Yellow Notebook: diaries. Volume 1, 1978-1987
The Text Publishing Company 2019
ISBN 978-1-922268-14-3
Aboard the Ghan one night, Ms Garner tells us, “I finished Seven Poor Men of Sydney. I’m shocked. I never knew Stead was a visionary. Beside her I am … a timid, shallow burrower.” page 157.
By and large, the Yellow Notebook diarist takes her cue from the first chief in the liner notes of Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding album. Regarding the 1986 arrival of Halley’s Comet, for instance, she’s driven to the mediaeval conclusion that “Surely God exists? Can such a phenomenon have no meaning?” page 182. Rain does not follow the plough.
One day I’ll remember this: diaries. Volume II: 1987-1995
The Text Publishing Company 2020
ISBN 978-1-922330-27-7
As had the Yellow Notebook, the Red (One Day I’ll Remember This) continues to approach the world of ideas from the same perspective as Bob Dylan’s first chief. I rate the Red more highly, though, because it had me track down my copy of Eucalyptus and re-read it before pressing on to The Drover’s Wife.
