ALIA West

July 2006

An evening with Julia Lawrinson at the Bookcaffe,
Tuesday June 27, 2006 from 6:30pm

Julia Lawrinson grew up in the outer suburbs of Perth and left school at age fifteen. She worked at the supermarket checkout, and as a chambermaid, barmaid, roadhouse attendant and weighbridge operator before returning to study at Murdoch University in her late teens. She completed a PhD in writing in 2004 and also has postgraduate qualifications in education. Her first novel, Obsession, won the 2001 Western Australian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Fiction, and was followed by Skating the Edge, Loz and AI, Bad Bad Thing and Suburban Freak Show.

Julia was recently the Chair of the Arts Development Panel at Arts WA and has worked at the State Literature Centre. She is a speech writer for the Western Australian Department of Health and continues to write fiction in her spare time. She and her family live in Perth.

On the 27 of June, we were treated to a charming and lively chat with Julia about her new book Bye, Beautiful and life as a speech writer with the WA Health Department.

Bye, Beautiful is the story of a young woman named Sandy, and is set in a country town in Australia in the 1960's. The author chose the years 1966-1967 for the time frame of the book because she felt that those were the years that the '60's' really hit Australia. Her reasoning was framed by several historical events - the introduction of the decimal system of currency, Menzie's resignation as Prime Minister, and the referendum on Aboriginal Citizenship.

One of the motivating factors for Julia to write Bye, Beautiful was because the young men and women (especially the women) that she meets in her daily life have little understanding of the way society operated in the 60's particularly in regard to the plight of women and aboriginal people. Julia wanted a book which would illustrate the essence of what it was like to live in a small country town in an era where one could be fined $20.00 for swearing (but only $2.00 for being drunk!) , women who married had to leave their jobs in the public service, and Aboriginal people were ignored as citizens of Australia. The main character of the book, Sandy becomes a single mum, and her experiences are loosely based on the experiences of Julia's own mother, who experienced the harsh realities of falling pregnant out of wedlock.

The book is also an attempt by the author to capture the essence of her grandfather, who was an 'old school' copper who worked in small towns in rural WA, and, like many of his generation was a contradictory mix of authoritarianism, severity and surprising sensitivity.

Julia is a lively and generous speaker and the audience enjoyed a thought provoking and interesting evening, sipping lovely wine and browsing the shelves of the Bookcafe. I can heartily recommend attending a 'Meet the Author' evening, and I look forward to the next offering from the WA Library Technicians Group.

Bonnie Rae Bruce