The Australian National University made me H. C. Coombs Creative Fellow in 2008 and I give special thanks to Tim Rowse, then Fellow at the Research School of Social Sciences, and Anne McGrath, whose department at ANU hosted me. I wish to thank those who put my name forward for the fellowship – Desley Deacon, Head of History Program; Simon Haines, Head of School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts; Chris Reus-Smit, Professor of International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies; and Professor Kim Rubenstein, Director of the Centre for International and Public Law.
The Fryer Library, University of Queensland, repository for my personal archive, was an indirect patron of the project. I also thank the New South Wales government through the offices of Frank Sartor for a Writers’ Fellowship for this project. In 2009 I was the inaugural CAL Writer in Residence at the University of Technology in Sydney under the directorship of John Dale, which gave me time to finish Cold Light. Professor Gerhart von Graevenitz, the Rector of the University of Konstanz, Germany, invited me to be a senior fellow in the Zukunftskolleg in 2009 to allow me to write and do European-based research for the book. Arthur Moorhouse, as executor of the Moorhouse estate, and his wife, Rhonda Moorhouse, at times undertook the role of literary patrons.
The Griffith Review, under the editorship of Julianne Schultz, published the first extract of the book in the December 2009 Fiction Issue under the title ‘Does Eros Remember My Name’.
Susie Carleton was a supporter and patron, as were Carol and Nicholas Dettmann, patrons, friends and advisers, who also provided a retreat at their magnificent Minnamurra House, where parts of this book were written. Steven Katz provided accommodation during my visit to the United Nations in New York.
I wish to express my appreciation to: Lenore Coltheart for assisting with accommodation arrangements in Canberra and also for over the years acting as a guide and adviser on the history and nature of Canberra and on politics generally, and for inspiration, learning and verve; Professor Kim Rubenstein and Garry Sturgess (senior researcher for the ABC’s 1993 ‘Labor in Power’ and co-creator and co-writer of SBS’s 2009 ‘Liberal Rule’), for intellectual advice and stimulation and accommodation in Canberra; Graham Willett; Tim Herbert and James Freston for conversational guidance and correction; Bill Pritchard, former Head of the Department of Defence; Myfanwy Horne for information on Canberra and Dr H. V. Evatt; Nicholas Brown, ANU, for background on Raymond Watt and the League of Nations Union and the Canberra Commission and South Pacific Commission; Don Anderson, whose father Gordon Anderson was in 1950 expelled from the Returned Services League for communist sympathies, for literary inspiration; Sam Dettmann, senior policy adviser with the New South Wales government, for obscure research; Professor Mary Kinnear, author of the biography of Mary McGeachy, for conversation and shared research; David McKnight for assistance on the Communist Party and other matters; Bob Gould; Amirah Inglis and Ken Inglis; Sebastian Clark for many conversations on many things, and Manning Clark House for accommodation; Selwyn Cornish, visiting fellow at the ANU College of Business and Economics; historian Garry Wortherspoon, who helped with gay history; Eric Walsh and Jim Spigelman, who helped with the Whitlam period; and Barry Price, who drew attention to the anomaly of the name Lake Burley Griffin.
I would like to especially thank the professional back-up I have received from my agents, the remarkable Rosemary Creswell (now retired) and Jane Cameron at the Cameron Creswell Agency, who have always gone beyond the call of duty for this project. At Random House Australia I have had outstanding professional judgement and support during the creation of the trilogy – for the first two volumes from Jane Palfreyman, who has now moved on, and now for this final volume from Meredith Curnow, publisher, and from Margie Seale, managing director. For Cold Light I also had remarkably fine editorial support from editors Roberta Ivers and Sophie Ambrose. And I also wish to thank designer Gayna Murphy for the creation of the covers for the new editions, and the astute eye of Julian Welch, who did the final check of the book.
For those who read and commented on drafts of the whole or parts of the book I owe special thanks for their undertaking of this most demanding of tasks: Sandra Levy, Helen Lewis, Don Anderson, Julianne Schultz, Rohan Haslam, Nick Horne, Annie Hollander, Graham Freudenberg and Angela Bowne.
My specialist readers were Dr Lenore Coltheart, historian and consultant with the National Archives of Australia; Xavier Hennekinne, from the International Organisation for Migration; and Bettina Arndt, who provided me with invaluable access to papers concerning her family and its special role in Canberra during the time covered by the book. But, of course, any errors that have found their way into the book are entirely my responsibility.
I wish to acknowledge Christine Allsopp, my guide and companion during the writing of Grand Days in France – eighteen years ago – at the beginning of the whole project. I owe her a great debt.
I wish finally to acknowledge Sandra Levy, dear friend and adviser of many years.
Frank Moorhouse was born and raised in the coastal town of Nowra, New South Wales. He worked as an editor of small-town newspapers and as an administrator before becoming a full-time writer.
Grand Days, the first novel in the Edith Trilogy, won the SA Premier’s Award for Fiction. Dark Palace won the 2001 Miles Franklin Literary Award and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award and the Age Book of the Year Award.
During the twenty years it took to write the Edith Trilogy, Moorhouse lived abroad, researching the novels in Canberra; Geneva; France; Washington DC, where he was a Woodrow Wilson Scholar and a Senior Fulbright Fellow; the Middle East; and at Cambridge University, where he was writer in residence at King’s College.
His work has been published in the UK and the US and translated into several languages. He was made a member of the Order of Australia for his services to literature and has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Griffith University.
By the same author
FICTION
Futility and Other Animals
The Americans, Baby
The Electrical Experience
Tales of Mystery and Romance
Conference-ville
The Everlasting Secret Family and Other Secrets
Forty-Seventeen
Grand Days
Dark Palace
OTHER BOOKS
Room Service
Lateshows
Loose Living
The Inspector-General of Misconception
NON-FICTION
Days of Wine and Rage
Martini: A Memoir
BOOKS EDITED BY THE AUTHOR
Coast to Coast 1973
State of the Art
Fictions 88
A Steele Rudd Selection
Prime Ministers of Australia
The Best Australian Stories 2004
The Best Australian Stories 2005
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Version 1.0
Cold Light
9781742754574
First published by Random House Australia in 2011. This edition published in 2012
Copyright © Frank Moorhouse
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First published by Random House Australia in 2011
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Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry
Moorhouse, Frank, 1938–
Cold light/Frank Moorhouse
ISBN 9781742754574 (ebook)
Women diplomats – Fiction.
Man-woman relationships – Australian Capital Territory – Canberra – Fiction.
Australia – Politics and government – 20th century – Fiction.
Australia – Social life and customs – 20th century – Fiction.
A823.3
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Cold Light Page 67
