'Dolly Maunder was born at the end of the nineteenth century, when society’s long-locked doors were finally starting to creak ajar for women. Born into a poor farming family in country New South Wales but clever, energetic and determined, she spent her restless life pushing at those doors.
'Most women like Dolly have more or less disappeared from view, remembered only in a family photo album as a remote figure in impossible clothes, and maybe for a lemon-pudding recipe. Restless Dolly Maunder brings one of them to life as a person we can recognise and whose struggles we can empathise with.
'In this novel, Kate Grenville uses family memories and research to imagine her way into the life of her grandmother. This is the story of a woman born into a world of limits and obstacles who was able—though at a cost—to make a life for herself. Her battles and triumphs helped to open doors for the women who came after.' (Publication summary)
(Introduction)
'Kate Grenville’s latest novel considers the life of her maternal grandmother.'
Kate Grenville in Conversation
Yves Rees
(interviewer),
2023
26809759
2023
single work
podcast
interview
'In Restless Dolly Maunder, Kate Grenville weaves a fictional narrative around her grandmother, a woman she remembers as ‘aloof, thin, frowning, cranky’, and knew through her mother’s stories as ‘uncaring, selfish, unloving. Even a bit mad.’' (Introduction)
'Dolly Maunder, born in 1881, is the sixth of seven children of a sheep-farming family outside Tamworth in northern New South Wales. Their lives are a relentless round of hard work, indoors and out, relieved only a by few brief years at the local one-teacher school.' (Introduction)
'In Restless Dolly Maunder, Kate Grenville weaves a fictional narrative around her grandmother, a woman she remembers as ‘aloof, thin, frowning, cranky’, and knew through her mother’s stories as ‘uncaring, selfish, unloving. Even a bit mad.’' (Introduction)
'Kate Grenville’s latest novel considers the life of her maternal grandmother.'
'KATE GRENVILLE tells how her grandmother Dolly - the subject of her new book - railed against society’s shackles at the turn of the 20th century Grandmothers are supposed to be cosy creatures, all scones and big warm hugs. Mine wasn’t – she was cranky, frowning, scary. My mother’s stories portrayed Grandma as an unloving bully. “Why did my mother never love me?” Mum would ask, and I had no answers.' (Introduction)
Kate Grenville in Conversation
Yves Rees
(interviewer),
2023
26809759
2023
single work
podcast
interview
