The End of the Morning

by Charmian Clift, Nadia Wheatley (editor)

The never-before-published novel by Charmian Clift.‘In those days the end of the morning was always marked by the quarry whistle blowing the noon knock-off.Since everybody was out of bed very early, morning then was a long time, or even, if you came to think about it, a round time — symmetrical anyway, and contained under a thin, radiant, dome shaped cover…’During the years of the Great Depression, Cressida Morley and her eccentric family live in a weatherboard cottage on the edge of a wild beach. Outsiders in their small working-class community, they rant and argue and read books and play music and never feel themselves to be poor. Yet as Cressida moves beyond childhood, she starts to outgrow the place that once seemed the centre of the world. As she plans her escape, the only question who will she become?The End of the Morning is the final and unfinished autobiographical novel by Charmian Clift. Published here for the first time, it is the book that Clift herself regarded as her most significant work. Although the author did not live to complete it, the typescript left among her papers was fully revised and stands alone as a novella. It is published here alongside a new selection of Clift’s essays and an afterword from her biographer Nadia Wheatley.‘The End of the Morning is full of feeling, animated by that formless, aching questioning of childhood, and a fascinating glimpse of the forces that shaped Clift as a person and a writer.’ — Fiona Wright‘Reading her, even a glimpsed paragraph of her, is like quaffing the finest champagne on earth.’ — Peter Craven, Sydney Morning Herald‘Forthright, funny and with an indefinable flair, Charmian Clift’s writing plays second fiddle to nobody.’ — Richard Cotter, Sydney Arts Guide

Genres: Fiction, Australia

236 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2024

About the author

Charmian Clift was an Australian writer and essayist during the mid 20th century. She was the second wife and literary collaborator of George Johnston.

Reviews

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a bit of a have, I thought. I was someone who always read Clift’s column in the 60s and mourned her death. I have read a number of books about Charmian and also a couple of her novels - and of course, George Johnston’s My Brother Jack in which Charmian appears as Cressida Morley. So when I saw ‘ previously unpublished novel’ I was excited. However, this is a mere snippet of an unfinished story, largely autobirographical, and the Cressida in it is one I felt I knew and had read about before. The book then contains an essay by Nadia Wheatley (who was Clift’s biographer) and selected essays from Clift’s column days (which I dipped into but found many seemed dated). So it isn’t what it’s made out to be and that annoyed me. Clift never went back to this novel that she started when she was young - and probably with good reason.

[Julianne Quaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir of Charmian Clift’s childhood which evokes Australia before world war 2 and in some senses before the significant shifts brought in the aftermath of that war - economic growth of the 50s and cultural change of the 60s. These changes are reflected in the accompanying group of short essays written by Clift for her newspaper column in the 1960s providing an interesting contrast with the memoir. Clift’s commentary on the status of women before first wave feminism is prescient - no doubt her own writing career helped her perspective. Interesting was the issues she raises that continue somewhat today - women working vs childrearing. An interesting essay of trying to restore an old house in Mosman and not have the builder cover up the ‘useless’ fireplaces shows the early beginnings of appreciation of early Sydney architecture. The link to the myth of Prometheus beautifully highlights her time spent in Greece. Very enjoyable reading. Recommended

[Robert Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novella of Charmian Clift and the collection of her essays compiled by Nadia Wheatley was a delight. So unaffected and natural. A genuine treasure.

[Robert Claireson · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh to be a radicalised house wife reading Charmian Cliff columns in the 60’s

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is infused with the sort of wistful, nostalgic, wished for idealistic past that seems to come from the post-war 50s and 60s looking back at the pre-war, and even wartime, times.

[Neens West · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a soft spot for Charmian Clift as we were both born in Kiama, and I admire her perseverance through a difficult writing life.

This novella, published posthumously along with an excellent Afterword by Nadia Wheatley and an anthology of collected essays/newspaper columns, takes you straight back to Kiama between the wars (1930s).

If you have no connection with the place, you might not be so enamoured of the story. Her talent is in evoking the landscape and how it was dominated by the blue metal quarry and the quarry whistle that sounds every day at noon: "Farmers' wives as far afield as Jamberoo, Minnamurra and Gerringong set their kitchen clocks by that dreadful blast of sound."

And of course the wild, crashing sea off the coast of Kiama: "The sound of the sea filled the mornings. It was like living inside a shell. The soothing monotonous surf music beat and beat back from the hills, crump and swoosh, crump and swoosh, over and over and over." (nice use of repetition device!) Anyone familiar with this coastline (especially stormy Bombo beach) will be transported there immediately through her words.

