Memoir

Heddy and Me by Susan Varga

by Nancy Phelan •

July 1994, no. 162

Penguin, $16.95 pb

Memoir

Heddy and Me by Susan Varga

by Nancy Phelan •

July 1994, no. 162

Heddy is a survivor. She is good looking, intelligent, strong, determined, businesslike, materialistic, positive, rather like those formidable Middle-European ladies who run dress shops and control their customers with a mixture of bullying and continental charm. She has tremendous vitality, guts and initiative, has taken great risks and worked hard to ensure freedom from fear and material security for herself and her family.

Nancy Phelan

Nancy Phelan (1913-2008) was an Australian fiction-writer, biographer, and memoirist. Born in Sydney, she studied music at the Conservatorium and lived in England for a few years before returning to Australia. She also travelled extensively in the Pacific Islands, Europe, Asia and the Middle East – travels recorded in a string of books from Atoll Holiday (1958) to Morocco Is a Lion (1982). In 2004, she received the Patrick White Award.