toast for tea

Out at the shops today, she was everywhere. I watched her painfully negotiate the pedestrian crossing – bent over her walking stick – as I sat in the car and listened to Bryan Ferry on the radio. She was the woman in the wheelchair, sipping a cup of tea at the table next to mine in the food court. Later, I saw her hunched shoulders in a green cardigan in the queue outside the butchers. The last memory I have of my mother was when I visited her in hospital. I sat on her bed and watched helplessly as she struggled to support herself in a chair. They won’t let me get in to bed , she’d said. I can’t take much more. I didn’t know what to say. I remember looking down at her bare legs, slippered feet, and thinking how shiny the skin on her shins was. I remember thinking that life could be cruel. When my mother died, in the small hours of the following night, seven years ago, I lost a source of love that was bottomless and unique. A mother’s love is irreplaceable. Small wonder that so much han...

Here's an interview I did with Ursula, earlier in the year, not long after her Word Spy came out. It's done the rounds of all the reading mags and I have a little pile of very beautiful and encouraging rejections to prove it! Jackie Hosking saved the day, though, and published it in Pass it On. Here it is again. * ‘I always want to spend more time with Ursula Dubosarsky’s people. They’re wise, awkward and funny, and they give off sparks of insight that I want to read aloud to whoever’s near…’ Margo Lanagan (back cover of The Red Shoe) When multi-award-winning author and literary alchemist, Ursula Dubosarsky , breathes magic into her stories, it’s easy to find yourself tumbling helplessly into a world of fiction that feels so real, you forget who you are and become one with the characters. How does she do it? Ursula shares some of her writing secrets and tells about the challenges of writing her latest book, The Word Spy. One of the great strengths of your writing is your a...