Alas, blogging is one of the things which have fallen by the wayside as I try to keep up a gruelling (for me!) chapter-a-month. So far I’m on track. It’s complicated by the fact that several chapters, including February’s, have divided into two. I’ve given Hugo Throssell VC his own chapter to introduce him and describe how he met Katharine, his future wife, in 1915 after Gallipoli. It means Guido Baracchi, the perpetual student Katharine met at the end of the year, gets his own (shorter) introductory chapter too.
My reading from the biography at the KSP Writers’ Centre was a couple of weeks ago now. There were over thirty people who came, braving the extreme heat and the drive out into the hills. There were many people I knew and many I didn’t; I was grateful to them all for coming. It was so encouraging to see so much interest in the biography. I love engaging in discussion after a reading, and there were some perceptive questions. I need to come up with a concise answer to the question: “Why Katharine?”; there are good reasons, if not necessarily obvious ones. Novelist Jenny Ackland was at KSPWC for a writing retreat ahead of Perth Writers’ Festival and I was chuffed that she wrote about my talk and the centre on her blog.
Nathan Hobby, a biographer in Perth 
Sorry I missed the reading, I really did have to work. I read Jenny Ackland’s post as well. It never really occurs to me that KSP might be little known. And it says something about our culture that as I head out to Kalgoorlie I pass a “Hugo Throssell VC” memorial but not a KSP one.
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Yes, perhaps she’s better remembered here in the west than the rest of the country. Maybe my book can change that for a few years! Is the memorial the one on Great Eastern Hwy Greenmount opposite her house? Or is there another one at Northam?
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Greenmount
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Keep at it, Nathan, there are lots of us looking forward to reading this bio one day:)
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Well, I think KSP is pretty well known here in Canberra – perhaps because of the Throssell and political connections. (I drive on [Hugo] Throssell [VC] Street very frequently).
Do you find the questions help with the writing of the bio?
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Yes, very much. It starts the conversation now, rather than once the book is already out. Sometimes I’m challenged to rethink things by people’s questions. I was blessed by a very perceptive audience at this reading, including a number who knew Katharine and her work well.
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Keep going. The last slog of the writing up is the hardest part. Sounds like you are well on the way!
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I often get asked the ‘Why?’ question too, Nathan, about the subject of my own research and it’s a strangely hard one to answer. I probably always say the obvious things but the real nature of the intense personal interest is quite difficult to convey. I think it’s something to do with finding a very strong sense of empathy with someone from the beginning and then feeling that you come to know that person more and more as the research moves forward. It’s certainly a wonderful way to spend time, so keep on enjoying the work!
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Thank you Bernice and congratulations on your book! Georgina Molloy must have been a fascinating subject to live with. Are you working on a new biography?
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There is a biography partly researched and planned and wanting to be written but after such a long time working on the last one, I’m enjoying writing fiction and avoiding getting started! Do you have an idea yet when you’ll finish your manuscript?
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A change is good! Hoping for a first draft of volume 1 this year.
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