[Riley Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this one up in a bookshop in Launceston after seeing the cover and being intrigued by the possibility of reading some essays. Charmian Clift did not disappoint in this respect, her unfinished autobiography takes place near Kiama which was a pleasant surprise and her essays are beautifully written.

Particular ones which stood out was ‘the old address book’, ‘Babylon versus the corner store’ and ‘the last stays of Prometheus’. What they all have in common is their reflections of past things that are not nearly as common because you can store contacts on your phone, go to the local Westfield and have electrical heating. The way she captures these small things and adds so much emotional and descriptive depth to replacing an old address book is a testament to her skill and exceptional writing ability. Needless to say I will be tracking down more of her writings to read.

[Caitlin Deibe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly just kind of boring and irrelevant and pointless. Pretty cover though

[Suz Bennett]

I am drawn to Clifts writing very much after reading Peel me a lotus many years ago. Enjoyable but found it a bit repetitive after reading Nadia Wheatley s biography of Clift not that long ago.

[Jennifer Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

In reality this is not a complete novel, but an homage by Nadia Wheatley to Charmian Clift, a writer who died by suicide in 1969, but who was a prolific writer and newspaper columnist and the wife of George Johnston, himself a well known writer at that time
The material is in the form of a memoir of a childhood on the coast of New South Wales and Clift did live near Kiama on this coast.
I found it a delightful read, as I am old enough to realise that the lifestyle portrayed, while seemingly harsh and difficult, was a simple,warm and loving environment of the type at that time.
What comes through is the creative mind and thoughts of a young girl severely restricted by circumstances and determined to succeed and achieve. She had the model of her older sister who was seen as the epitome of beauty and success and favoured by her parents, yet she appears to be intelligent and desperate to succeed in her own way.
Once her sister leaves home to work she is desolate that she is not automatically the new favourite of her parents, to 'take her turn'
There was no resolution in the story, which was re-written many times but never completed but the author gives background to Charmaine's life to enable us to see how the arc of her life continued.
I have seen it written that her early death by suicide at 45 was brought on by the imminent release of her husband's book which revealed her extra marital affairs. She left 3 children from her marriage and a further child relinquished to adoption when she was younger who has written of her experience discovering who her birth mother was.
Charmian has been recognised since as a great writer in several mediums, but also a brave traveller to live in Hydra in Greece.
This sample of her writing takes you completely to the place she was born and raised and is a good background to her other writing

[Warrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I was left with when I'd read Clift's short and unfinished novella was a sense of frustration at what might have been. She writes beautifully of what seems to to have been her own childhood experience, growing up poor and happy in a beautiful coastal town, but to think that this short novel is something she held on to for so long, intending one day to have the time and finances to complete it, is sad.

She's probably best known know for Peel ME a Lotus (Oe) now and, while the essays that make up half this book are quirky, lively and interesting, there is a sense that, for various personal and historical reasons, Clift's gift was never fully realised.

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it but I love all Charmian Clift's writing and especially the story of her life. So much drama and freedom and tragedy. This should be read with her other writings, and along side the biography of her and George Johnston, and their shared works. Sadly yet another story of a woman whose life is entwined with a male writer but under the domestic weight of which her own writing is compromised. And in the end, through his autobiographical works, and despite her providing financial support for her family (including him) while he wrote, she is betrayed and the reality of her true role in their writing partnership, not so much diminished, but blanked out altogether. Despite this, she is who I think of when I imagine the writing life I would like to have lived.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love anything by Charmain Cliff. It’s not only the Hydra connection but the regular opinion pieces she wrote for newspapers. Nadia Wheatley has assembled a representative collection of these, each a fascinating insight to the life she led mostly from Sydney but with Greek reflections and experiences as well. Wheatley says each piece took four days to write. No wonder. They are perfect. As is the novella. The End Of The Morning. As Peter Craven says ‘Reading her, even a glimpsed paragraph of her is like quaffing the finest champagne on earth. I couldn’t agree more.

[Jennifer Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book sad. The novella was moving and alive and it made her columns feel as if she were filling in time until she could get back to life’s work - and she never did.

Beyond tragic that she took her own life and for what? I hope that it is only our guess that she did not want to read of her Hydra infidelities. I am watching ‘Farewell Marianne’ and while Leonard Cohen can only be described as brilliantly annoying, Charmian Clift, played by Anna Torv, is mesmerising. I want to leave for Hydra at once.

