The Friends of the Library warmly invite you to a talk by Australian author Nadia Wheatley at Fisher Library. Nadia will speak about author Charmian Clift who, at the time of her suicide in 1969, was working on an unfinished autobiographical novel titled The End of the Morning. Five decades on, Nadia has edited the manuscript left by Charmian, which was published for the first time in April 2024 by NewSouth.

Born in 1923 in the small south coast town of Kiama (where The End of the Morning is set), Charmian Clift made her escape to Sydney at the age of eighteen with the prize money won in a Beach Girl competition. After serving as a lieutenant in World War II, she met fellow author George Johnston, with whom she collaborated on a prize-winning novel. Relocating with her husband and three children to Greece in 1954, she went on to write two solo novels and the travel memoirs Mermaid Singing and Peel Me a Lotus.

Known for their hospitality, George and Charmian invited many fellow artists into their home on the island of Hydra, including Canadian poet Leonard Cohen and Greek actor Melina Mercouri. Back in Australia by the latter half of the 1960s, Clift wrote a weekly newspaper column that has caused her to be described as Australia’s greatest essayist.

Charmian’s lyrical prose and characteristic wit, and depiction of travel and the experiences of women, have led many to claim she was an author ahead of her time. 30 August 2024 will mark 101 years since Charmian’s birth.
 

About the speaker

Nadia Wheatley is Charmian Clift’s biographer, and the author of The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift (awarded the Age Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2001 and the NSW Premier’s Australian History Prize 2002). She is the editor of Sneaky Little Revolutions — Selected Essays of Charmian Clift and of The End of the Morning (NewSouth, 2024). Other recent publications include the memoir Her Mother’s Daughter and Radicals — Remembering the Sixties, written on collaboration with Meredith Burgmann.

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This talk will go for 45 minutes, with time for questions and refreshments at the end. 

Registrations for this event is free and open to all. Please note that this event will be photographed.

Find out more about the Friends of the Library and join online for free.