's Houses Hilary McPhee , 2019 single work autobiography
Publisher and Writer Hilary McPhee Peter Craven , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 30 November - 6 December 2019;
'Once a powerhouse of Australian publishing, Hilary McPhee traded the comfortable life she knew for a mysterious job with Middle Eastern royalty. In writing about this adventure and the collapse of her marriage to Don Watson in her new memoir, Other People’s Houses, she traces her strange journey back to herself. “I dreaded coming back to Australia because I left feeling I’d lost everything, I’d lost my marriage. We’d been together for more than 20 years, so it was quite a lot of life.”' (Article summary)
Last amended 25 Nov 2019 09:24:15
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