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Everything I Knew
Physical and mental, sexual and literary, constructive and destructive. Coming of age in a small town peopled with big characters, he finds his new teacher Miss Peach the most unforgettable of all – his memories of her will haunt him for the rest of his life.Everything I Knew is at once laugh-out-loud funny and cry-out-loud tragic – farcical, horrifying, confronting – and bursting with originality. It challenges our determination to believe in the innocence of childhood and adolescence, and yet again shows Peter Goldsworthy to be a master of shifting tone. There is no novel quite like it in Australian literature.'Few of his Australian contemporaries are so skilled at the narrative arts as Goldworthy, let alone so fearless in seeking new, rather than familiar, fictional ground to work.' Peter Pierce, Sydney Morning Herald'Intelligent, complex and deeply affecting.' Murray Bramwell, Adelaide Review'A bawdy, honest, funny, tragic book about the aspirations of the young and how life happens to them. One of the best novels this year. Simply brilliant.' Ian Nichols, West Australian
250 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
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95 people want to read
About the author
Peter Goldsworthy
40 books50 followersPeter Goldsworthy grew up in various Australian country towns, finishing his schooling in Darwin. After graduating in medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1974, he worked for many years in alcohol and drug rehabiiltation. Since then, he has divided his time equally between writing and general practice. He has won major literary awards across a range of genres: poetry, short story, the novel, in opera, and most recently in theatre.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
June 11, 2025
Penola is in Coonawarra country, home to terra rossa soil—soil that has produced some of the finest Cabernet Sauvignons this reviewer has ever tasted.
Set in 1964, Robbie Burns lives the typical life of a 14-year-old in Penola, a small country town, where cultural opportunities are limited. Everyone knows everyone, and the highlight of the week is Saturday footy. Not much else happens. A certain Miss Pamela Peach arrives as a teacher at the local school—a sophisticated city woman whose artistic ways and modernism captivates Robbie. He has a vivid sci-fi imagination, and his new teacher encourages him. Soon, Robbie becomes obsessed with her, and his youthful fantasies lead to unintended and terrible consequences.
Towns such as Penola in 1964 were traditionally rural and isolated, it was then, suddenly forced to grapple with an outsider whose ideas were decidedly modernist. And that begs the question—why would a young, progressive teacher, with a changing big-city world at her feet, move to an isolated town uncertain about embracing change?
This novel explores these themes along with early teenage innocence and desire. Told through Robbie’s first-person narrative, the novel challenges the reader to read between the lines to understand Pamela Peach’s motivations. To reveal the tragic consequences of events would be too much of a spoiler. This reviewer entered the book with no prior knowledge of the story and was glad to experience it without expectations.
Author Peter Goldsworthy shifts seamlessly between humour and tragedy, making this a compelling read. And while there are moments when Robbie’s narration feels slightly awkward, it’s hard not to be challenged by the novel’s exploration of coming-of-age innocence in this unsettling, small-town Australian story.
Set in 1964, Robbie Burns lives the typical life of a 14-year-old in Penola, a small country town, where cultural opportunities are limited. Everyone knows everyone, and the highlight of the week is Saturday footy. Not much else happens. A certain Miss Pamela Peach arrives as a teacher at the local school—a sophisticated city woman whose artistic ways and modernism captivates Robbie. He has a vivid sci-fi imagination, and his new teacher encourages him. Soon, Robbie becomes obsessed with her, and his youthful fantasies lead to unintended and terrible consequences.
Towns such as Penola in 1964 were traditionally rural and isolated, it was then, suddenly forced to grapple with an outsider whose ideas were decidedly modernist. And that begs the question—why would a young, progressive teacher, with a changing big-city world at her feet, move to an isolated town uncertain about embracing change?
This novel explores these themes along with early teenage innocence and desire. Told through Robbie’s first-person narrative, the novel challenges the reader to read between the lines to understand Pamela Peach’s motivations. To reveal the tragic consequences of events would be too much of a spoiler. This reviewer entered the book with no prior knowledge of the story and was glad to experience it without expectations.
Author Peter Goldsworthy shifts seamlessly between humour and tragedy, making this a compelling read. And while there are moments when Robbie’s narration feels slightly awkward, it’s hard not to be challenged by the novel’s exploration of coming-of-age innocence in this unsettling, small-town Australian story.
