It is with sadness that I share the news of the death of Australian author Georgia Blain, just days before the death of her mother, renowned and much-loved activist, writer and broadcaster Anne Deveson from Alzheimer’s Disease. Some of us have been reading Blain’s brave journalism about the brain tumour that was to kill her, so we feel this loss keenly.
Georgia Blain was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Novelists in 1998 and went on to feature in numerous awards.
She was the author of eight novels. I read her Candelo and Names for Nothingness before I started this blog:
- Closed for Winter. Penguin, 1998
- Candelo. Allen & Unwin, 1999, see my thoughts about it in my review of The Blind Eye
- The Blind Eye. Allen & Unwin, 2003, see my review
- Names for Nothingness. Allen & Unwin, 2004, see my thoughts about it in my review of The Blind Eye
- Dark Water. Random House, 2010
- Too Close to Home. Random House, 2011, shortlisted for the 2012 Barbara Jefferis Award
- Special. Random House, 2016, see Bill’s review at The Australian Legend
- Between a Wolf and a Dog. Scribe, 2016, see my review, shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards, the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the 2017 Indie Book Awards. In my view her best work ever, but it is tragic that her engagement with the issue of dying with dignity came at such terrible personal cost.
She also published a collection of short stories:
- The Secret Lives of Men. Scribe, 2013, see Karenlee Thompson’s guest review, shortlisted for the 2014 NSW Premier’s Literary Award and the 2012 Nita Kibble Award
and non-fiction:
- Births, Deaths and Marriages: True Tales. Vintage, 2008, shortlisted for the Nita Kibble Award.
Georgia Blain is survived by her partner, filmmaker Andrew Taylor, and their daughter, Odessa.
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
Oh, Lisa, I just made a comment on a FB post about Anne’s death, a journalist I admired. I have a couple of Georgia’s novels – she was an impressive writer. (I remember when I first read her I didn’t know she was Anne’s daughter! I’m not on the ball with the literary scene as you!)
This is such a loss and so sad. I hope their essence can be reconnected somewhere.
LikeLike
By: mairineilcreative writer on December 13, 2016
at 11:59 am
Anne was very special to our generation: we grew to know her on the ABC and she was always so active in women’s issues and mental health. But I never read any of her books.
It is awful to think of her bright and lively mind captive to Alzheimer’s and that she may not have been able to be there for Georgia Blain at the end. And I feel so sorry for the family, these losses always seem magnified at this time of the year too.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on December 13, 2016
at 12:24 pm
I am so sad to hear of Anne Devison’s death and her daughter who I’ve not read as yet. Anne was such a rare human being in all ways it seems. What an amazing family and such great suffering. They will both live on in their writing am sure.
LikeLike
By: Fay Kennedy on December 13, 2016
at 12:14 pm
They were both amazing women, able to transcend Deveson’s marriage to a violent man and the death by drug overdose of Blain’s sibling Jonathan. Some families just seem to cop a really raw deal, it seems.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on December 13, 2016
at 12:30 pm
This is doubly sad news, as two such strong, gifted women have died of brain diseases which are devastating to the sufferer and those who know and love them.
I’ve read them both, admire them both. Anne Deveson’s book about her schizophrenic son, Jonathon, ‘Tell Me I’m Here’ is remarkable.
LikeLike
By: Lyn Leader-Elliott on December 13, 2016
at 12:48 pm
I agree, it’s a sad day for Australia.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on December 13, 2016
at 1:50 pm
Very sad. I didn’t know Georgia well, really only from being on a judging panel with her once, though I read her works with admiration.
LikeLike
By: Dorothy Johnston on December 13, 2016
at 1:21 pm
Thanks for this, Dorothy: I know she was more than a significant author and that she contributed to our literary community in other ways than writing, but I couldn’t find anything online about the other contributions she made.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on December 13, 2016
at 1:57 pm
So sad. She was, and is, special.
LikeLike
By: musingsofaliterarydilettante on December 13, 2016
at 1:33 pm
I think her legacy will endure.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on December 13, 2016
at 1:57 pm
Well said Lisa. I’ve read a couple of Georgia Blain’s earlier books and recently reviewed (and liked) Special. I agree, both women will be missed.
LikeLike
By: wadholloway on December 13, 2016
at 6:08 pm
Can you please give me the URL for your review so that I can link to it?
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on December 13, 2016
at 6:12 pm
Sure, but in a couple of hours, when I can access my computer
LikeLike
By: wadholloway on December 13, 2016
at 6:19 pm
Review of Special
https://theaustralianlegend.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/special-georgia-blain/
and thankyou for offering to include it.
LikeLike
By: wadholloway on December 13, 2016
at 8:54 pm
So sad
LikeLike
By: karenlee thompson on December 13, 2016
at 6:09 pm
That is so sad. I didn’t know she had a brain tumor. I agree Between a Wolf and a Dog was her best book. Her family have suffered so much. Life is often unfair.
LikeLike
By: Meg on December 13, 2016
at 6:39 pm
52 is much too young to die…
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on December 13, 2016
at 10:31 pm
[…] going to focus here on Anne Deveson, partly because Lisa (ANZLitLovers) has written on Georgia Blain’s death and partly because I so admired Deveson. She was one of those people you could rely on to be […]
LikeLike
By: Vale Anne Deveson (1930-2016) and Georgia Blain (1964-2016) | Whispering Gums on December 14, 2016
at 6:01 am
Excellent, though sad post. I am not familiar with her as I said to Whispering Gums when a person emigrates to another country at age 40 there is a great deal to learn about that country and literary names are not at the top of the list. Our library has several of her books and I plan to check it out. My literary education continues of Australian writers.
LikeLike
By: travellinpenguin on December 14, 2016
at 11:36 am
If globalisation has taught us anything, it’s that we can’t possibly know everything!
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on December 14, 2016
at 1:53 pm
Haha, it is good to try though.
LikeLike
By: travellinpenguin on December 16, 2016
at 8:33 am
[…] last book before she died in 2016. She was so young, and so brave. Take a moment to read her obituary and the accompanying comments to see how much she meant to us […]
LikeLike
By: Six Degrees of Separation: from Wolfe Island, to … | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on March 7, 2020
at 12:51 pm
[…] not like the loss she evokes when writing about the deaths of her mother and her friend the author Georgia Blain. The loss of a reading culture in contemporary life is deeply felt, and personal too, but there […]
LikeLike
By: The Details: On Love, Death and Reading, by Tegan Bennett Daylight | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on August 6, 2020
at 1:15 am