There Should Be More Dancing

Margery Blandon has led a life of principles. Now she finds herself sitting on the 43rd floor of the Tropic Hotel, preparing to throw herself to her death.

Margery Blandon has led a life of principles. Now she finds herself sitting on the 43rd floor of the Tropic Hotel, preparing to throw herself to her death.

She was always a principled woman, who found guidance from the wisdom of desktop calendars. She lived quietly in Gold Street, Brunswick for sixty years until events drove her to the 43rd floor of the Tropic Hotel.

As she waits for the crowds in the atrium far below to disperse, she contemplates what went wrong; her best friend kept an astonishing secret from her and she can't trust the home help. It's possible her firstborn son has betrayed her, that her second son, Morris, might have committed a crime, her only daughter is trying to kill her and her dead sister Cecily helped her to this, her final downfall. Even worse, it seems Margery's life-long neighbour and enemy, now demented, always knew the truth.

There Should be More Dancing is a story of Margery's reckonings on loyalty, grief and love.

Reading Group Book Questions

1. Is Gold Street, Brunswick – with its blend of original residents, newer families, families from other cultures, renters and the encroachment of the moneyed crowds wanting bigger modern houses and no corner pub – a typical/believable suburban street? What do you think the author is suggesting about modern Australian life?
2. Is Margery a bad person, and racist, or can her ignorance of the world around her excuse her poorer behaviours?
3. Is it possible to live ‘a life of principles’ as Margery sets out to do, or is compromise inevitable?
4. How important is loyalty in life?
5. Who is the hero of There Should Be More Dancing? Anita? Pat? Flossy? Walter? Margery?

About the Author

Rosalie Ham was born, and raised in Jerilderie, NSW, Australia. She completed her secondary education at St Margaret's School, Berwick in 1972. After travelling and working at a variety of jobs (including aged care) for most of her twenties, Rosalie completed a Bachelor of Education majoring in Drama and Literature (Deakin University, 1989), and achieved a Master of Arts, Creative Writing (RMIT, Melbourne) in 2007. Her first novel, The Dressmaker was published in 2000. Her second novel, Summer at Mount Hope was published in 2005. Rosalie has also had stories published in Meanjin, The Age, The Bulletin and Invisible Ink. When she is not writing, Rosalie teaches literature.