On the last Friday of November, we co-hosted with the Inner West Council our final event for 2019. We were extremely fortunate that Bruce Beresford, well known and much- loved film director and Balmain resident, agreed to be our speaker. Bruce proved to be a great draw card with tickets selling fast. The staff from the Inner West libraries and …
July 2019 Quiz Night
Friends of the Balmain Library present Christmas in July Quiz Night– 26th July 2019 All the important people were there, the Quiz Mistress, Santa Claus and the little Green Elf dressed to the nines in tutu and boots. And of course the players. Those who had come along prepared to show off their knowledge about all things Christmas. Members of …
Nadia Wheatley – Her Mother’s Daughter
Our first FOBL event for the year was such a treat. Nadia Wheatley, a great supporter of FOBL over many years, spoke to a packed room about her latest book, her memoir, Her Mother’s Daughter. Mariella Totaro-Genevois, our former FOBL Chair and friend of Nadia’s, introduced Nadia. She spoke of Nadia’s many achievements, her prolific writing career and her support …
FOBL AGM 2019 – Chair’s Report
Fiona Mitchell is the current Chair of the FOBL committee. She delivered this report at the FOBL AGM for 2019. “I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we are meeting tonight, the Wangal and Cadigal people of the Eora nation. Here, at this FOBL gathering where we always celebrate books and writing, it is good …
December 2018 – Luke Slattery: Messing with fact and fiction in early Sydney – an imaginary novel
Each speaker at a FOBL event brings us a new perspective on issues of our culture, particularly literary ones. Our guests reward the audience of FOBL members and visitors with intelligent and entertaining food for thought. This was certainly the case at our last event for 2018. Luke Slattery, a Balmain resident and respected and awarded journalist, critic and author, …
FOBL 2018 Writing Competition Report
This is the ninth year in which FOBL has held writing competitions for the primary schools on the peninsula and for the Balmain Campus of the Sydney Secondary College (SSC). As in previous years, for the Secondary writing competition we worked in conjunction with Mirjana Simic, the Head Teacher of English, to choose a theme to fit with the English …
October 2018 – Inaugural Trivia Night
It was our first, and I hope our inaugural, FOBL Trivia night. The Balmain Town Hall small meeting room had been turned into a patchwork of colourful tables. These were waiting to be filled by teams testing their literary knowledge as well as the occasional question about Balmain history. The evening started with people helping themselves to the delicious supper …
Professor Steve Rayner – “Climate Change: Armageddon or damp squib?”
On the 30th August FOBL was proud and fortunate to be able to present Professor Steve Rayner while he was in Sydney attending a conference on the Social Study of Science. Not a stranger to these shores, Steve had previously visited Australia on several occasions. In 2010 he delivered the Jack Beale Memorial Lecture at the University of NSW and …
Andrew Andersons AO talks about the Sydney Modern project
FOBL’s year opened on Friday April 27 with a fascinating talk about the Sydney Modern project by Andrew Andersons AO, the renowned architect who designed the previous extensions to the Art Gallery of NSW. The function was well attended with FOBL members and non members who clearly had an interest in what is a closely scrutinised project. Our speaker’s talk was illustrated …
Kate McClymont, Investigative Journalist, Sydney Morning Herald
It was a full, excited, house on Friday 6th October to hear Kate McClymont speak to FOBL. Her talk was entitled The Bold, The Belligerent and the Bagmen. Kate McClymont is an investigative journalist currently reporting for the Sydney Morning Herald. In the late 1980s, McClymont worked for two years as a junior reporter on Four Corners. In 2002, she …
News from FOBL
Dear FOBL members, We hope that this finds you and your loved ones well at this difficult time. We are delighted that our Balmain Library is open once again as, for us, at least, reading has been a great solace whilst we are keeping our distance from one another. The FOBL committee has been keeping itself busy. Just last week …
Professor Steve Rayner (1953-2020)
Many members, I am sure, will remember the memorable talk delivered in August of 2018 by Professor Steve Rayner of the James Martin Institute, Oxford University entitled “Climate Change: Armageddon or Damp Squib”. It was one of our most successful events attracting a large audience of both members and non-members alike. Few however, would have been aware at the time …
Pam Dingle – (1933-20.11.2019) Friend of the Friends of Balmain Library.
