Anne Skyvington
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Anne Skyvington

The Craft of Writing

  • Writing
    • Craft
      • Structuring a Short Story
      • Alternative Narrative Approaches
      • Genre in Writing
      • A Grain of Folly
        • Novel Writing
          • The Sea Voyage: a metaphor
          • How I Created My Debut Novel
          • What I learnt from writing a novel…
          • Short Story
            • At the Swimming Pool
            • The Night of the Barricades
          • Poetry
            • a funny thing happened …
            • An ancient mystic: Rumi
            • A Window into Poetry
            • The Voice of T.S. Eliot
  • Publishing
    • A Change of Blog Title
    • 5 Further Publishing Facts
    • 5 Facts I Learnt About Self/Publishing
    • Highs and Lows of Self Publishing
    • A Perfect Pitch to a Publisher
    • A Useful Site for Readers and Indie Authors: Books 2 Read
  • Book Reviews
    • A Story of a Special Child
    • Discovering Karrana
    • A Young Adult Novel: My French Barrette
    • Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills
    • The Trouble With Flying: A Review
  • Mythos
    • Ancient Stories from Childhood
    • Births Deaths and Marriages
    • Duality or Onenness: The Moon
    • The Myth of Persephone and Demeter
    • Pandora’s Box
    • 7 ancient artefacts in the British Museum
    • Symbolism of Twins
    • The Agony and the Ecstasy of Change
    • Voices From the Past
  • Australia
    • A Country College Residence
    • A Kit Home Goes Up in Vacy
    • A Sydney Icon or Two
    • 5 things about Coogee
    • Moree and Insistent Voices
    • Things To Do in Sydney
  • Travel
    • A Bird’s Eye View
    • A Tuscan Village Holiday
    • Back to Cavtat in Croatia
    • Travel to Croatia
    • 5 or 6 Things About Valencia
  • Guest Post
    • a father’s tale … by Ian (Harry) Wells
    • A Guest Poem: “First Loves” by Roger Britton
    • A Love Sonnet by Ian Harry Wells
    • “Snakey” by Roger Britton
    • Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills
    • A Story of a Genteel Ghost told by Roger Britton
  • Psychology
    • Creativity and Mental Illness
    • Networking and Emotional Intelligence
    • C.G.Jung’s Active Imagination and the Dead
    • Psychology as a Field of Study
    • Western Influencers Down Through The Ages
  • Life Stories
    • Adriatic Romance … Rijeka to Titograd
    • Always something there to remind me…
    • A Well-Loved Pet
    • Candidly Yours…
    • Memoir Writing
    • River Girl: An Early Chapter of my Memoir in Progress
Book ReviewsBooksLife StoriesWriting

Memoirs I Read 2013

written by Anne Skyvington August 6, 2013
magnolia-tree-serendipity
Cover of "Salvation Creek : An Unexpected...

Cover of Salvation Creek : An Unexpected Life

Lately I’ve been reading reading reading … especially memoirs, as I come closer to sending one of mine off to a competition at Finch Publishing. I’ve also been attending Beth Yahp’s Memoir Evenings at the Randwick Literary Institute on the last Tuesday of the month.

One of the books I’ve enjoyed recently is Marzipan and Magnolias by Elizabeth Lancaster (Finch Publishing, 2010). It has one of the best ‘hooks’ for a first chapter (Venus Sydney 1981) I’ve read and starts with : “Sometimes I wonder what happened to my first patient in the neurology unit of the inner city Sydney hospital where I worked as a new graduate. She was about twenty-two and called herself Venus. Dyed black hair framed her ultra-white face, and safety pins dangled from one ear. Venus was of ‘no fixed address’; she was tough and cool and she had multiple sclerosis.”  This memoir is motivated by the author’s eventual contraction–is that the right word to use?–of multiple sclerosis. However it’s about much more: her childhood, her passionate affairs with boyfriends and cultures, and ultimate marriage to a German. It’s funny in many parts, especially about her fatal attraction to the (‘loser’?) Seamus and all things Irish, that is until she falls for Martin. It’s about the toughness of the human spirit in the face of physical and emotional challenges in which the role of humour is an important aspect in this story.

Green Vanilla Tea by Marie Williams won the Finch Memoir Prize in 2013. It’s also about challenges in the face of illness, but in this case the sufferer is the author’s husband.  He changes from a loving partner and engaged father, into a stranger who must walk the streets as if in search of himself. Eventually he is diagnosed with early onset dementia and motor neurone disease. at 44 years of age. The most lasting impression after reading this book is the author’s (and their sons’) enduring love for the husband/father which transcends through courage and endurance the devastating effects of his illness. She puts off until the last moments placing him in a nursing home for dementia patients, and manages the terrible symptoms of his disintegration with the help of friends and loved ones who rally around her. In spite of the negative aspects of  the husband’s  slide towards death, it’s the  transcendental aspects of this story that reign supreme. His a paragraph fr m the middle of the book encapsulating the author’s strength and purpose in protecting her husband: “Somehow, even as we ‘lose’ more of Dom every day, he offers us a new way to look at things. To be stripped of your past and to have no sense of your future leaves you firmly in the now. There is no room here for attachments to the things we assume make us happy. From my new world of shredded irrelevancies, there is no mistaking what is important. Through Dominic’s journey of dying I am so much clearer about what bring”s life.”

Another book, Salvation Creek by Susan Duncan was also a memoir I couldn’t put down. It’s a redemption story, told by a middle-aged woman who has lost the two important men in her life to cancer–her husband and her brother–within the same week. then later on, she also  develops breast cancer. From her position as a high-flying editor of an Australian women’s magazine, she makes a brave choice to throw in her career and her past life for a radical ‘harbourside change’. The total love affair does not happen overnight, but she is eventually seduced by the beauty and peace of nature, and builds a life on the foreshores of a Pittwater bay, far removed from the Sydney city centre. It’s a story told with passion by a woman who loves people, dogs, food and nature. Her writing is often over-laden with too many adjectives, images and mixed metaphors, but this is her character–she always cooks too much food for parties too–and she carries the reader along with the sheer weight of her personality. I loved it!

Related articles
  • Histories, Biographies, Memoirs – Roundup #5 2013 (australianwomenwriters.com)

Memoirs I Read 2013 was last modified: February 23rd, 2021 by Anne Skyvington
green vanilla tea by marie williamsmarzipan and magnolias by elisabeth lanchastermemoirs i read in 2013salvation creek by susan duncan
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Anne Skyvington

I have been a reader/writer all of my life as far back as I can remember. Blogging has opened me up to another world, where I can share my skills and continue to create through word and picture. Writing is about seeing the world and recreating it for others to see through different eyes.

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About The Author

Anne Skyvington

Anne Skyvington is a writer based in Sydney who has been practising and teaching creative writing skills for many years. You can learn here about structuring a short story and how to go about creating a longer work, such as a novel or a memoir. Subscribe to this blog and receive a monthly newsletter on creative writing topics and events.

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About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington is a Sydney-based writer and blogger. <a href="http://anneskyvington.com.au She has self-published a novel, 'Karrana' and is currently writing a creative memoir based on her life and childhood with a spiritual/mystical dimension.

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