I don't recall reading Puberty Blues so much as devouring it. I was about thirteen, alone in my bedroom with the door firmly shut. I was fascinated. Kylie Minogue
A revolutionary and timeless book.
'By day, we were at school learning logarithms, but by night - in the back of cars, under the bowling alley, on Cronulla Beach, or, if you were lucky, in a bed while someone's parents were out - you paid off your friendship ring.'
For Deb and Sue, life is about surfies, panel vans, straight-leg Levis, nicking off from school, getting wasted, friendships and fitting in.
But why should guys have all the fun?
When Deb and Sue decide to take to the waves on boards, a whole culture is upturned.
Puberty Blues is raw, humorous and painfully honest. An Australian classic that has been reimagined in film and on TV and shocking, exercising, empowering and entertaining readers for more than four decades.
About the Authors
Gabrielle Carey published her first co-written book, Puberty Blues, while still in her teens. She has since written biography, autobiography, memoir, essays and articles. Her book, Moving Among Strangers (UQP 2013), was the joint winner of the 2014 Prime Minister’s Award for Non-Fiction and short-listed for the 2015 National Biography Award. Her essay ‘Waking Up with James Joyce’ was named a ‘Notable Essay’ by Best American Essays 2019. Her most recent book is a bibliomemoir - Only Happiness Here - in search of Elizabeth von Arnim (UQP 2020).For twenty-five years Gabrielle taught writing at various universities including the University of Canberra, the University of Western Sydney and the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney. She is now a full-time writer and vagabond scholar.
Kathy Lette is a celebrated and outspoken comic writer who has an inimitable take on serious current issues. She is the author of fifteen bestselling novels including Puberty Blues which was made into a major film and a TV miniseries, Mad Cows which was also made into a film, starring Joanna Lumley, and How to Kill Your Husband (and other handy household hints), which was staged by the Victorian Opera. She pioneered smart, funny, feminist fiction and has been published in seventeen languages.Kathy is an autodidact (clearly it's a word she taught herself) but has honorary doctorates from Southampton and Wollongong universities, and a Senior Honorary Fellowship from Regent's University London. She is an ambassador for Plan International and the National Autistic Society UK. Kathy lives in Sydney and London, and can often be found at the Savoy Hotel drinking a cocktail named after her. She cites her career highlights as once teaching Stephen Fry a word and Salman Rushdie the limbo, and scripting Julian Assange's cameo in the 500th episode of The Simpsons.