March 9, 2023
I've been mulling over this for several weeks now partly because I wish I knew just how uneasy the author wants us to feel. Are we really not supposed to see the boy of the 'I' in the title as a rapist? Would I have felt as concerned about it when it first came out in 2008? Would I feel as discomforted by it if I were a man?
In a nub, Miss Peach is a newcomer to town, a country school teacher who has a married admirer come to visit her. At her place she gets very drunk and at some point believes that she is having sex (first time for her) with this poet. But in fact one of her students has broken into the house, hidden under her bed, comes out after the poet leaves, and then it is he who rapes her. Well, I don't see what else to call it. But apparently there are other ways....
Peter Pierce calls the key scene: 'Episodes of the most uproarious bedroom farce in Australian fiction'
Seriously? I know it's over ten years since it was written and we have different attitudes to consent now, but still. Surely a woman would have a different attitude. But when I look around, I see that at that time the female reviewers had no issue with this. Lisa Hill refers to 'The catastrophe that befalls Miss Peach as a result of her inexperience with booze is of a different order, but no less devastating.' But she was raped by somebody who broke into her house. Thank heavens things have changed if in 2009 this would be described as her fault, in effect.
rest is here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...
In a nub, Miss Peach is a newcomer to town, a country school teacher who has a married admirer come to visit her. At her place she gets very drunk and at some point believes that she is having sex (first time for her) with this poet. But in fact one of her students has broken into the house, hidden under her bed, comes out after the poet leaves, and then it is he who rapes her. Well, I don't see what else to call it. But apparently there are other ways....
Peter Pierce calls the key scene: 'Episodes of the most uproarious bedroom farce in Australian fiction'
Seriously? I know it's over ten years since it was written and we have different attitudes to consent now, but still. Surely a woman would have a different attitude. But when I look around, I see that at that time the female reviewers had no issue with this. Lisa Hill refers to 'The catastrophe that befalls Miss Peach as a result of her inexperience with booze is of a different order, but no less devastating.' But she was raped by somebody who broke into her house. Thank heavens things have changed if in 2009 this would be described as her fault, in effect.
rest is here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...
June 11, 2011
I found the premise of this good and the narrative started out well, evoking 1960s small country town Australia. Also authentic 1st person voice of young boy's sexual awakening even if a very well mined mother-lode.... Descriptions of homosexual masturbation with best buddy and Aboriginal Billy were sensitively handled and added well to the plot development. However the abrupt ending of Miss Peach was not well executed, quite literally, and you'd have to be a literary ignoramus not to draw obvious but disappointing comparisons with Anna Karenina's fate, although Vronsky seemed far more of a convincing reason to die under a train than the reasons the author gives Miss Peach. After reading two of Goldsworthy's novels now, not so sure I am hungry for another.
July 20, 2019
This is a very well written unpleasant story.
Set in a country town, Penola, in the south of the Australian state of South Australia in the early 1960s, it is a coming-of-age story with a tragic ending. The tragedy is largely the doing of the central character, Robert Burns, an intelligent, precocious young teen just entering high school. Initially, he seems to be a teenager that gets up to much of the same mischief as many young teens. As the novel proceeds, however, he reveals himself to be largely unempathetic and quite amoral.
As he starts High School, he is faced with Miss Peach, a new teacher fresh out of university on her first teaching post. He develops an immediate crush on her. She, however, has taken a post well away from Adelaide to escape an involvement with a much older university lecturer and published poet. The tale escalates towards tragedy.
I found it difficult to like the novel in part because none of the main characters are particularly likeable. Even Miss Peach, turns out to be manipulative in her relationship with the older man.
Goldsworthy has done an excellent job of re-creating an Australian country town of the era and the mores and attitudes that prevailed at the time. He includes the racist and patronising attitude of Caucasian Australians towards indigenous Australians. He does this in a very matter-of-fact way without ever sermonising.
Some relief from the thoughts and actions of the main characters is provided by some of the lesser characters, Burns' father, the town policeman, his mother, the local doctor and two mature female teachers who are in a Lesbian relationship, hinted at strongly in the story. They are worldly-wise and see the darkness in Master Burns more clearly, probably, than any others in the town.
The climax is shocking and the epilogue immensely sad. This is a tale of so many lives wasted.
