Devonshire Tea in Winter Sun for Lindy’s New Book

Go Local, Go Well

I won’t name the bakeries ignorning my early enquiries about supplying plain scones. In desperation, I turned to Drakes, Coles, and Woolworths, but theirs were all buttermilk. I thought of Baker’s Delight, whose scones are tasty but misshapen, a bit big and have ‘flies’ as my father used to call sultanas and raisins. I finally asked Dulwich Bakery in Bath Street, Glenelg, who graciously accepted my special order of plain scones for Devonshire Tea, and they were clouds of perfection. Caruso’s on Jetty Road delivered plump, South Australian strawberries in time to put them fresh on the plate to complement strawberry jam and cream.

What a party for my new book, They Who Nicked the Sun. The day overflowed with goodwill for my second novel being launched into the world of readers.

A Dedication

I dedicated this book to my dear friend Margaret Luginbuhl. We met in the high-rise housing tower setting of No 25 King Street back in 2004. Although I returned to Adelaide in 2005, we stayed in close touch. In 2020, COVID forced Margaret to cancel her advanced plans to return to France to live near her daughter, Albertine.

By the time Melbourne’s lockdowns lifted, Margaret’s health had declined, and her loving daughter travelled from France in 2022 to take her mother to Paris to care for her there. Sadly, and ironically, within three months, Margaret died of COVID, aged 83. I miss her wry humour and wisdom still.

This photo of Margaret’s farewell shows her seated by her walker between Melbourne friends, with Albertine on the far right. Below is the sunken lawn at Princes Gardens that Margaret and I loved. You can see our building through the trees, and if you look carefully at the book, you will see this photo etched on the back cover.

The Launch

Nigel Ford was our generous and genial MC on launch day. He has kindly been the MC for five of my seven book launches, including my first-ever poetry collection at his Fleurieu Poets gig in Victor Harbor on my 75th birthday in 2018.

This photo features the well-known Adelaide author and poet Valerie Volk delivering her launch speech. With Valerie’s permission, I cite a couple of excerpts below as she introduced the setting and the story.

We meet Misha, the old Russian pigeon feeder, and watch Ruby build a rapport with the three ‘old girls’ from the adjacent public housing block, Annie, Mary, and Marge...It's a world that Lindy, a well-respected Adelaide poet, conjures up well for us in her introductory poem to the book. It’s done so evocatively that I’m going to read the poem, because this world is central to the book.

We see Misha and his pigeons, Esther and her chicken bones, Danny and his art classes, Thomas and Muggins, Mary and the booze, and we feel for them. Not just people, but also places and scenes. Dogs are often the focus, and Lindy evokes the surroundings vividly.

"As she walked, the sun flickered through the oaks and plane trees, and she heard the songs of dark and light leaves dancing again. Workers still hurried this way and that through the park to catch their morning tram or bus. When their numbers diminished, professional dog walkers turned up. The strain of so many dogs would take a lot of work to manage. Retirees shuffled around with their ageing pets a little way behind. Alma Park was different from Princes Gardens, where all age groups mingled, young and old, with dogs short and tall, purebred and mutt, like the diversity of people on Chapel Street do: young, old, rich and poor." (pp.234-5)

Our Attentive Audience

We held the launch in the Common Room of Manson Towers in Glenelg, where I live. It is a lovely room. The audience was wonderfully appreciative as the late afternoon sun washed over their smiles, interest, and applause. It was a joyful occasion, and I thank everyone who made the time to attend.

My Talk

In the weeks before the launch, two items appeared on my Facebook feed and found their way into my talk, and I quote, starting with Anne Summers.

The story touches on a theme from one of my favourite feminist authors, Anne Summers of Damned Whores and God's Police fame. In 1975 Summers’ landmark book identified encompassing female sterotypes in Australia. We read this week that young boys in private schools still grade women from cutie and wifey to unrapable. Little has changed except Summers now has emblazoned in pink on her Facebook Cover Photo, the words, 'CHOICE, Violence or Poverty' which is precisely the choice my protagonist makes as many women still must.

If I felt that Summer’s Facebook textual image conferred relevance, that sense was augmented by a recent article in The Conversation by Carol Lefevre, a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of English and Creative Writing at my Alma Mata, Adelaide University, who writes —

If older women move through the world with a sense of being unseen, in the world of books, and especially in contemporary fiction, they have all but been erased. So pervasive is their absence that it is nearly impossible to draw up a list of novels featuring older women as main character.

Of the older women who do make it to the page, most will have been reduced to stereotypes: the demented, the eccentric, the quarrelsome, the devoted yet sidelined grandmother, the meddling mother-in-law, the faded beauty, the disappointed spinster.

My 60-year-old red-headed protagonist, Ruby Marie Wilson, is no stereotype.

PS

Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the book table and one of me holding a copy with a triumphant smile — the usual fodder. Instead, here’s a little video of our first guest, which features me, the book table managed by my daughter, Vanessa and Nigel, pensive by the window, and our first guest.

I thank everybody for making the day a success — Valerie and Nigel, of course, for honouring me as they did. I thank Kuma for his photos, Pat for her help and this video, Veronica Cookson for writing a blurb, selling books, and all-around support, Deb Stewart, who couldn’t attend but wrote a second blurb, and Inez, who conducted the lucky door prize. And thank you to my darling daughter, Vanessa, who supports her old mum in all ways.

Where to Get the Book

I’ve already received some lovely feedback on the story. If you are local and would like a copy from me, please touch base in the comments below or on Facebook Messenger. The paperback is available from Dymocks, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. The ebook is on Apple Books, Kindle and Kobo. It is also now the SA Libraries Catalogue.

Happy Writing

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Lindy