Sea-green

by Barbara Hanrahan

Virginia leaves a small Australian city and the certainties of a neat brick house to study art in London. She thinks a steel ship and an expanse of blue will help her escape from the past, but the old life is always with her. It is the past and the dangerous innocence she owes to it that propel her on to seek unreal romance in a stranger's cabin. On the sea Virginia flounders, and in London she finds she has yet other memories to blot out. Even the affinity she feels for the greyness, and flawed age of the city; even art, which once was all that mattered, cannot help her as she tries to forget. Aloneness is unbearable, and she seeks warmth in a sterile relationship that ends in the reality of an abortion. Only then, hardened enough to hurt, can she slice away the veils of the past. Paradoxically, it is now - when she expects nothing - that dreaming proves summer comes, and Virginia's sea turns calm.

Genres: Australia, Literature, Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Hanrahan, Barbara Janice (1939 - 1991)
Archival/Heritage Resources Published Resources

Barbara Hanrahan was an artist, printmaker and writer. She was born in Adelaide in 1939 and lived there until her death in December 1991. Hanrahan spent three years at the South Australian School of Art before leaving for London in 1966 to continue her art studies. In England she taught at the Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, (1966-67) and Portsmouth College of Art (1967-70). From 1964 Hanrahan held a number of exhibitions principally in Adelaide and Sydney, but also in Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, London and Florence. Hanrahan's novels include The Scent of Eucalyptus (1973), The Peach Groves (1980), The Frangipani Gardens (1988) and Flawless Jade (1989).


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Career Highlights
URL: The home page for this entity is located at http://www.history.sa.gov.au/history/...
Barbara Hanrahan was educated at Thebarton Girls' Technical College before commencing a three year Art Teaching course at Adelaide Teachers' College. At the same time she completed art classes at the South Australian School of Art. Following the completion of her Diploma of Art Teaching, Hanrahan began teaching art in schools as well as enrolling for evening classes with the newly established Printmaking Department at the South Australian School of Art. In 1961 she was appointed assistant lecturer in Art at Western Teachers' College, Adelaide. In the same year she participated in a four-artist exhibition at the Hahndorf Gallery, and was awarded the Cornell Prize for Painting. She taught at the South Australian School of Art from 1963-66.

Hanrahan left for London in 1966 to continue her art studies. She taught at the Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, (1966-67) and Portsmouth College of Art (1967-70). In the early 1980s Hanrahan, with her partner Jo Steele, returned to live in Adelaide, where she established her own studio. Hanrahan's writing career began in 1973 with the publication of her first, largely autobiographical, novel The Scent of Eucalyptus. Other titles soon followed and her last novel, Good night, Mr Moon, was published posthumously in 1992.

During her life Hanrahan held a number of exhibitions nationally and internationally. Her works are held by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, and many regional galleries.


Sources used to compile this entry: refereces

Reviews

[zed · Rating 4 out of 5]

In terms of Australian literature, Barbara Hanrahan was just a name to me. In a conversation with Terri-Jane Dow, the owner of a new independent in Brisbane called Cursive Knives, I mentioned that I had an interest in South Australian novels, and she showed me two re-releases of Hanrahan novels by an independent called Pink Shorts Press. It was not hard to snap up both of them.

I decided to start with the oldest release first. This was a wise call, and more on that later. Sea Green is Hanrahan’s second novel and reads as autofiction. Virginia leaves quiet Adelaide in the 1960s to head to London, where she wants to pursue her art.

Sea Green is told in two parts: The Sea and then The City, with Virginia’s story told via her time on the ship and then her time in London. This was very good experimental fiction, told in the first, second, and third points of view, a style that can be hit and miss and confusing to some, but I found it at times exhilarating. Hanrahan, being also a painter, gave the reader a painter’s eye for the abstract in delivery and detail, as well as the obviousness of the story. That story being a very confused young lady looking to find out who she was, not understanding herself or where she fit in a world that was conservative towards change in the way women were expected to behave. Virginia was confused as to how to be in a world that expected conformity from her.

While at sea she is confronted with life in “a tin can” and confuses relationships with the opposite sex, doing what she thinks is expected as opposed to what she wants. While in the city the same can be said, but the difference being that for all the confusion she in the end can control some events, and that leads to hopeful independence. But for all that hopeful ending, this is still about unfulfilled friendship, along with being lonely and that leading into sexual encounters with nothing that offers Virginia fulfilment.

At 187 pages this was a quick read for the simplistic story that it is, but the strength of the novel is in the writing and the delivery of ideas. I found myself immersed in the almost poetical prose and had finished it in two sessions. With that, I got into the second book I had purchased, with that review here. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Anna Baillie-Karas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful novel about a young woman travelling from Adelaide to London to pursue a career as an artist. Written with an artist’s eye for a scene - the real details but also the imagined - in rich, textured prose. Interesting in form as she moves between first and third person and we spend the first half on the ship with Virginia and Kate, giving the book a timeless quality. The intimacy and honest reminded me of Sally Rooney and Elena Ferrante.

