Solid Bluestone Foundations: And Other Memories of a Melbourne Girlhood 1908-1928

'Hughenden', the seaside mansion of Kathleen's grandparents, provided the 'solid bluestone foundations' of her somewhat peripatetic youth, offering her a haven of emotional security and material abundance. The puzzled observations and alert curiosity of a highly intelligent child are vividly recreated in these beautifully written recollections, which paint an evocative picture of middle-class life in Melbourne in the early years of the twentieth century.

The divisions between her Catholic a...