Biography

The Queen of Bohemia by Dulcie Deamer & An Incidental Memoir by Robin Dalton

by David McCooey •

May 1999, no. 210

The Queen of Bohemia: The autobiography of Dulcie Deamer by Dulcie Deamer

UQP $29.95 pb, 239 pp

An Incidental Memoir by Robin Dalton

Viking, $29.95 hb, 368 pp

Biography

The Queen of Bohemia by Dulcie Deamer & An Incidental Memoir by Robin Dalton

by David McCooey •

May 1999, no. 210

It’s interesting how many comic autobiographers are theatrical, like Barry Humphries, Clive James, Hal Porter, and Robin Eakin, whose Aunts up the Cross (1965) is a minor masterpiece and very funny. Eakin’s belated follow-up, An Incidental Memoir, published under her married name of Dalton, compares interestingly with Dulcie Deamer’s posthumously published The Queen of Bohemia.

David McCooey

By this contributor

David McCooey is a prize-winning poet, critic, and editor. His latest collection of poems is The Book of Falling, published by Upswell Publishing (2023). His first collection, Blister Pack (2005), won the Mary Gilmore Award and was shortlisted for four major national literary awards. He is a professor of literature and writing at Deakin University in Geelong, where he lives. His website is: www.davidmccooey.com