The Golden Book

by Kate Ryan

  She was alive.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I am enormously grateful to the following friends and family for their input on various drafts of the novel: Honor Bradbeer, Peggy Frew, Eliza Hope, Myf Jones, Stephen Kent, Sue Pyke, Jacqui Ross, Louisa Syme, and Michelle Schwarz. Charlotte Wood was a wonderful mentor at the novel’s inception. My agent, Jane Novak, gave invaluable advice and showed confidence and an unwavering commitment to finding a home for it. Thank you to Marika Webb-Pullman for her thoughtful and insightful editing, Laura Thomas for the beautiful cover design, Cora Roberts for publicity, and all the team at Scribe.

  Catherine Deveny’s analogy of a dyslexic child approaching reading as if from the top of a tree downwards — from which I have borrowed — helped inform Ali’s attempt to make sense of the inability to read. Katherine Levi generously spoke to me about dyslexia, its manifestations and challenges. All errors in relation to this complex subject are my own.

  Much of the writing of this novel took place at my studio at the Abbotsford Convent, and friends there have been essential during the journey of the novel, especially Sal Cooper, Chris Kenneally, Ralf Kempken, Micheline Lee, Jim McIntyre, Roslyn Oades, and Chris Womersley. For ongoing generosity and discussion of writing and life: Adrienne Barrett, Rosey Haas, Belinda Marshall, and Rachel Power.

  Brenda Niall’s encouragement, and her example of the writing life, have been both vital and inspiring. Thank you to my mother, Philippa Ryan, and my late father, Maurice Ryan, for the unquestioning assumption that books are essential to life, and to Josephine Ryan, Brigid Ryan, Patrick Ryan, and Brendan Ryan for support and love.

  I am grateful to Paul Stewart and Bunja Smith, former and current Chairs of the Biamanga National Park Board of Management, for permission to write about Mumbulla Creek Falls, and to Glenn Willcox, CEO of the Bega Land Council, for his conversation about Mumbulla.

  Thank you especially to Stephen Kent, Rory Kent, Honor Ryan, and Freya Ryan for being alongside me each step of the way.

  I acknowledge the traditional owners of the Wurundjeri land on which I write, whose land has never been ceded.