Ladywriter
Meet my Nanna, darklings. This is the inimitable Nancy and today would have been her 109th birthday. An ultra Aries journalist, shrewd operator and my very first Bohemian role model, a reporter and then a publican at The Australian Hotel where my Mum ran up and down the stairs as a kid. The stories of her heyday are legendary. She whirled like a force of nature through stories and soirees, marriages and piano solos and was never short of a tall tale. No doubt she is sporting a strong red lip, still.
The scandalous manuscript Nancy wrote of her life was burned in a hasty moment so I never came to know her as a woman. But one of my first lessons in power came courtesy of her defiance and indomitable spirit, as I watched wide eyed from the back seat. It took many years to ripen on repeat as I grew up. Her passing during my first year of high school was my initiation into death as part of life, but the truth is she has never left me. I wear her favourite ring and have always felt her gaze over me. She pushes everyone else out of the way when it is time to call in ancestors. And it has long been her voice constantly intoning me to "write the bloody book".
When Mum messaged me this morning to tell me it was Nanna's birthday - though Nancy ensures as good ancestors do that she appears to all of us throughout the day - she told me how proud Nanna would be of me. I can feel it deep in my bones and how her spirit is threaded through my words without my doing.
Nanna loved a party and it absolutely runs in the family. Next Thursday 31st from 6pm I'll be officially launching my Morsel at Desire Books & Records in Manly, my old tarot stomping ground and favourite haus of beautiful books. Desire's main maven @juliaofthewilson and I will be in conversation, as we so frequently are, about all kinds of things and of course, my beautiful book. Try and stop me signing copies and beaming. Love you to join us if you're in the neighbourhood, darklings.
Get your glitzy mits and more of the story of Morsel here.
Words c. Kerrie Basha 2022