Cassie McCullough

And Magda, you realise, sees Lisa as a project.

Yes.

And the hair is parted on the side and then this belt comes out of the...

wardrobe i'll just try this belt on and cinch that waist in so much better oh yes and and you realize that she's seen this potential for lisa and the woman that she can be and and she's taken her on as a kind of protege and she also has these ambitions magna herself because you mentioned double bay earlier which we know was the center of some of the most fantastic fashion boutiques in sydney and she's going to take one of those over or start one and you know she knows how to really make some money she thinks out of this town

So she's kind of got this other ambitious side to her which is delicious because of in contrast to the other women, they don't really have that agency that she has.

And the department store goods plays this central role as an arbiter of taste and decency and propriety.

And everyone passing through it is either aspiring or expecting that it's at their standard.

So it becomes an interesting portal through which they all pass.

And I think that's probably very much part of...

Australian, well, particularly Sydney life.

I think that that's what those department stores conferred.

In fact, my mother, who grew up in extremely poor circumstances in Armidale, dirt floor stuff, came to Sydney, had got herself a scholarship to go to university, a bit like Lisa, I suppose.

And a friend's mother obviously identified that she was very poor and on one visit to the friend's house gave her a docket.

And it was a docket to the dry cleaning store at David Jones.

And so my mother went there and there was a whole lot of blankets and warm coats for her that had been dry cleaned that this woman didn't want to give her personally but wanted her to have.

And so this was the transaction through the department store, which made it decent and, you know, whatever.

Yes.

And there's that wonderful kindness that travels through the whole book, just like the one that we were talking about before.

You know, there's no such thing as an easy job.

You know, there's just something beautifully human and gentle about this book as well.