Author Mary Garden in conversation June 15

Meet author and journalist Mary Garden in conversation with Michael Burge at Glen Innes's indie bookshop The Makers Shed on Saturday June 15, 10am-12pm.

Mary has been touring the country with her latest memoir My Father's Suitcase and High Country Books is delighted to host her third visit to the New England region.

Her first memoir The Serpent Rising covers the years Mary spent entangled with various gurus in India in the 1970s. It won the High Country Indie Book Award 2021. Sundowner of the Skies, a biography of her father, Oscar Garden, was short-listed for the NSW Premier’s History Award 2020 for a book of international significance.

Ticket includes: Morning tea, coffee and cake, moderated author talk, audience Q&A session and a book signing. Copies of My Father's Suitcase are available for purchase at The Makers Shed, 123 Grey Street, Glen Innes, Wed-Sat, 10-4.

MY FATHER'S SUITCASE... 

‘With searing honesty, Mary Garden combines memoir and deep research to explore the complex nature of sibling relationships.’ – Nicole Madigan, author of Obsessed

This deeply personal and heartbreaking memoir explores the troubled relationship between Mary Garden and her younger sister, Anna, who died in 2023 after a short illness.

Mary unpacks her life of growing up in New Zealand in the 1950s and ’60s, before making Australia home. She reveals complex layers of intergenerational trauma, including the baggage of her eccentric, deeply flawed father and the secret her mother kept from all of them, revealed only after her death. Mary deals movingly with her sister’s long battle with mental illness and how she once saved Anna’s life.

As she unravels these narratives, Mary touches on the guilt and shame familiar to anyone who has had to deal with secrets, violence and ‘madness’ in their family. And she shines a light on sibling abuse, the most common form of abuse in the context of family violence - occurring up to five times as frequently as spousal or parental child abuse - although it is often dismissed as ‘sibling rivalry’. It causes far-reaching, long-lasting harm.

A gripping tale of resilience and survival that offers hope to others who have experienced family violence and suffered at the hands of a sibling.

Buy your copy from The Makers Shed.