y separately published work icon The Ghost at the Wedding single work   biography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 The Ghost at the Wedding
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In the year of 1914, in the canefields of northern New South Wales, the young men couldn't wait to set off for the adventure of war. The women coped as best they could, raised the children, lived in fear of being next to receive an official telegram. They grieved their dead, and came to learn that for returned men there are worse things than death in combat. They bore more children to replace those lost in the First World War, and the sons were just the right age to go off to the second.' Source: http://www.penguin.com.au/ (Sighted 06/07/2009).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Camberwell, Camberwell - Liddell - Ravensworth area, Singleton area, Hunter Valley, Newcastle - Hunter Valley area, New South Wales,: Viking , 2009 .
      Extent: 246p.
      Note/s:
      • Dedication: For Hilda.
      • Epigraph: Man is in love and loves what vanishes, What more is there to say? W.B. Yeats
      • Includes author's note.
      ISBN: 9780670073887 (pbk.)
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Related Works

VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (1)

Works about this Work

Mapping a Memoir within Australian Landscapes : Shirley Walker Alejandra Moreno Álvarez , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Coolabah , no. 9 2012; 'Shirley Walker (1927), retired Senior Lecturer in English from the University of New
England at Armidale, where she taught Australian Literature, decided to try her own
hand at writing a memoir. The result is Roundabout at Bangalow: An Intimate
Chronicle (2001), which is her account of growing up in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales in Australia. The author has also published numerous critical articles on Australian Literature, commenting thoroughly on the work of Mary Gilmore (1865- 1962), Judith Wright (1915-2000) and Dorothy Hewett (1923-2002). Walker has also published The Ghost at the Wedding (2009) based on the life of Walker's mother in law, a woman whose life was largely shaped by war, and who, in 1918 near the end of WW1, married a returned soldier. This biography, which was awarded the Asher Literary Prize (2009) and the Nita B Kibble Award (2010), Australia's premier award for women's writing, has been described as a major work of Australian literature and a major contribution to Australian history. The present article focuses on Roundabout at Bangalow: An Intimate Chronicle, where Walker narrates the complicated and, sometimes, blurred resonances of her "half-a-lifetime" memoir. This work exemplifies how Walker is deeply concerned with the unreliability of memory and the way it can exaggerate grievances or distort past perceptions, unloosing itself from historical and geographical truth and adopting first and foremost a primal function in the formation of identities.' (Author's Introduction)
He's Going Walkerbout Noel Mengel , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 3 March 2011; (p. 14)
Books Christina Houen , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 3 July 2010; (p. 28-29)
— Review of The Ghost at the Wedding Shirley Walker , 2009 single work biography ; Gunshot Road Adrian Hyland , 2010 single work novel
Untitled Gay Tierney , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 24 no. 1 2010; (p. 67-68)
— Review of The Ghost at the Wedding Shirley Walker , 2009 single work biography
Writer's 'Lyrical' Memoir Wins Kibble Prize 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 3 June 2010; (p. 17) Quotes judging panel chairman, Robert Dixon, describing the winning work by Shirley Walker as 'a lyrical elegy to the generation before.'
Ugly Face of War Lucy Clark , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 5 July 2009; (p. 18)
— Review of The Ghost at the Wedding Shirley Walker , 2009 single work biography
Non-Fiction Books Alexander McRobbie , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 11 - 12 July 2009; (p. 24)
— Review of The Ghost at the Wedding Shirley Walker , 2009 single work biography
Brothers in Arms Judith Armstrong , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 11 July 2009; (p. 28)
— Review of The Ghost at the Wedding Shirley Walker , 2009 single work biography
Lost between Hemispheres Brenda Niall , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July-August no. 313 2009; (p. 46-47)
— Review of The Ghost at the Wedding Shirley Walker , 2009 single work biography
Sad Reconstruction of a Family Devestated by War Michael McKernan , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 18 July 2009; (p. 15)
— Review of The Ghost at the Wedding Shirley Walker , 2009 single work biography
River of No Return Terry Smyth , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 26 July 2009; (p. 10-11)
Writer's 'Lyrical' Memoir Wins Kibble Prize 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 3 June 2010; (p. 17) Quotes judging panel chairman, Robert Dixon, describing the winning work by Shirley Walker as 'a lyrical elegy to the generation before.'
He's Going Walkerbout Noel Mengel , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 3 March 2011; (p. 14)
Mapping a Memoir within Australian Landscapes : Shirley Walker Alejandra Moreno Álvarez , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Coolabah , no. 9 2012; 'Shirley Walker (1927), retired Senior Lecturer in English from the University of New
England at Armidale, where she taught Australian Literature, decided to try her own
hand at writing a memoir. The result is Roundabout at Bangalow: An Intimate
Chronicle (2001), which is her account of growing up in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales in Australia. The author has also published numerous critical articles on Australian Literature, commenting thoroughly on the work of Mary Gilmore (1865- 1962), Judith Wright (1915-2000) and Dorothy Hewett (1923-2002). Walker has also published The Ghost at the Wedding (2009) based on the life of Walker's mother in law, a woman whose life was largely shaped by war, and who, in 1918 near the end of WW1, married a returned soldier. This biography, which was awarded the Asher Literary Prize (2009) and the Nita B Kibble Award (2010), Australia's premier award for women's writing, has been described as a major work of Australian literature and a major contribution to Australian history. The present article focuses on Roundabout at Bangalow: An Intimate Chronicle, where Walker narrates the complicated and, sometimes, blurred resonances of her "half-a-lifetime" memoir. This work exemplifies how Walker is deeply concerned with the unreliability of memory and the way it can exaggerate grievances or distort past perceptions, unloosing itself from historical and geographical truth and adopting first and foremost a primal function in the formation of identities.' (Author's Introduction)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (15)

Awards

2010 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Non-Fiction
2010 winner Kibble Literary Awards — Nita Kibble Literary Award
2009 winner Asher Literary Award Joint winner with Sara Knox, The Orphan Gunner.
VIEW ALL AWARDS (3)
Last amended 6 Feb 2014 17:56:40
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