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y separately published work icon The Steele Diaries single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 The Steele Diaries
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The only child of two famous but self-absorbed artists, Zelda Steele is adopted by her parent's patrons when she is just a baby. Great things are expected of this privileged young woman, but at twenty-seven Zelda is dead, leaving two young children and a body of work that only hints at her promise.

'Years later, Zelda's daughter Ruth returns to her childhood home to find the diaries her mother is rumoured to have kept. What they reveal will send Ruth on a journey into the past - and transform her future in ways she can't even begin to imagine.

'Weaving together the narratives of three very different women, living in vastly different times, The Steele Diaries paints a rich and evocative portrait of the Sydney art scene from the thirties to the seventies, and examines the eternal conflict between maternity and creativity, motherhood and self.' (Publisher's blurb)

Notes

  • Dedication: For Sam, Abi, Nell and Will : 90% inspiration; 10% perspiration (or thereabouts...)
  • Epigraph: 'Now where should the effect of black on white, or white on black, begin, and where end? Where should separation appear and where merging?' - Hans Alexander Mueller, How I Make Woodcuts and Wood Engravings.
  • Epigraph: 'One's life is not a case except of course it is.' - Les Murray, Three Poems in Memory of My Mother Miriam Murray nee Arnall.
  • Epigraph: 'Where have you gone? The tide is over you
    The turn of midnight water's over you,
    As time is over you, and mystery,
    And memory, the flood that does not flow...' - Kenneth Slessor, Five Bells.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • North Sydney, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2008 .
      image of person or book cover 1397880542376131969.jpg
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      Extent: 361p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: May 2008
      ISBN: 9781740513845 (pbk)

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Wendy James – Author Interview 2012 single work interview
— Appears in: The Australian Literature Review , August 2012;
[Review] The Steele Diaries Petra Fromm , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Wet Ink , September no. 16 2009; (p. 64)

— Review of The Steele Diaries Wendy James , 2008 single work novel
Don't Put a Good Painting in a Cheap Frame Madara Mason Hill , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 23 no. 1 2009; (p. 97-98)

— Review of The Steele Diaries Wendy James , 2008 single work novel
This Year's Work in Fiction 2008-2009 Susan Midalia , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , July vol. 54 no. 1 2009; (p. 51-64)

— Review of The Pages Murray Bail , 2008 single work novel ; The Lieutenant Kate Grenville , 2008 single work novel ; The Spare Room Helen Garner , 2008 single work novel ; The Anatomy of Wings Karen Foxlee , 2006 single work novel ; Boy On A Wire Jon Doust , 2009 single work novel ; The Sinkings Amanda Curtin , 2008 single work novel ; Bird Sophie Cunningham , 2008 single work novel ; One Foot Wrong Sofie Laguna , 2008 single work novel ; Avenue of Eternal Peace Nicholas Jose , 1989 single work novel ; Life in Seven Mistakes Susan Johnson , 2008 single work novel ; The Steele Diaries Wendy James , 2008 single work novel ; Butterfly Sonya Hartnett , 2009 single work novel ; Dissection Jacinta Halloran , 2007 single work novel ; Fugitive Blue Claire Thomas , 2008 single work novel ; Sweet Tracy Ryan , 2008 single work novel ; The Virtuoso Sonia Orchard , 2009 single work novel ; Ransom David Malouf , 2009 single work novel ; The Good Parents Joan London , 2008 single work novel ; Vertigo : A Pastoral Amanda Lohrey , 2008 single work novella ; The Boat Nam Le , 2008 selected work short story ; New Australian Stories 2009 anthology short story ; The Slap Christos Tsiolkas , 2008 single work novel
Women Under Pressure Genevieve Tucker , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , July vol. 3 no. 6 2008; (p. 22-23)

— Review of Beneath the Bloodwood Tree Julienne Van Loon , 2008 single work novel ; The Steele Diaries Wendy James , 2008 single work novel ; Musk and Byrne Fiona Capp , 2008 single work novel
When the Story Is the Magnet Juliette Hughes , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 17 May 2008; (p. 23)

— Review of The Woman in the Lobby Lee Tulloch , 2008 single work novel ; Nocturne : A Novel Diane Armstrong , 2008 single work novel ; The Steele Diaries Wendy James , 2008 single work novel
Thoroughly Modernist Capers Christina Hill , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 302 2008; (p. 28)

— Review of The Steele Diaries Wendy James , 2008 single work novel
More Than a Romance Katharine England , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 14 June 2008; (p. 10)

— Review of The Steele Diaries Wendy James , 2008 single work novel ; The Nearly Happy Family Catherine McKinnon , 2008 single work novel
Take Three Ian McFarlane , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Sunday Canberra Times , 22 June 2008; (p. 21)

— Review of The Steele Diaries Wendy James , 2008 single work novel
Women Under Pressure Genevieve Tucker , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , July vol. 3 no. 6 2008; (p. 22-23)

— Review of Beneath the Bloodwood Tree Julienne Van Loon , 2008 single work novel ; The Steele Diaries Wendy James , 2008 single work novel ; Musk and Byrne Fiona Capp , 2008 single work novel
Wendy James – Author Interview 2012 single work interview
— Appears in: The Australian Literature Review , August 2012;
Last amended 30 Jul 2021 06:47:29
Settings:
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • 1930s
  • 1940s
  • 1950s
  • 1960s
  • 1970s
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