Set in a country town, Penola, in the south of the Australian state of South Australia in the early 1960s, it is a coming-of-age story with a tragic ending. The tragedy is largely the doing of the central character, Robert Burns, an intelligent, precocious young teen just entering high school. Initially, he seems to be a teenager that gets up to much of the same mischief as many young teens. As the novel proceeds, however, he reveals himself to be largely unempathetic and quite amoral.
As he starts High School, he is faced with Miss Peach, a new teacher fresh out of university on her first teaching post. He develops an immediate crush on her. She, however, has taken a post well away from Adelaide to escape an involvement with a much older university lecturer and published poet. The tale escalates towards tragedy.
I found it difficult to like the novel in part because none of the main characters are particularly likeable. Even Miss Peach, turns out to be manipulative in her relationship with the older man.
Goldsworthy has done an excellent job of re-creating an Australian country town of the era and the mores and attitudes that prevailed at the time. He includes the racist and patronising attitude of Caucasian Australians towards indigenous Australians. He does this in a very matter-of-fact way without ever sermonising.
Some relief from the thoughts and actions of the main characters is provided by some of the lesser characters, Burns' father, the town policeman, his mother, the local doctor and two mature female teachers who are in a Lesbian relationship, hinted at strongly in the story. They are worldly-wise and see the darkness in Master Burns more clearly, probably, than any others in the town.
The climax is shocking and the epilogue immensely sad. This is a tale of so many lives wasted.
October 31, 2009
Peter Goldsworthy's novels are among my favourites, and Everything I Knew is no exception.
Set in country South Australia in the 1960's, the book is told through the eyes of a 14 year old schoolboy who is not only a flawed observer but a participant in a chain of events he does not fully understand at the time, and which in a later decade would not have had the same consequences.
I found it hard to put down, and with an unexpectedly heart-wrenching final section , this book had me fully immersed.
The characters and events in this book have stayed with me long after the final page.
Set in country South Australia in the 1960's, the book is told through the eyes of a 14 year old schoolboy who is not only a flawed observer but a participant in a chain of events he does not fully understand at the time, and which in a later decade would not have had the same consequences.
I found it hard to put down, and with an unexpectedly heart-wrenching final section , this book had me fully immersed.
The characters and events in this book have stayed with me long after the final page.
September 29, 2009
Everything I Knew is a compelling book with a confronting moral dilemma at the heart of it. With an engaging cast of characters, it brings small town attitudes and conformity to life. To read my review and some suggested questions for discussion, see http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/200...
April 6, 2024
A lot to love about this book, but jeepers it has dated. As a clever/fidgety boy from the country who left to go to boarding school I adored the affectionate portrayal of the young fella’s restlessness. Some of the supporting characters were delightfully drawn. The town itself was a character, as was the train connecting it with the world beyond.
But we have a problem. It is the year 2024, and one-dimensional teenaged love can be read about in thousands of YA novels. The character on the cover of this literary grown-up novel, whose sexiness sells the story, is depicted in outline only, and that’s about the sum of it. Who really is Miss Peach?
Boys and young men reading this won’t find out any more about how girls and women grow or develop, nor how to be good to them. Art is made by the author of the mystery of the feminine, but I’m not sure girls or women reading this teenaged book here in 2024 will see or feel themselves rendered with anything like the affection shown the protagonist.
Yes, teenaged crushes say more about the crusher than the crushee. One of love’s main lessons is how to sort out what’s you and what’s the other person. By taking the narrative path he took in 2008, the author has ensured this otherwise tender and beautiful book has become historical fiction sooner than it could otherwise have been had the author dared to show us more of Miss Peach and her inner life.
As it happens she joins a long line of young women written largely by men, whose bodies end up propelling the plot far more than their hearts and minds.
It’s a sad book, but I’m sadder about the book.
But we have a problem. It is the year 2024, and one-dimensional teenaged love can be read about in thousands of YA novels. The character on the cover of this literary grown-up novel, whose sexiness sells the story, is depicted in outline only, and that’s about the sum of it. Who really is Miss Peach?
Boys and young men reading this won’t find out any more about how girls and women grow or develop, nor how to be good to them. Art is made by the author of the mystery of the feminine, but I’m not sure girls or women reading this teenaged book here in 2024 will see or feel themselves rendered with anything like the affection shown the protagonist.
