Are you a nonfiction reader? What do you think makes a good Australian memoir? In much belated celebration of We Love Memoirs Day on 31 August, we at the PMI Library are continuing our search for the Top 100 Australian Books of All Time for ABC Radio National’s countdown (voting is open until 1 October!) by highlighting memoirs old and new. We Come with This Place by Debra Dank was covered in a previous post, but here are ten more Australian memoirs from our own collection that we believe are worthy of consideration.
Australian Gospel by Lech Blaine was published in 2024 and tells a story that is stranger than fiction. Lech Blaine is the only biological child of Lenore and Tom Blaine – working-class publicans in Queensland. His three foster siblings Steven, John and Hannah were removed from their biological parents as infants. But their parents are Michael and Mary Shelley – two ultra-fundamentalist Christians, cult leaders and child abductors who will do anything to get their children back.
The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway is the first in Conway’s trilogy of memoirs and recounts the author’s life from childhood through to young adulthood. Conway grew up in Coorain, which was the name of her parents’ sheep station in New South Wales. After a drought devastates the farm and leads to her father’s death, the family moves to Sydney and Conway embarks on a journey of independence and self-discovery.
I’d Rather Not by Robert Skinner is a humorous collection of thirteen essays about Skinner’s unconventional life. Topics include unemployment, sleeping rough, running an unprofitable literary magazine, Centrelink woes, travel and life in and out of Melbourne.
Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes is of course the 2016 memoir of the Australian rock icon and lead vocalist of Cold Chisel. Jimmy Barnes was born James Dixon Swan in Scotland and emigrated to Australia with his family in 1962. His family is deeply dysfunctional and young Jimmy explores alcohol, drugs and teenage sex as he comes of age amidst poverty, eventually leaving home to join a band. Working Class Boy is followed by Working Class Man.
The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke is a powerful, absorbing memoir about the author’s experiences growing up Black in Australia. The daughter of Black British parents with Jamaican and Guyanese roots, Clarke’s family history spans ‘four continents, four hundred years of slavery, one forced migration, two voluntary migrations and many lifetimes’. In The Hate Race, Clarke comes of age in the white-dominated Sydney suburb of Kellyville, relating how her life has been inescapably shaped by her race and people’s perceptions of it.
The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do is from one of Australia’s best-loved comedians and begins with Do’s tale of coming to Australia by boat as a refugee at the age of two and a half and surviving attacks by Thai pirates. Do’s narrative is characterised by vignettes infused with frankness and humour, retaining optimism even through difficult aspects like his complex and evolving relationship with his father, who left the family when Do was thirteen.
Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee takes its name from a legal doctrine that states that a defendant must ‘take their victim as they find them’. Even if said victim has a skull as thin as an eggshell, inadvertently leading to death from a single punch, the seriousness of the crime cannot be diminished. It tells the powerful story of Lee’s journey through the Australian legal system, first as a policeman’s daughter turned law student and judge’s associate with a focus on violence against women and children, then as a complainant in a case regarding indecent treatment of a child – herself, at the hands of her older brother’s friend when she was in primary school. Eggshell Skull won the People’s Choice Award at the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein is, strictly speaking, more of a biography than a memoir, but is included here for the way the author’s own thoughts and impressions frame each section of the narrative. The Trauma Cleaner is about the life of transgender woman Sandra Pankhurst and her many roles and occupations over the years, from drag queen and sex worker to businesswoman and the titular ‘trauma cleaner’, cleaning the homes of people ravaged by trauma-fuelled hoarding.
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks is a memoir from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse and documents Brooks’ life following the sudden death of her husband, journalist and author Tony Horwitz, on the US Memorial Day public holiday in 2019. Three years later, Brooks books a flight to Flinders Island, off the coast of Tasmania, and gives herself time to grieve, reflect and rebuild her life after more than three decades with her husband by her side.
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, edited by Anita Heiss, collects fifty reflections, vignettes and nonfiction accounts from Aboriginal people about their experiences growing up Aboriginal in Australia. These stories range from amusing to serious, painful to reflective and inspiring, showcasing diverse voices as they challenge stereotypes and centre family, country and belonging.
These are just some of the memoirs in the PMI Library – which titles would you nominate?
Written by library volunteer Susannah Cosham.