Overview

At the very end of the Ladies’ Frocks Departments, past Cocktail Frocks, there was something very special, something quite, quite wonderful; but it wasn’t for everybody: that was the point. Because there, at the very end, there was a lovely arch, on which was written in curly letters Model Gowns. Written by a superb novelist of contemporary manners, Ladies in Black is a fairytale which illuminates the extraordinariness of ordinary lives. The women in black are run off their feet, what with the Christmas rush and the summer sales that follow. But it’s Sydney in the 1950s, and there’s still just enough time left on a hot and frantic day to dream and scheme … By the time the last marked-down frock has been sold, most of the staff of the Ladies’ Cocktail section at F. G. Goode’s have been launched into slightly different careers. With the lightest touch and the most tender of comic instincts, Madeleine St John conjures a vanished summer of innocence. Ladies in Black is a great novel, a lost Australian classic.

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9781489461407

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Reviews

'A highly sophisticated work, full of funny, sharp and subtle observations ... a small masterpiece.' -- The Sunday Times 'A little gem ... shot through with old-fashioned innocence and sly humour.' -- Vogue ‘Seductive, hilarious, brilliantly observed, this novel shimmers with wit and tenderness.’ -- Helen Garner, award-winning author of The Spare Room

'A highly sophisticated work, full of funny, sharp and subtle observations ... a small masterpiece.' -- The Sunday Times 'A little gem ... shot through with old-fashioned innocence and sly humour.' -- Vogue `Seductive, hilarious, brilliantly observed, this novel shimmers with wit and tenderness.' -- Helen Garner

Author Information

Madeleine St John (1941–2006) was born in Sydney. She graduated from Sydney University in 1963 and lived in London for most of the succeeding years, until her death in 2006. The Women in Black was her first novel. She also wrote A Pure Clear Light, 1996, The Essence of the Thing, 1997 (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize), and Stairway to Paradise, 1999. Deidre Rubenstein is regarded as one of Australia's most accomplished actresses. As a stage actress, she has starred in productions with all major Australian theatre companies and has created three highly acclaimed one-woman shows which have toured Australia and overseas. Deidre won an Australian Film Industry (AFI) award for Best Actress in the mini-series Palace of Dreams and is also a multi-award-winning narrator. Audiobooks narrated for Bolinda include Elizabeth Costello by Nobel Prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee, Gilgamesh by Joan London, Elizabeth Harrower novels and various ABC titles.

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