Cirrus@Austlit

'One of the most famous opening lines in literature comes from Dante’s Inferno, the first part of his Divine Comedy, when halfway through the journey of his life he finds himself in a gloomy wood, having lost his way. In the middle of our life’s journey, I found myself in a dark wood.

'In the face of the Covid pandemic, many of us felt a similar sense of isolation and uncertainty, confined to our homes, disconnected, and grappling with the unknown. Which led many, presumably including Melbourne writer Ronnie Scott, to the page.

'As a creative writing lecturer at RMIT, Ronnie Scott knows a few tricks of the writing trade, and in his second novel, Shirley, he deploys them with undeniable flair — such as keeping his readers in suspense until nearly halfway through the book as he leads them on a journey without telling them who or what Shirley is.' (Introduction)

'For those of us born in the 20th and 21st centuries, movies are inherent to daily life. We automatically suspend our disbelief, buying into the premise of the plot so as to be transported without delay into other realms. For more serious viewing with documentaries and educational filmmaking, we can quickly choose to engage in the filmmakers’ efforts, accepting or rejecting their premise without any great cognitive efforts. We are accustomed to film. Be it on the big screen, on YouTube, TVs, laptops or phones. For generations, film as a visual medium has been there to tell our tales, relate our news and frame out ‘truths’. Yet it has not always been thus.' (Introduction)