Yes, teenaged crushes say more about the crusher than the crushee. One of love’s main lessons is how to sort out what’s you and what’s the other person. By taking the narrative path he took in 2008, the author has ensured this otherwise tender and beautiful book has become historical fiction sooner than it could otherwise have been had the author dared to show us more of Miss Peach and her inner life.
As it happens she joins a long line of young women written largely by men, whose bodies end up propelling the plot far more than their hearts and minds.
It’s a sad book, but I’m sadder about the book.
August 2, 2025
I normally like Peter Goldsworthy’s novels but perhaps the plot of this one didn’t age well.
The first half or so putters along enjoyably from the perspective of Robbie, a precocious 14 year old in Penola in the 60s who is enamoured with his new female teacher, Miss Peach. The interactions between a visiting boozy literature professor and Miss Peach, as observed and recounted through Robbie’s perspective, are amusing.
The central event of the book is then quite disturbing and leads to a dark ending. What bothered me is that the book does not seem to ever really grapple with the inherent gravity of the as opposed to its consequence. As a kid, Robbie’s lack of reflection/insight is part of his character, but the fact that adult Robbie remained rather one dimensional in his thinking left a sour, unresolved feeling. Perhaps that was the point, and the impact on the reader intentional. Or perhaps to a male author in 2009 the events genuinely felt more morally ambiguous than they struck me as a female reader in 2025? Either way, finishing this book didn’t feel particularly satisfying, but am rounding up to three stars for the first half and the writing otherwise.
The first half or so putters along enjoyably from the perspective of Robbie, a precocious 14 year old in Penola in the 60s who is enamoured with his new female teacher, Miss Peach. The interactions between a visiting boozy literature professor and Miss Peach, as observed and recounted through Robbie’s perspective, are amusing.
The central event of the book is then quite disturbing and leads to a dark ending. What bothered me is that the book does not seem to ever really grapple with the inherent gravity of the as opposed to its consequence. As a kid, Robbie’s lack of reflection/insight is part of his character, but the fact that adult Robbie remained rather one dimensional in his thinking left a sour, unresolved feeling. Perhaps that was the point, and the impact on the reader intentional. Or perhaps to a male author in 2009 the events genuinely felt more morally ambiguous than they struck me as a female reader in 2025? Either way, finishing this book didn’t feel particularly satisfying, but am rounding up to three stars for the first half and the writing otherwise.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 13, 2017
This book begins well and then quickly deteriorates. Set in 1960s Penola, the son of the local copper sets out on a very destructive first year of high school. The novel is longer than it needs to be, and the protagonist is so very unlikable that it's hard to follow him around most of the time. There's too much going on in the story and I didn't believe any of it. Right up to the last page, it's unrealistic and the regular speculative fiction short stories are annoying, as are the various unresolved sexual secrets of almost everyone in town. Apart from a few lovely bits in the beginning, I really disliked this book. Not recommended.
March 18, 2024
Peter Goldsworthy is a fine writer. There are passages in this novel that are superbly written. Despite this, I found this novel slightly disappointing. All the promising build up in the first half of the novel is wasted by the ridiculous last 50 pages, especially the final revelation. The problem is the narrator cannot be trusted to be completely truthful or aware of what is really happening. The unsettling nature of some of this is fine. That's why we read - to be challenged. But the author needed to find a better way to end this story, that is more realistic and believable. Add half a star.
October 31, 2017
Insights to the mind of a teenage boy in the 60’s with a hefty crush on his teacher.... while the outcome is tragic its delivered by the author in a way that it’s not an abrupt finale & almost fatalistic that this is how it would end. My main criticism is the dialogue can waffle on a bit but on the whole a surprisingly enjoyable read.
May 16, 2020
I enjoyed this novel, until the very unsatisfactory ending.
September 14, 2024
Started out strongly, started to flag midway and then collapsed in a heap at the end.
