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Connective tissue

A celebration of social influence
by
July 2023, no. 455

Eleven Letters to You: A memoir by Helen Elliott

Text Publishing, $34.99 pb, 261 pp

Connective tissue

A celebration of social influence
by
July 2023, no. 455
Helen Elliott (David Thomas/Text Publishing)

In an exuberant essay anticipating the publication of Eleven Letters to You, the critic and editor Helen Elliott describes the deep pleasure of working on the book: ‘The satisfaction of writing this book, of making it as good as I can has been unlike anything I’ve ever known. A necessary joy, the deepest new, an entirely selfish pleasure. A small and ravishing bomb inside me’ (The Monthly, May 2023). After this introduction, it was a relief to read the book and find that it doesn’t disappoint. The exuberance of the writing process filters through to the finished pages, populated with ostensibly ‘ordinary people’ – Elliott’s highly provisional term – who have made a deep impression on the writer.

Eleven Letters to You is, as the title suggests, a collection of letters written to the people who guided Elliott away from the life that she might have led: a life without higher education, with a job in the Postmaster General’s office at a lower rate of pay than male employees, a dull boyfriend, and limiting ideas about national identity and about women. Elliott reflects on their gift, and now readers may hold her small and ravishing book in their hands.

Eleven Letters to You: A memoir

Eleven Letters to You: A memoir

by Helen Elliott

Text Publishing, $34.99 pb, 261 pp

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