A big thank you to all those who participated in Elizabeth Jolley Week!
Reviews have come in from far and wide, and they are all harvested together on the new Elizabeth Jolley page which you can find in the top menu. Judging by the enthusiasm of readers who have discovered Jolley’s writing through this week, I suspect that there may be more reviews to come as time goes by, as there are many wonderful novels to discover!
The following are all new reviews, with a special thank-you to Meg for taking the plunge with her first-ever guest reviews!
The Newspaper of Claremont Street (1981)
- see a Sensational Snippet at ANZ LitLovers
- see Bill’s review at The Australian Legend
- see Lisa’s review at ANZ LitLovers
- See Kim’s review at Reading Matters
Mr Scobie’s Riddle (1983)
The Well (1986)
The Sugar Mother (1988)
My Father’s Moon (1989)
Cabin Fever (1990)
The Georges’ Wife (1993)
The Orchard Thieves (1995)
Lovesong (1997)
Short Stories
Woman in a Lampshade (1983)
- see the table of contents at Middlemiss
- See Lisa’s ANZ LitLovers review of the Penguin Special edition of ‘Adam’s Bride’ from this collection and a Sensational Snippet
In The Oxford Books of Australian Short Stories (Ed. Michael Wilding) 1994
In the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature (Ed. Nicholas Jose) 2009
Biographies of Elizabeth Jolley
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- See Bill’s thoughts about the Jolley chapter in Tony Hughes-d’Aeth’s account of Western Australian Wheatbelt Writers, Like Nothing on this Earth (2017), at The Australian Legend
*The image of Elizabeth Jolley is from Wikipedia where it appears to be available for Fair Use.
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
A great result Lisa. Thank you for hosting the week and bringing together so much interesting material.
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By: wadholloway on June 18, 2018
at 10:38 am
Thank you, and thank you for your contribution!
I really am thrilled by this, I hadn’t realised that Jolley was in danger of being neglected and lapsing into obscurity, so the level of interest, especially from people overseas, is just great:)
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By: Lisa Hill on June 18, 2018
at 12:40 pm
And thanks from me too Lisa. I was glad of the push to read her again. Such a treat. Only trouble is that you’ve added to the piles around my sofa-cum-desk because I’ve pulled out some Jolley books from their shelves to have near me so I can dip into them!
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By: whisperinggums on June 18, 2018
at 3:13 pm
Oh I know, I am very tempted to re-read the ones I have too. If only I could double the reading hours in the day…
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By: Lisa Hill on June 18, 2018
at 3:54 pm
A huge thank you for this initiative Lisa because without it I would never have discovered Jolley and her marvellous writing.
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By: BookerTalk on June 18, 2018
at 6:55 pm
I’m delighted that you enjoyed it, Karen… I loved reading your review:)
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By: Lisa Hill on June 18, 2018
at 10:44 pm
Thanks Lisa for encouraging me to reread. Elizabeth Jolley I finished The Georges’ Wife and was again impressed by Jolley’s dark and witty irony. I am now reading Palomino. A love story between two women. Jolley is an unusual writer and her observations of people and their thoughts are remarkable. Thanks again, it was a good week of reading!
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By: Meg on June 18, 2018
at 7:29 pm
Ah Meg, is it asking too much to ask if we can persuade you to review those ones too for a guest review?
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By: Lisa Hill on June 18, 2018
at 10:34 pm
Thanks for linking to my reviews and thanks also for hosting the week. Such a great way of spreading the Jolley love and keeping her in our consciousness. Really great to see some of our blog friends in the UK and US discovering her, too :-)
Who will you rescue from obscurity next? Thea Astley? ;-)
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By: kimbofo on June 19, 2018
at 5:40 am
Thanks for your contributions too, Kim, you’ve been spreading the Jolley love for longer than I have!
Yikes, is Thea Astley obscure? She only died a little while ago, say it isn’t so… I love her novels…
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By: Lisa Hill on June 19, 2018
at 8:32 am
She might not be obscure in Australia, but the rest of the world has probably never heard of her. Admittedly I struggle with her work… only read a few and not sure I want to read any more…
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By: kimbofo on June 19, 2018
at 4:07 pm
She’s very tart!
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By: Lisa Hill on June 19, 2018
at 4:35 pm
Great initiative, Lisa, thank you!
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By: Nathan Hobby on June 19, 2018
at 1:10 pm
Thanks, Nathan:)
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By: Lisa Hill on June 19, 2018
at 2:43 pm
I finished Mr. Scobie’s Riddle last Thursday. Thanks so much for hosting this week as even learning about it late was an incentive for me (an “excuse”) to read another of her books. I do wish they were more readily available in Canada but I know that problem exists in the other direction as well! I’ll be posting a review sometime next month.
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By: buriedinprint on June 26, 2018
at 9:51 am
That’s wonderful! Thanks so much for participating, I shall certainly add your review to the others:)
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By: Lisa Hill on June 26, 2018
at 3:57 pm