[Emma Balkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to read Charmian Clint’s work. I loved her morsel of a novel, but the most interesting part of the text was Nadia Wheatley’s analysis of the links between Clift’s writing, that of her husband George Johnson, and their real lives. Like Funder’s Wifedom, it really got me thinking about the parallels between Johnson and Orwell, with the professional sacrifices made by their wives. The essays were interesting and I am keen to read Wheatley’s biography and Clift’s other works.

[Giovanna Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting I understand why the finally novel was unfinished....a bit of work still to be done on it. I did enjoy the short articles, everyday life - how some 'themes' have stayed the same (education, work, free time, women's roles) and how some are so different!! Underlying is knowing what happened to Clift, and her children, and the fact that she had a child adopted....Clift was also a 'victim' of her time. It does make reading the stories somewhat melancholy, knowing that she wasn't able to be 'her true self'. Interesting to read the everyday thoughts of a contemporary of my parents. How single women were still called 'spinsters' and there was that 'otherness' about them not having children. A 'lack'. Conservative Australia banning a play that had 4 letter words and contemplating all the conflict that was currently (then) happening in the world. We might change technologically, but we're still human, with the same thoughts/feelings.

[Heidi Heath · Rating 2 out of 5]

technically didn’t read the whole book but marking it as read.

It was set out with a short unfinished autobiographical novel at the beginning which I LOVED (that part is 5 stars). Then it continued into selected essays.

I only read about 20 of the 30 essays. I just had quick glances and read the ones that I thought would actually interest me. I really tried to get into them but I found them to be overly indulgent and desperately conceptual and nuanced, so much so that any message was hidden behind outlandish language and metaphors.

She writes beautifully but for me, her efforts are more successful when applied to novels or slightly more straightforward narratives where she can set the scene rather than silly introspective analyses.

Spent most of my time trying to figure out wtf she was going on about.

The autobiographical novel was genuine perfection but the essays really tainted this for me :(

[Afsana Banana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Call me a Thursday Lady ("the middle-aged and middle-class women who comprised the largest cohort of Clift's fans") because this was the most enjoyable anthology of essays I've ever read. By beginning with the incomplete autobiographical manuscript based on the author's childhood, then following with an illuminatory afterword (that serves as a crucial keystone to the collection), Nadia Wheatley informs the reader of pivotal context which renders the following collection of essays a series of thrilling insights into the life and work of Charmian Clift. At the same time, she reinstates the "essential being" and "identity" denied to Clift by her husband's appropriation of the fictionalized Cressida Morley. A wonderful collection that has something for everyone, regardless of age or background!

[Anne Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a loss to literature it was that Charmian Clift never finished "The End of The Morning". Whether or not it was her childhood as it was or as she wanted it to be (as suggested by Nadia Wheatley in her biography of Clift) it's wonderful evocative writing.

There's something magical about Clift's prose. It makes whatever else you've been reading sound flat, dull and try-hard. As Fiona Wright said in a review "Reading her, even a glimpsed paragraph of her, is like quaffing the finest champagne on earth."

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was disappointing. This book is a fragment of an autobiographical novel, and some of Charmain's newspaper columns. The first section which is the fragment of the novel is fascinating, and her writing is wonderful, however the rest of the book is a disappointment. I have been a great fan of Charmain Clift for over 40 years, but I fear the columns are now dated.

[Andrea Mandry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Wonderful Read

I really enjoy the writing of Charmaine Clift about her thoughts and experiences of life. The descriptions are wonderful, she has a good way with words. I am so pleased have found her, having read about her via two other writers on Hydra, Greece.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted more of The End of the Morning, but that is not to be as the novel was not finished when Clift died in 1969.

The remainder of the book is a collection of 30 essays by Clift published in the Sydney Morning Herald between 1965 -1969.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The novella itself is charming; what a shame that it was never completed. However I loved the collection of essays that made up the rest of this book. They are proof - as if any were needed - of Clift's brilliance as a writer.

[Chris Waterford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is 52 pages of an unfinished memoir and various pieces published in the SMH in the 60's. The writing was good throughout without being amazing. Delighted to see a friend of mine mentioned in one of the essays.
8/10

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh how wonderful it is to read a book that so perfectly encapsulates how it felt to grow up on the South Coast of NSW. A special one

[court · Rating 5 out of 5]

so happy i judged a cover and read this and went down an absolute rabbit hole xoxo

[Heather A · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 March 2024
After reading so much about Charmian Clift this book written by Clift is a jewel, albeit so small.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sheer brilliance. Writing doesn’t get much better than this.