LISTEN: Helen Garner on Yellow Notebook

Few writers have defined Australia’s literary landscape in quite the same incendiary way that Helen Garner has. The author of seminal works such as Monkey Grip and The Spare Room, Helen’s books are alight with the fire of her experiences, many of which were taken and adapted from her own diaries. So it seems only natural that one day she release those diaries as a book. Yellow Notebook is the first published volume of Helen’s diaries, and with it she traces the patterns of thought and feeling that have come to be so familiar to her readers.

“There did seem to be a thread of consciousness going through it that was not embarrassing, and I thought I’d just follow that,” says Helen.

While Helen has kept a diary for most of her life, Yellow Notebook spans the years 1978 to 1987, the period just after the publication of her first book, Monkey Grip. As you’ll hear in our podcast with Helen, it’s a book that survived a burning.

Booktopia’s Ben and Joel were absolutely thrilled (and a little awe-struck) to sit down with Helen to talk about Yellow Notebook – its origins, how she burned her old teenage diaries, her selection and editing processes, how she finds connection through her work, her writing method and much more.

Have a listen below and grab a signed copy of Yellow Notebook* here!

*Signed copies only available while stocks last.

Yellow Notebook

Diaries Volume One 1978-1987

by Helen Garner

Helen Garner has kept a diary for almost all her life. But until now, those exercise books filled with her thoughts, observations, frustrations and joys have been locked away, out of bounds, in a laundry cupboard.

Finally, Garner has opened her diaries and invited readers into the world behind her novels and works of non-fiction. Recorded with frankness, humour and steel-sharp wit, these accounts of her everyday life provide an intimate insight into the work of one of...

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About the Contributor

Olivia Fricot

Olivia Fricot (she/her) is Booktopia's Senior Content Producer and editor of the Booktopian blog. She has too many plants and not enough bookshelves, and you can usually find her reading, baking, or talking to said plants. She is pro-Oxford comma.

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