David Hunt

Maggie, you just nailed it.

You just nailed it.

That's exactly how I feel about her after having just read this book, you know, just over the weekend and watched the film again and being totally frustrated with her and the character she has created, Sabella Melvin.

It's frustrating, but I can't let it go.

I actually feel a little bit obsessed and even possessed by her.

She's trapped, actually, trapped in her own physicality.

Maybe it's worth just backtracking over the history of the writing of the book.

So she was born in 1879.

She wrote this book when she was 16 over something like 10 weeks and then sent it off to publishers.

It was knocked back by, I think, two or three of them.

And in this moment of absolute gumption, which is entirely consistent with her central character, Sabella Melvin, she sends it to Henry Lawson, who's really kind of probably a bit like us, Maggie, infuriated and sort of perplexed, but also taken with the voice that leaps out of the pages.

So Henry Lawson sends the manuscript to, or takes it, I think, to Scotland, to Edinburgh, where his publishers are.

And it gets published in 1901 when Miles Franklin is a little older.

Now that actually, I mean, she is one of the first cautionary tales about Australian celebrity.

I think she found out the hard way about what happens when you put the dirty linen out in public.

Yes.

Yeah, and I'm glad that you mentioned that toxic relationship with her mother, which is just truly awful.

But it's also so strongly about class.

And so for those who haven't read it yet,

Sibylla is one of half a dozen kids in this dreadfully poor situation.