News Archive

Albany booklovers were reminded of the oft-repeated saying that the truth is stranger than fiction during a lecture at the Albany Town hall by Susan Swingler, step-daughter of one of Australia's best loved authors Elizabeth Jolley.

As Swingler recounts in her memoir, The House of Fiction, Elizabeth Jolley led more than a double life.

Born Monica Knight, Elizabeth changed her name twice by deed poll before marrying Leonard Jolley, the husband of her best friend, in 1952. By then Susan, Leonard's daughter with his wife Joyce, and Sarah, Leonard's daughter with the woman who would reinvent herself as Elizabeth, were both six years old having been born five weeks apart in the summer of 1946.

More fabrications followed: Monica claimed that the father of her child was a doctor at the hospital even as she moved into the Leonard's home, later moving with him to Edinburgh. Throughout these deceptions Leonard's parents and siblings were unaware that Leonard had left Joyce and Susan for Monica and Sarah.  Even more startling, when Leonard and Elizabeth and Sarah moved to Australia in 1959, Elizabeth Jolley honed her talent for fiction by writing letters and sending photos to Leonard's family purportedly from Joyce and Susan, maintaining the façade for almost a decade.

In stories and photographs Swingler pieces together her quest to find her father and in doing so adds fascinating insights into the complex world of Elizabeth Jolley.

The House of Fiction: Leonard, Susan and Elizabeth Jolley is published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press. Susan Swingler visited Albany as part of the UWA Skwest Lecture series.

Media references

Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs) (+61 8) 6488 3229 / 0400 700 783

Paula Phillips (UWA Albany Centre) (+61 8) 9842 0810