Pam was a very early member of FOBL. She served as both Chair and Membership Secretary as well as being involved in our other activities. She stepped into the role of Chair at a moment’s notice when I had to leave the role hastily for medical reasons. She was rather horrified by the large amount of paperwork I handed over …
Nadia Wheatley wins the Nib Literary Award
Nadia Wheatley was our first speaker of 2019. We are thrilled to hear that she has won the prestigious Nib Literary Award, chosen out of a short list of six finalists. It is a recognition of the meticulous research that went into her insightful and thought-provoking memoir, Her Mother’s Daughter. On winning Nadia said that writing the memoir was something …
March 2021 Open Book Group – Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson is frequently named as one of America’s most significant writers. Lila is the third book in her Gilead trilogy. Gilead (OBG June 2014) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction,, Home. The Orange Prize for Fiction and Lila The National Book Award. All three books are set Gilead, a nondescript, fictional town surrounded by the corn prairies of Iowa. …
December 2020 Open Book Group – The Man in the Red Coat by Julian Barnes
I enjoyed moderating The Man in the Red Coat by Julian Barnes. Julian Barnes saw John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Dr Pozzi at Home in 2015. He was struck first by the decadent crimson dressing-gown and then by the life of its occupant Dr Pozzi. Barnes confesses he knew nothing about Pozzi despite his avid interest in the period in …
November 2020 Open Book Group – The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power
Thank you, Kevin, for moderating The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir by Samantha Power. Can we change the world by our actions? In The Education of an Idealist, Samantha Power indefatigably proclaims “yes we can”. After graduating from Yale in 1993 Power travel to Bosnia as a war correspondent covering the Yugoslav war. She experienced first-hand how America’s intervention had prevented …
October 2020 Open Book Group – A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Thank you, Karen, for moderating A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles The novel opens in Moscow in 1922 where Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat, and Former person, by a Bolshevik tribunal. Rostov’s perceived crime was the publication in 1913 of a poem titled ‘Where is it Now?’ or said another way, where is our purpose …
September 2020 Open Book Group – Buckley’s Chance by Garry Linnell
Thank you to Gerry for moderating Buckley’s Chance by Garry Linnell. In 1835 three British men sitting on the shores of Port Philip when a 6ft 4″ white, hairy man, wearing animal skins and carrying a spear, walked out of Australian bush. That man was escaped-convict William Buckley. He had spent the past 32 years living with an aboriginal …
August 2020 Open Book Group – Girl, Women, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
Thank you to Trish for moderating Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, Winner of the 2019 Man Booker Prize, at OBG-Zoom’s inaugural and successful meeting. Girl, Women, Other follows the stories of 12 black women. Among them are Amma, a lesbian, socialist, playwright, Morgan who identifies as non-binary, ambitious Carole negotiating the corporate banking world, Shirley a teacher who wants …
April 2020 Open Book Group – Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Oh would some power the giftie gie us, to see ourselves as others see us. Robert Burns 25/1/1759 – 21/7/1796 The novel is presented in vignette-style, or individual episodes, that paint a picture of a community as seen/experienced through the lens of the ‘personality’ of Elizabeth Strout’s main character, Olive Kitteridge. Strout has skilfully created a complex and enigmatic female …
March 2020 Open Book Group – Small Island by Andrea Levy
Thank you to Pat for moderating Small Island by Andrea Levy, 2004 Orange Prize winner and Whitbread Book of the Year. In Small Island Levy examines the experiences of Jamaicans who migrated to England after the Second World War. The year is 1948. We meet Hortense, an almond skinned Jamaican and her dark-skinned husband Gilbert. They are lodging with warm open-hearted …
February 2020 Open Book Group – The Buried by Peter Hessler
Thank you to Dianne for moderating The Buried by Peter Hessler. Peter Hessler, a journalist, spent a decade in China. He documented his time there in Country Driving (OBG July 2011). On returning to Missouri he and his US-born Chinese wife, Leslie were not ready to settle down. Armed only with a three-month course in Classical Arabic, not a spoken …
December 2019 Open Book Group – Eleanor Olephant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
I enjoyed moderating Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. The novel is split into three sections told through Eleanor’s voice. Good Days. Eleanor lives alone. She has worked in the same office for nine years. Her weekends are consoled by a bottle of vodka she buys each Friday night. We quickly gain the impression that she considered a …