When Beatrice Collins dies, her daughters discover the secret diaries she had kept as a student at Melbourne University in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The diaries reveal her passionate relationships with other young women in a group calling itself 'Mob'. They are defiant, unconventional women. Their closeness is challenged by the arrival of the charismatic Tom.
The second part of the book, written in Beatrice's own voice, takes up her story in Sydney immediately after the Second World war. While Beatrice struggles to live out her ideals about freedom, love and equality, she makes choices that will impact on her children for the rest of their lives.
Inventing Beatrice is based on letters and diaries discovered by the author in 1994, after her mother's death.
- Dust jacket.
