What do you think?
Rate this book
A Chelsea Girl
'All our family was Chelsea, but it wasn't the Chelsea of the posh houses in Turk's Row and Cheyne Walk - you never saw gentry hanging about our turning. And the only artists we knew were the pavement artists down on their knees along the embankment.
Sarah Hodge was names after a drunk who came down Keppel Street and sat on the doorstep singing on the night of the child's birth: not a promising start for a girl in 1890s London. But while Sarah's is not a world of culture or cash, it is a world of noise, of colour, of love: a world of toffee-apple men, Italians selling Lemon Ice, Pink Ice and Ice-cream Plain, gypsies and flower girls, rag shops and boozers.
Her story is both the story of a bygone London and the story of a girl's passage into womanhood. Through 'ordinary' eyes we see tragedy, courage, love and sacrifice; children who are wanted, children got rid of with boiled currants and gin; men loved, men despised.
This is a remarkably powerful tale. beautifully told; a work of great talent and vigour.
The book cover illustration is by Barbara Hanrahan.
Sarah Hodge was names after a drunk who came down Keppel Street and sat on the doorstep singing on the night of the child's birth: not a promising start for a girl in 1890s London. But while Sarah's is not a world of culture or cash, it is a world of noise, of colour, of love: a world of toffee-apple men, Italians selling Lemon Ice, Pink Ice and Ice-cream Plain, gypsies and flower girls, rag shops and boozers.
Her story is both the story of a bygone London and the story of a girl's passage into womanhood. Through 'ordinary' eyes we see tragedy, courage, love and sacrifice; children who are wanted, children got rid of with boiled currants and gin; men loved, men despised.
This is a remarkably powerful tale. beautifully told; a work of great talent and vigour.
The book cover illustration is by Barbara Hanrahan.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Barbara Hanrahan
18 books6 followersHanrahan, Barbara Janice (1939 - 1991)
Archival/Heritage Resources Published Resources
Barbara Hanrahan was an artist, printmaker and writer. She was born in Adelaide in 1939 and lived there until her death in December 1991. Hanrahan spent three years at the South Australian School of Art before leaving for London in 1966 to continue her art studies. In England she taught at the Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, (1966-67) and Portsmouth College of Art (1967-70). From 1964 Hanrahan held a number of exhibitions principally in Adelaide and Sydney, but also in Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, London and Florence. Hanrahan's novels include The Scent of Eucalyptus (1973), The Peach Groves (1980), The Frangipani Gardens (1988) and Flawless Jade (1989).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Career Highlights
URL: The home page for this entity is located at http://www.history.sa.gov.au/history/...
Barbara Hanrahan was educated at Thebarton Girls' Technical College before commencing a three year Art Teaching course at Adelaide Teachers' College. At the same time she completed art classes at the South Australian School of Art. Following the completion of her Diploma of Art Teaching, Hanrahan began teaching art in schools as well as enrolling for evening classes with the newly established Printmaking Department at the South Australian School of Art. In 1961 she was appointed assistant lecturer in Art at Western Teachers' College, Adelaide. In the same year she participated in a four-artist exhibition at the Hahndorf Gallery, and was awarded the Cornell Prize for Painting. She taught at the South Australian School of Art from 1963-66.
Hanrahan left for London in 1966 to continue her art studies. She taught at the Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, (1966-67) and Portsmouth College of Art (1967-70). In the early 1980s Hanrahan, with her partner Jo Steele, returned to live in Adelaide, where she established her own studio. Hanrahan's writing career began in 1973 with the publication of her first, largely autobiographical, novel The Scent of Eucalyptus. Other titles soon followed and her last novel, Good night, Mr Moon, was published posthumously in 1992.
During her life Hanrahan held a number of exhibitions nationally and internationally. Her works are held by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, and many regional galleries.
