Aunts Up the Cross

My great Aunt Juliet was knocked over and killed by a bus when she was eighty-five. The bus was travelling very slowly in the right direction and could hardly have been missed by anyone except Aunt Juliet, who must have been travelling fairly fast in the wrong direction. Growing up in the 1930s in a grand old home in Sydney's bohemian Kings Cross, Robin Dalton experienced a childhood of curiosity and wonder. Raised by a bevy of idiosyncratic aunts and a revolving door of unconventional houseguests, Dalton recalls a time when children had real adventures in a world not easy but perhaps less complicated than today's. With a gentle warmth and wicked wit, Robin Dalton brings to life all the colour, glamour and charm of Australian society between the wars. Steeped in nostalgia, Aunts Up the Cross is a delightfully funny memoir of family, childhood and an Australia of yesteryear.

About the Author

Robin Dalton was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and has lived in London since 1946. She has enjoyed a varied professional life, ranging from writer to television performer to a 5-year stint as an intelligence agent for the Thai government. In 1963, Robin became a literary agent, representing some of the world's most distinguished writers, and film and theatre directors. Almost 20 years later she started a new career as a film producer; her credits include Madame Souzatska starring Shirley Maclaine and, most recently, Oscar and Lucinda starring Ralph Fiennes and Cate Blanchett.