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Annabel Again

 

 

Annabel, Again: Trivia

  • Although the plot of the novel is not taken from my own life (I never had a friend move away and come back, for example), there are many ways in which I've drawn on my own experience in writing the characters and the world they inhabit.

  • I have been known to plant bulbs upside down. Actually, even the ones I plant the right way up have the good sense to stay in the ground, where it's safer. I may be the world's least successful gardener. Sometimes I put signs around the garden saying things like 'Waldecks', '$6.99 a pot' and 'Plant Now for Spring!', to try and trick the plants into believing they are still in the nursery, but they are too clever for me.

  • The park in between Livvy's and Annabel's houses, which I call Sheldon Park  in the novel, is based on Manning Park, just a short walk from my house. It features cruising ducks, invisible tortoises, and scraggly old-man trees.

  • I played netball for years, starting in Centre, and moving on to Goal Shooter around Year 9. Although I liked shooting goals, I always missed the freedom being Centre gave me (and I suspect that, like Livvy, I missed the feeling of everything revolving around me).

  • I used to time myself running around the block. My brother (who to this day is an amazing endurance athlete) used to stroll beside me as I huffed and puffed, saying, ‘Are you sure you can’t go any faster?’ It always frustrated me that I was such a good runner in my head, but that my legs didn’t seem to get the message. Livvy would have said that I was obviously good at other things ... 'yet to be discovered'.

  • Although I like pistachios, I'm not really sure they’re worth the effort (those shells! My daughter thinks they’re well worth it, but that’s because I do the shelling, while she does the eating).

  • I was once knocked off my bike by a magpie, and that swooping sound still makes me duck instinctively. If you see someone walking through the park waving her arms above her head 'just in case', it's probably me!

  • I am nothing like Livvy's Mum. Or Annabel's. Not one little bit.

  • Really.