Jill Blee

Jill Blee is a remarkable woman: born in Ballarat where she now lives again, she is a ‘late bloomer’ as an author after a very varied career in Melbourne and Sydney. From an old article in The Age, I’ve learned that after school she trained as an industrial chemist, but like many women of her generation, she gave up work to have a family. When her marriage broke down she started a picture framing business, then sold insurance, and then was a factory manager. At 35 when her youngest started school, she started an arts degree, and – her interest in history fired by helping her children with projects – she went on to complete two Master of Arts degrees and a PhD, working as a live-in boarding-school housemistress so that she could study by day. And at 50 she began to write. I’ve previously reviewed Brigid (1999) and The Liberator’s Birthday (2002), and … without knowing it was Blee’s work as an historical researcher that I was watching, I’ve also seen some of the Doctor Blake Mysteries, set in Ballarat!

The Pines Hold Their Secrets (1988) is her first novel. It’s historical fiction, set on Norfolk Island during its period as a notorious penal settlement. Elise Cartwright travels with her family from the penal settlement in Hobart to Norfolk Island where her father – transferring under some unspecified cloud – has accepted a lesser position as Superintendent of Agriculture. He had been one of the most important men in Van Diemen’s Land and his silly wife is very conscious of her social position, fussing over frocks and what’s ‘appropriate’ and always manoeuvring to ensure that her three daughters marry well. Elise, an independent minded young woman in her early twenties, chafes at the social niceties and thus comes into brief contact with a convict called O’Shaughnessy while they are on board the Porpoise.

On Norfolk Island Elise is haunted by O’Shaughnessy’s enigmatic plea for help to prove his innocence, but can’t do anything about it. And despite Mrs Cartright’s best efforts to shield herself and her girls from anything unpleasant, before long all kinds of horrors are revealed, all reasonably consistent with what we know of Australia’s history as a penal colony. While there are a couple of rather melodramatic moments that test credulity as the novel reaches its climax, the plot rattles along quite well and the characters are generally well-drawn.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/02/13/the-pines-hold-their-secrets-by-jill-blee/… (mehr)

Oh dear, this is one of those book reviews that I don’t really want to write. Brigid could have been a much better book than it is…

I discovered Victorian author Jill Blee back in 2009 when I borrowed an audio book called The Liberator’s Birthday, and I liked it so much (see my review) that I hunted out her other titles: her first novel The Pines Hold their Secrets, and her second, Brigid. (I think I bought them direct from her website, but I don’t seem to be able to find it now). Unfortunately, this book is not as successful as The Liberator’s Birthday.

Brigid appears to be a professionally published book with a beautifully designed cover (by David Wong) and good production values – but the text looks suspiciously like a self-edited effort. There are far too many irritating typos including one in the very first paragraph; there is a persistent problem with the contraction it’s and the possessive pronoun its; and confusion over synonyms like pore/pour and horde/hoard shouldn’t have survived a first proof-reading. But that’s not the only problem…

Good editing would have tidied up an interesting concept and eased it into a more engaging tale. The narrator travels to Ireland but has her holiday hijacked by the spirit of her long-dead great-great-aunt Brigid, who bullies her into abandoning her original plans to tour Ireland. Instead, she is to trace her ancestors’ tragic experience during the Potato Famine and solve a long-standing mystery that prevents Brigid from resting in peace. This is a story with good potential, but the structure chosen to deliver it derails itself repeatedly. A travelogue punctuated by irritable conversations between narrator and the dead aunt just doesn’t work.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2015/08/02/brigid-by-jill-blee/… (mehr)

A “24” set in a pub on the Ballarat goldfields in 1875. Tommy is the oldest son of the Irish publican Christy who struck it rich and invested his money in the hotel. Looks at how hard a life Tommy has as he is up at dawn to get the pub ready as the town celebrates Daniel O’Connell ; the Irish liberator’s birthday with parades, concerts and much drinking. His brother is going to be a priest, his father is under the influence of the evil Dean, his mother has delusions of grandeur and his secret love has been kidnapped. Has Tommy had enough or is he resigned to a life of kegs, brawls and politics?… (mehr)