Sunday 8 April 2012

LETS GO TO....BRISBANE!

Well, this is my first little literary travel tour, And, yes, I have chosen a rather odd location, agreed. But I have my reasons...

Over the years, I have had a bit of a like/love/really love/miss/get-slightly-annoyed-with/resent/sort-of love-from-a-distance-kind of relationship with this city. Let me explain...When I was eighteen (lets just say this was a while back) I decided to go to Australia on a gap year. About a week after arriving in the Land Down Under I, along with some other fellow fresh-faced backpacking types, decided Sydney wasn't quite doing it for us and we bought bus tickets up the coast. The plan was to find work on the Gold Coast or Brisbane and work out what we were going to to from there.

Well, in short, this decision changed my life. A few days after hoping off the bus in Brissy, I applied for a boring sales job, met a boy and, well, several years and two children later, he's still sitting next to me on the sofa watching a film on his phone whilst I veg out in front of Britain's Got Talent (the Australian in him just doesn't get it) (and before you say it, Australia's Got Talent just isn't the same - no Cowell, no Walliams, ok, get back to matter in hand Anna...). A lot of key decisions I have made in my life, I have made in this city. The most recent one was deciding I wanted to be a writer. So when I think of writing YA, I think of Brisbane.

A house, not an old person. Romantic...Sort of
Over the years we have flitted back and forth to the place they call BrisVegas (I've never been entirely sure why it is called this - irony? It's not that laid back). This place has a very strange hold over me. When I think of Australia, I think of Brisbane. It doesn't have the obvious WOW factor of Sydney or Melbourne, but when I was a little traveller person, shacked up with my Aussie fella in the a slowly falling apart little wooden shack in the suburbs (ok, not quite a shack, but pretty close, looking back *shudders thinking about size of mahoosive cockroaches*), I remember thinking I was experiencing much more of the real Australia than in any backpackers hostel in Kings Cross. It's this strange mix of city and country and there's something about a rickety old Queenslander than conjures up dusky, laid back, romantic images (that's a HOUSE by the way, not an old native Queensland person. That would be weird.).

So, literary Brisbane. Well, in the whole YA genre, the man man here is Nick Earls. Resident Brisbanite and Aussie YA champion. I, personally, am not a massive fan of his writing - he has a very unique style, that I get you either love, or not-love-very much-at-all. Anyway, as an introduction, I would go with 48 Shades of Brown. I remember catching the film adaptation late one night, and getting all excited spotting places we drove past on the way to do the shopping etc. As much as I found fault with some of the book, I love the way he captures this place and the feeling of being young and in love here. Sorry, sorry, feel free to vom. Cheeszoid mushy stuff is over now.

The Girl Most LikelyAnother Brisbane author worth checking out is Rebecca Sparrow. It is a real regret that I never got a chance to read more of her stuff while I was there, (hopefully I will in the future when funds permit me to ship vast amounts of Aussie books to London) but The Girl Most Likely is a great, very funny depiction of a woman having a mid-20s crisis and not knowing what the blooming heck to do about it. With sexy neighbour thrown in for good measure. What's not to love?

Probably my favourite Brisbane-based author is Belinda Jeffrey. Ok, so none of books so far have actually been set in Brisbane, but I urge you to check out Brown Skin Blue. One of the most affecting YA books I've ever read. That's all you need to know.

Two other things I have to mention that are literary and Brisbane related -

1) Annerley Community Bookshop on the south side. I used to work here one day a week last year and it is one of my absolute favourite places in the whole of the city. If I could live there, then I would, well, live there and just smell the books all day (what? come on, it can't be just me..)

2) One Book Many Brisbanes. This is an annual short story competition run by Brisbane City Council, with the winners being published in an anthology. You can't find a better literary-shaped depiction of this unique place anywhere else. Oh, and one Belinda Jeffrey was a winner back in the day. You can't get better pedigree than that. So if you can find a copy of one of them then, read it, obvs.

So, that concludes my mini-literary tour of Brisbane. Hope you've enjoyed it. I've only really scratched the surface here. Wonder where we'll be going next? *drums fingers on chin and looks of into distance with misty-eyes expression*


12 comments:

  1. I LOVE THIS POST, ANNA!
    You've had such an interesting life, I'm so jealous! Sometimes I wish I had taken a gap year. I believe I'll make it to Oz one of these days.

    I'm so excited to read some of these books. Especially Belinda Jeffrey. I ordered Brown Skin Blue because of your recommendation :)

    Also, while your hubz is obviously a LOSER and doesn't understand the JOY of BGT, I will always watch it with you via Twitter. ;)

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    1. It's so annoying that it costs so much to ship Aussie books over here. Should have stocked up on more before I left!

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  2. Aww, this is such a nice post about Australia, Anna! Even though I'm a Sydney-sider I appreciate how laid back and different Queensland is and it's such a great spot for a holiday :) And now you have a bit of Australia with you in England in the form of your Aussie husband ;)

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    1. Yes, although he's a bit of an anglophile as far as Australians go! Love living in London, but Australia is very magical :)

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  3. Oh what a lovely post, I really enjoyed reading it. It's funny how life decisions are made, isn't it? I absolutely love all the Aussie books I've read lately and hoping to get more into it..

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    1. I desperately NEED to get another fix of Aussie YA VERY SOON :)

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  4. ANNA! You should be the subject of your book. Hello! :) Love it so much. And BrisVegas? LOLOL.

    Americans should totally have a gap year. I know I wouldn't have felt so burnt out during my junior and senior years of college if I had had a break after high school.

    Adding your book recs to my list! Seriously, love this post so much. :)

    -Maggie

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    1. Aww, thanks! Yes, gap years ROCK :)

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    2. I just ordered The Girl Most Likely from Fishpond. :)

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    3. Yay! I hope you enjoy it and all its Brisbane loveliness :)

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  5. Great post! I have never found Brisbane that appealing, but perhaps that's because I spent my Christmas holidays between there and the GC for most of my childhood and always thought it was boring. Admittedly, not as boring as Rockhampton (which some people like to call RockVegas - no kidding), but that's behind the point. I guess Sydney and Melbourne always seemed more exciting.

    Since I moved to the GC for uni I have found a new appreciation for Birssy and am in love with the amazing 2nd hand bookshop at UQ. While I'm only planning on being here for another year, I hope to discover a bit more of Brisbane and not be so negative about it. Also, I just finished The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay and am very much looking forward to The Girl Most Likely.

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    1. Thanks Michelle! I agree with Brisbane not being the most exciting place in the world, but I have great memories of it from when I was on my gap year :)

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