Stories

by Elizabeth Jolley

Stories from two previous collections, "Five Acre Virgin" and "The Travelling Entertainer," are combined in a volume that includes an autobiographical piece describing the people and things that have influenced the author

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Monica Elizabeth Jolley was an award-winning writer who settled in Western Australia in the late 1950s. She was 53 years old when her first book was published, and she went on to publish fifteen novels (including an autobiographical trilogy), four short story collections, and three non-fiction books, publishing well into her 70s and achieving significant critical acclaim. She was also a pioneer of creative writing teaching in Australia, counting many well known writers such as Tim Winton among her students. Her novels explore alienated characters and the nature of loneliness and entrapment.

Honours:
1987: Western Australian Citizen of the Year
1988: Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for services to literature
1989: Canada/Australia Literary Award
1997: Australian Living Treasure

Reviews

[Greg Condon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been reading these on the DL while slogging through War and Peace and must say, these short stories go down smoother than your 3rd Guinness at Hartleys! Concise, contemporary, funny and entertaining - in short, the perfect antidote to Tolstoy's endless yammering. The stories are offbeat but very human,my favorite being A Hedge of Rosemary, about an old man living with with his son and daughter in law, who goes for long walks every night after dinner, seeming to his relatives to disappear for hours every night. To say where he goes each night would spoil the delight in reading it for yourself the first time so I will just end it there. All in all a strong recommend!