[Cathy]

This story reminded me in some ways of Hanrahan’s art, not so much the still life’s but her images of people. She has a unique way of seeing and depicting the world, at once slightly discomforting and appealing. I didn’t know much about her beyond her prints before reading this and would now like to learn more.

[Olivia De]

really interesting… there aren’t many “classic” books from south australia and it was interesting to see how this one was missed in the zeitgeist. the language is quite abstract, almost poetic, and the patchwork narrative can often come across as quite confusing and overly fluid. however, the story, analysis of twin selves and watching your own life from the outside is fascinating, quite Woolfian in a sense. really enjoyed it even though it’s not your traditional heroine seeks adventure novel. the prose was almost as frenetic as hanrahan’s artistic praxis which was quite enjoyable.

[Walter.Stoppgmail.Com · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense almost poetic style - some great imagery. I wish Virginia was more assertive - she was so innocent.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1974 by UK publishers Chatto & Windus, and now reissued by SA publisher Pink Shorts Press, Sea Green was Barbara Hanrahan's second novel, following an impressive debut with The Scent of Eucalyptus (1973, on my TBR).  Born in 1939, she was 35 when this autofiction was published.  It depicts her journey of self-discovery when she escapes from teaching in Adelaide to take up a career as an artist in London.

The novel begins at sea, where Virginia is among other young women with inchoate ambitions.  They are off to see the world, but Virginia has saved up her money to attend the  Central School of Art in London.  (Barbara Hanrahan is listed among the alumni of this school of art, now one of the colleges of the University of Arts in London.) But first there is the long, slow voyage, which turns out to be more tedious than she had expected, except for a shipboard romance, which culminates, as most of them as did, in disappointment. What makes this first part of the novel a delight to read is Hanrahan's sharp wit and innovative writing style.  It's narrated in singular and plural first person and third person points of view, transitioning from one to another with only a line break as a guide:

I left Adelaide with only my hopes, a couple of mock-leather cases, a cardboard folder.  Now, in a strange climate, on a steely ship, the hopes have turned dull, been smothered by the present's grip and the sentimental stranglehold of what's past. Without the mediocrities I spurned I am adrift on more than an ocean.  The only solution seems to keep on moving, try to outpace both present and past, abandon the needs of an identity I can no longer serve.

But I can't do it by myself.  And the one I wait for doesn't come.

 

In the end darkness made her afraid.  She climbed down to the glassy lounge where bodies danced to music she couldn't hear. People stared from deck chairs; judged as they promenaded beside the rail.  Romance was mocked by a showy trail of foam.
On the deck, though the tropics drew near, it was cold.  Breezes swooped, but Virginia burned.  Disappointment, the shame induced by waiting, the burden beneath her arm, had set her on fire.  Tears stung her eyes; she blundered on.

Yet even in the descent to the cabin she couldn't succeed, couldn't find the way; lost herself in a maze of identical antiseptic corridors, wastes of tapestry weave lounges.  She passed through rooms where flagging pens embroidered yesterday's memories on flimsy pages; where women forgot they were wives in the queue for an ironing board, the evening's crumpled dreams of glamour over their arms. (p.45)

Sea Green would have been a salutary tale for Australian readers planning the same escape with hopes of an expat lifestyle like Germaine Greer, Robert Hughes and Clive James.

At times, the novella is almost unbearably poignant. 

TO read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2026/04/03/s...

[Chris Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Profoundly beautiful and so depressing. What a great read! I picked this up from the book store without looking at the blurb. The cover was cool and Im so glad I kept it, I was going to put it back before I purchased

[Sophie Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow to start. Vivid and feverish throughout.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Virginia lives in Adelaide, South Australia and is studying to be an artist. Unsatisfied with her life, she travels with a friend by passenger ship to England to pursue her artistic career. As she makes her way, you learn about her struggles to make art, to form relationships and to understand her own identity.

What you are taken on is a poetic journey of words and images that just consumes you. For a novel of about 200 pages, I was tagging quotes everywhere as the writing is lush but sparse. By that I mean every word is placed to perfection and it is rich. The descriptions of people and places is evocative and sharp. The only struggle is coming to terms with the change of perspective, sometimes it third person other times first person. Once you fall into the rhythm, you are hooked.

This was my first foray into the writing of Hanrahan’s and certainly will not be the last.

[Ginger Rankin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A similar style to Sylvia Plath and Virgina Woolf. It is beautifully written. But, be cautious if you have a tender heart.

[O · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very early Hanrahan; a bit too abstract for me

[Jess C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly picked this up because the cover was gorgeous— but I couldn’t have found a more special book.