image of person or book cover 8634947530929328915.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Letters to Huldah single work   correspondence  
Issue Details: First known date: 2013... 2013 Letters to Huldah
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Letters to Huldah gives new meaning to the phrase a life in letters. Though dated from 1988 to 1994, Jill Hellyers letters to her former English teacher gradually reveal the story of her life.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Glebe, Glebe - Leichhardt - Balmain area, Sydney Inner West, Sydney, New South Wales,: Puncher and Wattmann , 2013 .
      image of person or book cover 8634947530929328915.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 196 p, 20 unnumbered pages of illustrationsp.
      Description: illustrations, portraits, photograps
      ISBN: 9781921450938
      Series: y separately published work icon Puncher & Wattmann Biography Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2012- 9072300 2012 series - publisher biography

Works about this Work

Life Writing as Conundrum Suzanne Dixon , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Women’s Book Review , vol. 26 no. 1/2 2014;

— Review of Letters to Huldah Jill Hellyer , 2013 single work correspondence
'JILL Hellyer's autobiography (1924-2012) provides plenty of “talking points” for a reviewer. Inter alia, it covers her crucial role in the fledgling Australian Society of Authors (ASA), her own writing, her dreadful marriage to an overbearing older man, her horrific struggles with one son's mental illness and another's physical handicap, the belated revelation of her daughter's sexual abuse, her years as a mental health activist, and her friendships. But only the most determined reader is likely to appreciate them. The book presents itself as a puzzle, as an obstacle course that perhaps mirrors Jill Hellyer's own life experiences. Consider the front cover, a posed photograph of the young Jill Hellyer, with the title Letters to Huldah over a subsidiary heading categorising the book as biography. Hmm, letters and biography, thinks the reader, who then finds it is not a biography of “Huldah.” On the back of the dustjacket along with any other editorial help, and without spelling it out, the vague blurb hints that the book is autobiography. The 120-word, prefatory “Author's note” (a reductive summary of the life of Huldah Sneddon, 1906-2006) yields the bare fact that Huldah was once Jill Hellyer's English teacher. ' (Author's introduction)
Life Writing as Conundrum Suzanne Dixon , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Women’s Book Review , vol. 26 no. 1/2 2014;

— Review of Letters to Huldah Jill Hellyer , 2013 single work correspondence
'JILL Hellyer's autobiography (1924-2012) provides plenty of “talking points” for a reviewer. Inter alia, it covers her crucial role in the fledgling Australian Society of Authors (ASA), her own writing, her dreadful marriage to an overbearing older man, her horrific struggles with one son's mental illness and another's physical handicap, the belated revelation of her daughter's sexual abuse, her years as a mental health activist, and her friendships. But only the most determined reader is likely to appreciate them. The book presents itself as a puzzle, as an obstacle course that perhaps mirrors Jill Hellyer's own life experiences. Consider the front cover, a posed photograph of the young Jill Hellyer, with the title Letters to Huldah over a subsidiary heading categorising the book as biography. Hmm, letters and biography, thinks the reader, who then finds it is not a biography of “Huldah.” On the back of the dustjacket along with any other editorial help, and without spelling it out, the vague blurb hints that the book is autobiography. The 120-word, prefatory “Author's note” (a reductive summary of the life of Huldah Sneddon, 1906-2006) yields the bare fact that Huldah was once Jill Hellyer's English teacher. ' (Author's introduction)
Last amended 20 Nov 2015 08:27:03
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