Sources used to compile this entry: refereces
Archival/Heritage Resources Published Resources
Barbara Hanrahan was an artist, printmaker and writer. She was born in Adelaide in 1939 and lived there until her death in December 1991. Hanrahan spent three years at the South Australian School of Art before leaving for London in 1966 to continue her art studies. In England she taught at the Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, (1966-67) and Portsmouth College of Art (1967-70). From 1964 Hanrahan held a number of exhibitions principally in Adelaide and Sydney, but also in Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, London and Florence. Hanrahan's novels include The Scent of Eucalyptus (1973), The Peach Groves (1980), The Frangipani Gardens (1988) and Flawless Jade (1989).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Career Highlights
URL: The home page for this entity is located at http://www.history.sa.gov.au/history/...
Barbara Hanrahan was educated at Thebarton Girls' Technical College before commencing a three year Art Teaching course at Adelaide Teachers' College. At the same time she completed art classes at the South Australian School of Art. Following the completion of her Diploma of Art Teaching, Hanrahan began teaching art in schools as well as enrolling for evening classes with the newly established Printmaking Department at the South Australian School of Art. In 1961 she was appointed assistant lecturer in Art at Western Teachers' College, Adelaide. In the same year she participated in a four-artist exhibition at the Hahndorf Gallery, and was awarded the Cornell Prize for Painting. She taught at the South Australian School of Art from 1963-66.
Hanrahan left for London in 1966 to continue her art studies. She taught at the Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, (1966-67) and Portsmouth College of Art (1967-70). In the early 1980s Hanrahan, with her partner Jo Steele, returned to live in Adelaide, where she established her own studio. Hanrahan's writing career began in 1973 with the publication of her first, largely autobiographical, novel The Scent of Eucalyptus. Other titles soon followed and her last novel, Good night, Mr Moon, was published posthumously in 1992.
During her life Hanrahan held a number of exhibitions nationally and internationally. Her works are held by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, and many regional galleries.
Sources used to compile this entry: refereces
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 19, 2018
Barbara Hanrahan (1939-1991) was a notable Australian author who went to England in 1963 to continue her studies in art, returning to Adelaide in the early 1980s. She made an impressive career here and internationally as a painter and printmaker, and you can see some of her artworks here at the Art Gallery of NSW. But she also merits a whole column entry in the Oxford Companion to Australian Literature where they say that she was stimulated to begin writing by the death of her grandmother in 1968. You can see her list of works at Wikipedia but it’s the Companion that describes her themes and style:
Although my copy of the Companion predates the publication of A Chelsea Girl by three years, and the setting is London not Adelaide, those preoccupations are certainly on display in the novel. It took a while for me to become absorbed in the plot because – as you might expect with a setting in overcrowded working-class London at the turn of the 20th century, there are multiple characters tumbling over each other in a collage and it’s a bit hard to keep track of them all in an episodic novel. However, Sarah’s first-person narrative is vivid and Hanrahan has captured a working-class tone without overdoing it and making it a trial to read. (Though I did have to Google for the meaning of goffer (crimp or flute (a lace edge or frill) with heated irons) and for blooming sight mooby (which remains a mystery).
To see the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/05/19/a...
A writer with a plain but suggestive prose style, Hanrahan is a brilliant creator of atmosphere. She is particularly preoccupied with the contrast between the prim respectability of nineteenth-century society, especially Adelaide society, and its seamy or horrific underside. She has described Adelaide as a ‘terribly sinister place’, and sees her novels as ‘concerned with contrasts, contradictions, beauty and horror, love and death, frivolity and menace; the precisely-detailed world of substance, the darker world of instinct; the queerness of mind split from body, the absurd fantasy of the “ordinary”. (Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, edited by William H. Wilde, Joy Hooton and Barry Andrews, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1985, ISBN 0195542339 p.315)
Although my copy of the Companion predates the publication of A Chelsea Girl by three years, and the setting is London not Adelaide, those preoccupations are certainly on display in the novel. It took a while for me to become absorbed in the plot because – as you might expect with a setting in overcrowded working-class London at the turn of the 20th century, there are multiple characters tumbling over each other in a collage and it’s a bit hard to keep track of them all in an episodic novel. However, Sarah’s first-person narrative is vivid and Hanrahan has captured a working-class tone without overdoing it and making it a trial to read. (Though I did have to Google for the meaning of goffer (crimp or flute (a lace edge or frill) with heated irons) and for blooming sight mooby (which remains a mystery).
To see the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/05/19/a...
Displaying 1 of 1 review