May 3, 2011
If you've read Goldsworthy's 'Maestro', you'll recognise plenty here. In fact, you could almost say that he has with this book expanded upon the outline that was the earlier text.[return][return]Except that the concerns of the two texts are completely different. Both are about the relationship between a student and his teacher, but this one is more about... well, about coming of age, rather than seeking perfection or learning life lessons, or even striving to achieve redemption.[return][return]There's some quease-making stuff in here, so if you're not into male-on-male mutual masturbation, i would suggest you stick to 'Maestro', where the sex scenes are a little less cinematic. Maybe i'm a prude, but there it is.[return][return]The Miss Peach character is well realised, i think you'll find, and it's a bit of a shock to see her ultimately as a creature trapped in the 1960s, rather than a living, breathing contemporary. Although the scooter helps.[return][return]Goldsworthy has used the same structural approach as in 'Maestro', and it works pretty well, except - as far as this reader was concerned - it all got a bit untidy and philosophical toward the end. And i think you'll find the surprise in the pickle jar a little bit too pat and melodramatic; i certainly did.
January 16, 2013
I really didn’t like this book. I couldn’t seem to warm to any of the characters, let alone the main character. Robbie was fourteen, just going into high school, and had developed a crush on his English teacher, Miss Peach. But Robbie was an extremely selfish, self-centred boy (more so than usual I think!) He and his best friend Billy Currie, an Aboriginal, had been mates for a very long time, ever since Billy and his family came to Penola, in SA, from the Mission. But Robbie had no hesitation in letting Billy take the rap for something he did…..
The story didn’t seem to go anywhere, the book was written over Robbie’s first year of high school, and broken up into the terms. (As they were back in 1964) Robbie’s father was the local policeman, and in the small town of Penola, everyone knew everyone else.
I picked this book up because of the location it was set in, as I spent almost 20 years of my life near Penola, driving through the town pretty much every week. I knew the surrounding locations which were mentioned in the book…but I wish I hadn’t wasted my money on this one!
The story didn’t seem to go anywhere, the book was written over Robbie’s first year of high school, and broken up into the terms. (As they were back in 1964) Robbie’s father was the local policeman, and in the small town of Penola, everyone knew everyone else.
I picked this book up because of the location it was set in, as I spent almost 20 years of my life near Penola, driving through the town pretty much every week. I knew the surrounding locations which were mentioned in the book…but I wish I hadn’t wasted my money on this one!
August 14, 2014
I've enjoyed every Peter Goldsworthy novel that I've read, including this one, however with a good premise and a great start, it seemed to "fizzle out" a bit for me. The ending was overly complex and convoluted and several major events for significant characters were underdone. I always enjoy the "South Australian-ism" of Goldsworthy's books and this one, set in Penola in the mid 1960s, is no different. The involvement of the Bluebird train, which used to run between Adelaide and Mount Gambier, was especially reminiscent for me (although the book suggests it stopped running in 1975, even though I recall travelling on it to spend Easter in Mount Gambier in 1986). Additionally, I find his characters and mood are familiar and characteristic of the culture and lifestyle of the state. I know some people find Goldsworthy's books and characters to be a bit pretentious, but it's the moral quagmires, the perversity and his lucid narrative that intrigue me. Not one of my favourite Goldsworthy novels, but a good read nonetheless.
July 28, 2011
Goldsworthy is a talent and one of my favourite Australian authors but this story, while reasonably well-written and readable, did not do much for me. He's covered some of this ground in 'Maestro' already, and I'm not fond of his older, jaded, somewhat self-satisfied men looking back at their childhood selves.
January 9, 2016
This is a more straightforward book than some of Goldsworthy's recent work, which frequently had bizarre concepts at their core. This is first and foremost a coming of age story, set in the South Australia town of Penola. It has an unusual love affair, undercurrents of the racism of the era and a strong feeling of place. The narrative voice of young Robbie is well-controlled and convincing.
March 14, 2017
Goldsworthy's disturbing tale of pederasty is swathed in his signature, beautifully understated prose. The precocious mind of budding young writer, Robbie Burns, drifts in and out of reliability in his murky past. Perhaps the greatest tragedy lies in Miss Peach's denigration from an intelligent and aspiring scholar to sex object as the men around her destroy her in their objectification of her.
December 20, 2008
Picked this up from the staff picks shelf at the library in my quest for contemporary Australian writers.
Read
August 7, 2011Poignant.
August 5, 2013
Totally enjoyable and you'll go looking for more from Peter Goldsworthy
June 22, 2015
Interesting coming of age story. Truth be told, the protagonist is an idiot, and so annoying - just like a true teenager. Couldn't put it down and that's always something I love in a novel.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews