At the beginning of August, hot on the heels of having done a talk for U3A Wollongong, I headed out west for two library author talks at Narromine and Dubbo. Along the way, I dropped into Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM to have a chat with host Robyn Catchlove — community radio presenter and author of Somewhere Down a Crazy River: A spirited life catching fish, love and wisdom. I wrote about that plan here.

I recorded our chat on my mobile (cell) phone. I’ve loaded it on to SoundCloud and you can listen by clicking on the arrow. The reading also appears at the end of this post, if you care to read along as you listen.

And just in case it will not play, here is the transcription. This is very long. Definitely a cup of coffee read.

Gwen on LOUISA, Interview with Robyn Catchlove on Radio Blue Mtns 89.1FM. Tue 4th Aug

Robyn(0:00 – 0:37)

Go nowhere. Your coffee in hand. Sit in your favourite lounge or outside under the favourite tree and listen because we have the lovely Gwenda Wilson.

Gwenda, most interesting young lady. And she’s written a book called Louisa. And this is what’s most interesting, of course, is that it’s an Australian story.

And good morning, young lady.

Gwen(0:37 – 0:39)

Good morning, Robin. Thanks for having me on.

Robyn(0:43 – 0:48)

Now, firstly, how interesting, what era, what century are we in?

Gwen(0:48 – 0:54)

18, late 1800s. It’s set mostly in Sydney between 1883 and 1895.

Robyn(0:56 – 1:02)

1883 and 1895. Right. Okay.

And where?

Gwen(1:02 – 1:10)

Mostly Sydney, but also a place called Illabo, which is a real town between Journey and Cootamundra.

Robyn(1:11 – 1:32)

Now, and so I’m imagining the type of clothing, the communication, the way of travelling, etc. So do tell us the plot. Don’t give it away.

All of the plot? Don’t give it away.

Gwen(1:32 – 1:34)

No, that’s right. We can’t be doing that.

Robyn(1:35 – 1:37)

Firstly, your inspiration.

Gwen(1:38 – 2:13)

Okay. So 11 years ago now, my memoir, I Belong to No One, was published. And that’s a memoir about my first 20 years.

While I was writing that, I discovered that the last legitimate birth on my maternal line was Louisa Whitley. Interesting you say legitimate. Legitimate.

It was a time when this mattered. It’s not even legal now, illegitimacy. But Louisa Whitley was born in Bradford in 1854.

Robyn(2:14 – 2:14)

1854.

Gwen(2:15 – 2:36)

Last legitimate birth on that line. And you know how some families in their DNA, they carry greatness like scientific brains or musical. So my family does a very good line in illegitimacy.

We perfected that one.

Robyn(2:36 – 2:39)

Yes. And anyway, what a dreadful term.

Gwen(2:39 – 3:21)

Yes. Terrible, terrible. And so much disadvantage and poverty that went along with it.

So originally, I set out to write a book called Louisa’s Legacy. And it was to dovetail into I Belong to No One. And it had this idea that I’d kind of trace what were the things in her life that created the situation for my life.

But along the way, it grew too big. So it’s split now. And this book is Louisa.

And there’s a manuscript in my desk at home called Florence and Lucy, which is the other half.

Robyn(3:21 – 3:29)

And when you’re saying that you’re seeing parallels. Yes. Between your life and hers.

Gwen(3:29 – 3:30)

Yes, absolutely.

Robyn(3:30 – 3:31)

How interesting.

Gwen(3:32 – 3:32)

Yes.

Robyn(3:33 – 3:36)

And her bravery. Go on, please.

Gwen(3:36 – 3:58)

Well, remembering I’ve written this as a novel. So it’s a composite of the real Louisa Whitley and other women that I’ve discovered in my research. So in the novel, Louisa Whitley is a young woman, one of nine, second eldest, one of nine.

Robyn(3:58 – 3:59)

A young lady.

Gwen(3:59 – 4:07)

Yes. Her father is a cordwainer, which is a specialist bootmaker, anatomical bootmaker.

Robyn(4:08 – 4:09)

Cordwainer.

Gwen(4:09 – 4:52)

So the expression comes from Cordoba in Spain, where they made the finest leather. Oh. Anyway, he dies young.

He’s only 44. In his 44th year, he dies. But in his dying days, he exhorts Louisa with a phrase from the Bible, because he’s also a lay minister and attached to the Baptist church.

And the quote is on the on the back of the cover. Perhaps you’d like to just read out that opening. Be strong.

Can you say that there? Right. Here we go.

Robyn(4:52 – 5:00)

And it’s interesting with this too, that women were required to get married.

Gwen(5:01 – 5:28)

Yes. Well, this is part of the problem for Louisa. So just so a father says, be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. Yes.

Now, that’s actually a quote from the Bible. And it goes on. But Louisa only hears her father’s words.

So she’s like, you know, my father’s, you know, seen this strength in me and wants me to carry through. Louisa has a younger brother.

Robyn(5:29 – 5:31)

And how powerful that would have been.

Gwen(5:31 – 6:00)

Yes, she takes it very literally. Yes. So she has a younger brother.

And he’s only 15 when their father dies. But their uncle Frederick is very much involved in their lives after that, because their father in the will enjoined him with their mother. So he didn’t entrust their mother to carry through on her own.

Robyn(6:00 – 6:04)

Question, what sort of property are they on?

Gwen(6:04 – 7:14)

Well, I believe they were renting rather than owning, but two properties and boot making stores and you know, quite, quite a decent middle class. Yeah, yeah, a decent middle class. That’s a good term to decent.

Yes, yes. Well, not upper upper, you know, not but but not. They certainly Bradford was the milling capital of the world.

And at one stage had the most millionaires in the world. It lived on wool and wool and woollen mills. Well, they certainly weren’t in the factory and the children weren’t sent into the factory.

The more of the factory. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right.

Anyway, brother attains. Well, she’s 17 when her dad dies. Her brother’s 15.

But under the guidance of this arrogant, Uncle Frederick, when her brother attains his majority, I turns 21, he puts himself in control of the family. And one of those controls is he wants Louisa married.

Robyn(7:14 – 7:18)

Yes. And by the way, not just married, but wealthy.

Gwen(7:18 – 7:48)

Well, I don’t explore that so much in the book. No, I think at this point, he just wants to marry to somebody of their status. Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Comfortably. Yes, yes.

She doesn’t like this. And she sets upon this course that she’s going to come to Australia by herself. And she has this.

She, she reads novels, which is not terribly well regarded at the time.

Robyn(7:48 – 7:49)

So she had education.

Gwen(7:50 – 7:51)

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Robyn(7:52 – 7:54)

was only encouraged by men.

Gwen(7:55 – 8:16)

No, but but reading novels and melodramatic and so on is not you know, there was a point in time you could be a woman could be admitted to a mental asylum because she read novels. So, but this does give her a little bit of an idealistic view of what she can achieve.

Robyn(8:18 – 8:21)

And 17. And this is your grandma.

Gwen(8:21 – 8:44)

Great grandmother. Yes, a few years later. Yes.

A few years later. Yes. She doesn’t exactly run away.

She her mother finally gives permission and finances it against her brother Arthur’s wishes. But but he has to go along with what is well, his mother puts a foot down and says no, this is happening.

Robyn(8:44 – 8:46)

And how extraordinary that her mother?

Gwen(8:47 – 8:47)

Yes.

Robyn(8:47 – 8:48)

Yes.

Gwen(8:48 – 8:50)

Yes. Yes.

Robyn(8:50 – 8:51)

Yes. To set this young.

Gwen(8:52 – 9:23)

Yeah. So that’s how I’ve constructed it, Robin. I don’t have any proof of this.

I also don’t have any proof of how the real Louisa came to Australia. There’s days I think she must have swum to Australia. I had one version where I did have her running away with a under an assumed name.

But I had an agent at the time and the agent said, no, no, no, you can’t have your heroine doing such a thing on the first in the first chapter. So I’m like, oh, really?

Robyn(9:24 – 9:31)

So she comes to Australia. And so your book is deeply enmeshed in that extraordinary historical.

Gwen(9:31 – 9:32)

Yes.

Robyn(9:32 – 9:32)

Yes.

Gwen(9:33 – 9:35)

Yes. I love research.

Robyn(9:35 – 9:43)

Yeah. The the opportunity for us to get a taste of a period before us.

Gwen(9:44 – 9:44)

Yes.

Robyn(9:44 – 9:55)

And for me immediately, I’m dreaming of what kind of clothes. What did she do when she got here? How was it?

What happened when she?

Gwen(9:55 – 11:16)

So on board the ship in Sydney. So on. So so I’ve got brought her out on a ship called the Leicester Castle, which really did exist.

And I’ve used some of the real passengers who were on the ship. But there’s of course, I can’t speak to the characters with apology to anybody who might be descended from those real characters. But there’s no evidence that the real Louisa was on the ship.

But I put her on board. I’ve put her on board as a cabin mate with a lady named Alice Staples, who was really on board with her son Thomas. And Alice’s husband Edgar is on board as a stowaway.

Yeah. So so what I had, it’s it’s this whole taking the research and then how am I going to stitch this together into a novel. So I had the fact that in 1871, Louisa was at home in Bradford on the census.

And in 1885, she married Edgar Staples. And I and then working backwards, I worked out where, when and how Edgar Staples came. And clearly, in order for Louisa to marry him, Alice didn’t survive.

Robyn(11:16 – 11:22)

But also, just me, being now being the reader.

Gwen(11:23 – 11:23)

Yes.

Robyn(11:24 – 11:29)

Imagining how they would have dressed and how exactly on the boat.

Gwen(11:29 – 11:48)

Exactly. So yes, yes, yes, yes. But more of a traveling outfit.

You know, not quite the, you know, not quite the land clothes, yes, but more purposeful, you know, different fabric and so on.

Robyn(11:48 – 11:49)

Six, eight week.

Gwen(11:50 – 12:01)

Yes, let me think. It left at the end of January and arrived mid April. The real vessel.

Yes. So I’ve, you know, so I’ve kept to that timeline.

Robyn(12:01 – 12:05)

So talk to me about when she arrives here. Bravely.

Gwen(12:06 – 12:27)

Bravely. So she’s fended off a proposal on the ship. She’s she’s fended off the proposal.

And but this, however, yes, however, she has great aspirations to become a governess because she is educated.

Robyn(12:27 – 12:27)

Yes.

Gwen(12:27 – 12:35)

So she thinks she’s going to become a governess. She thinks she’s going to save up money and own and open her own school gives her a home.

Robyn(12:36 – 12:36)

Yes.

Gwen(12:36 – 13:17)

Yes, yes, yes. And she thinks that she’s going to become so independent and successful that she’ll send for her sisters. And they’ll all come out here and have this independent life and be blowed what their brother wants them to do in life, or Uncle Frederick.

But in fact, at the time she arrives, the New South Wales government was beginning to establish public schools. So even some of the wealthy were beginning to choose to send their children to those public schools in lieu of governesses. And there’s a glut of governesses.

Oh.

Robyn(13:19 – 13:23)

How, yet uncaptured by the, the scene.

Gwen(13:23 – 13:44)

Yes. Yes. So this is where she gets sent to Illabo.

But she thinks she’s going to something like she would see a rural pastoral scene in England, you know. Sheep may safely graze in these green paddocks with, with stone.

Robyn(13:45 – 13:45)

Yeah.

Gwen(13:47 – 14:24)

And that’s yeah, no. Yeah, but no, but no. Robyn And so she’d go.

Well, she endures a year in Illabo. Something dramatic happens, which sends her back to Sydney with her tail between her legs. When you’re talking Sydney in that period, we’re talking 1850s, yeah?

1880, early 1880s. What would the population of Sydney about 500,000, something like that. About as big as Adelaide was when I went there in 1974.

Robyn(14:25 – 14:41)

And so, and so she returns and then has to invent or discover another way of supporting herself as a single woman. Yes, yes, yes. It must have been difficult even applying jobs.

Gwen(14:41 – 15:17)

Yes. So she’s already discovered many times. She’s already been told that all the colony of New South Wales really wants is servants or wives.

And she doesn’t want to be either. But she does have a pragmatic streak. And it’s essential, you know, she’s got to feed herself and house herself without a protector.

The protector we were talking about. If she’s not going to be married. Gone.

Well, she ends up as a servant, which she really…

Robyn(15:17 – 15:27)

Can I just go back with you? When you say women required a protector, for what reason? What was their responsibility?

Gwen(15:27 – 15:37)

So, first of all, the financial protection. Of course. Of course.

A certain respectability came from being married.

Robyn(15:38 – 15:38)

Absolutely.

Gwen(15:40 – 16:18)

You had a certain amount of freedom. You know, if you’re a servant, you’ve got to do what your employer wants you to do. And as a servant, are you living in quarters?

Usually. There was a mixture of both. But in this case, I’ve put her in.

And look, I’ll just veer off to the side for a moment. I’ve just finished reading Miles Franklin Undercover by Kerry Davies. Now, after My Brilliant Career was published, Miles Franklin was also struggling to make her way as a single woman.

Robyn(16:18 – 16:20)

And by the way, to have a male name to get herself published.

Gwen(16:20 – 16:27)

Exactly. She had quite a few names to pick from, of course. Stella Miles Franklin.

Robyn(16:29 – 16:34)

There’s another one in there. She was also brilliant but had to…

Gwen(16:34 – 17:28)

Yes. She managed to go through a life without getting married. But after My Brilliant Career was published, she decided to spend a year as a servant because she was going to write a book about that experience.

So she went in under an alias. Now, this is like 1902-03. And her descriptions of servitude then, you know, varied from one place to another, but was horrendous.

Yes. Long, long hours. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. Exactly. Maybe sharing a room or having a little drafty room.

That’s the early 1900s. I’ve got Louisa 20 years before. And she doesn’t really want to be a servant.

More worse conditions than that.

Robyn(17:29 – 17:31)

Yes. And no respect.

Gwen(17:31 – 17:40)

Absolutely. This galls. This galls, Louisa.

She also loses a kind of a respect for herself. How wonderful.

Robyn(17:41 – 18:22)

Stay tuned. I hope you’re wondering with us through this extraordinary period in time. We shall be back very shortly.

Just firstly to thank some sponsors if we may for them. 1880s as a woman. But to begin to envisage and feel that period.

And see we put Louisa. And it’s a novel that it’s based on and includes a lots of not only just interesting facts, but stories about the way that her great grandmother came to Australia. But go on.

Gwen(18:24 – 18:37)

So I’m going to leap ahead. But first, while we talk about random facts, in New South Wales, the first opportunity for divorce was 1873.

Robyn(18:38 – 18:41)

And you had to prove that you had a lover, I’m saying.

Gwen(18:42 – 18:50)

Well, a woman could not sue her husband for adultery. Only the man could sue for a divorce. Yes.

Robyn(18:50 – 18:51)

Okay.

Gwen(18:51 – 19:09)

All right. So I’ll just set that scene for a moment. So 1873.

Now, by 1890, divorce was still so rare, it’s probably only been about 400 granted in total, that if you got sued for divorce, it got written up in the papers.

Robyn(19:09 – 19:10)

Oh, no.

Gwen(19:11 – 19:11)

So I’m…

Robyn(19:11 – 19:12)

No privacy.

Gwen(19:12 – 20:44)

No privacy. So I’m Googling around for Louisa. Louisa Staples, as she was then.

So you’ve got to imagine how she’s gone from Louisa Whitley to Louisa Staples, wife of Edgar. And she’s in the divorce courts. She was found in bed by her husband with a jockey from Randwick.

I’ll just leave that scene with you for a moment. He just happened to have a breakdown, happened to come home at 10am in the morning and then he stomped straight off and went to his papers. And they said, oh, and this was 1992 when I discovered this.

And I said, could I have these papers again? No, no, no. Only the parties to the divorce or their solicitors can have access.

And I went, oh, yes, look, understandable. But this is an 1892, not a 1992. And they wrote back and said, yes, only the parties to the divorce or the solicitors can have access.

But some years later, all those papers were transferred to the state archives at Kingswood and I sent off my $30 copying fee and got it back. So I want to say, you asked before about parallels. As a consequence of this, Louisa loses all rights to the two children of the marriage.

Robyn(20:44 – 20:47)

And her character…

Gwen(20:47 – 20:57)

Is besmirched. Yes, yes, all of this. Now, this is a time when the men basically owned the children.

Robyn(20:58 – 21:01)

They owned every single one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gwen(21:02 – 21:11)

So and my memoir, I Belong to No One, ultimately is set in the forced adoption period. So we’ve got some parallels there.

Robyn(21:11 – 21:16)

Can I ask, with I Belong to No One, would we be able to get that at a library?

Gwen(21:16 – 21:38)

Yes, some libraries are still stocking it. But also a shed, the publisher has also just put it back into circulation on print on demand. So you can go to your favourite bookstore and ask them to order in a copy.

So moving on, Louisa has to re-establish her life from this down moment. This is a very, very down moment.

Robyn(21:38 – 21:41)

And she would have had no money. It wouldn’t have been anything.

Gwen(21:41 – 21:46)

Exactly. All of this. All of this.

So she’s in a very dismal space.

Robyn(21:47 – 21:52)

But not only that, the opportunities just weren’t there for her to take.

Gwen(21:53 – 22:00)

Exactly. So in the course of grabbing an opportunity, she meets another man.

Robyn(22:00 – 22:00)

Yes.

Gwen(22:00 – 22:19)

Another man. Yes. Oh no.

Oh no. Well, is he good? Is he not good?

He’s educated. Anyway, he fathers two children with her, Florence and Lucy. And this is my real grandmother and great aunt.

Robyn(22:19 – 22:24)

And what you’re saying too is she didn’t have a choice. She had to find a man.

Gwen(22:25 – 22:37)

Well, she could have gone back into being a servant. And she didn’t, to be truthful, she didn’t mean to find this man.

Robyn(22:37 – 22:45)

Yes. Don’t tell us anymore. No.

No. And so that was then your great grandmother.

Gwen(22:46 – 23:31)

That was my grandmother and my great aunt, which is the subject of the next book, Florence and Lucy. What I will say, we probably need to wrap up, and maybe a little bit of time for a very short reading. But what I will say, the younger women who read Louisa do not like the ending, or not don’t like the ending, but they’re exasperating because they want Louisa to tell these guys to take a long walk off a short pier.

But we’re talking 1895. She’s got two kitties. And if a man’s saying he’s going to marry her and make her respectable, we’re back to this protector business.

Robyn(23:32 – 23:37)

And that notion and that standard statement, make her…

Gwen(23:37 – 23:38)

Respectable.

Robyn(23:38 – 23:39)

Isn’t that great?

Gwen(23:39 – 23:44)

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. First, they’ve brought them down.

Yes.

Robyn(23:45 – 24:03)

So, can I say, it brings an excitement to my mind to wander in this unbelievable area of true history.

Gwen(24:03 – 24:04)

Yes.

Robyn(24:04 – 24:06)

Yes. And the surprises. Yes.

Gwen(24:07 – 24:25)

Yes. Yes. And some of the other women’s stories that I weave in, I don’t tell in the…

They’re Louisa’s stories in the book, but some of them are truly tragic. And the isolation of selectors in rural places and so on, the lives for the women there, you know.

Robyn(24:25 – 24:27)

Yeah. We want to hold them.

Gwen(24:28 – 24:29)

Yeah. That’s right.

Robyn(24:29 – 24:30)

And they love them.

Gwen(24:30 – 24:30)

That’s right.

Robyn(24:30 – 24:43)

Sing them songs and cook for them. Yeah. And can I just wander into…

The research must have been… Yes. Was it eye-opening for you or unexpected?

Gwen(24:45 – 25:08)

No, not really, because I’m already a big reader. And look, research is just in my bones. The first time I started research was 1978.

I’d gone to England. I knew I had a grandfather born in England. If only I could prove who he was and where he was born, I could get an ancestral stamp and stay as long as I liked.

Robyn(25:09 – 25:09)

Okay.

Gwen(25:09 – 25:16)

I never found him then, but it left me with this addiction to research.

Robyn(25:17 – 25:21)

But it’s an addiction about discovering…

Gwen(25:21 – 25:21)

Yes.

Robyn(25:21 – 25:24)

…extraordinary periods of time.

Gwen(25:25 – 25:45)

Yes. Yes. I don’t want just the meat on the bones.

Look, I even booked into a hotel in Darlinghurst, an old hotel of the time, because they still had wardrobes in there. And there’s a scene where Louisa hides in a wardrobe. So I booked into this hotel room and climbed into the wardrobe to be sure that such a thing was possible.

How wonderful.

Robyn(25:46 – 26:23)

Most wonderful young woman. We are talking with Gwen Wilson, a local author and writer. Always how delightful that we have extraordinary ones expressing themselves in such a powerful and interesting way.

And I’m really loving your notion or your method of sewing some history into some fiction. Yes. And that gives, in a way, a broader position.

Gwen(26:23 – 26:24)

Yes.

Robyn(26:24 – 26:36)

Yes. A bit more entertaining. Don’t you feel like you want to express yourself, for example, around your family tree?

Do it as a novel. Yes. Does it give you more permission?

Gwen(26:37 – 26:47)

Yes, it does, except that I was trying to keep to the known facts and just invent the bits in between.

Robyn(26:47 – 26:50)

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Of course.

Gwen(26:50 – 27:00)

I did write another version that was a romance. It really had nothing to do with the truth. And that was terribly liberating, but it wasn’t the book that I was setting out to write.

That’s beautiful.

Robyn(27:01 – 27:04)

Are you going to read us a book? I have a short… Please do.

Gwen(27:05 – 27:09)

Yes. Now, this is going to take us back to the sailing ship.

Robyn(27:10 – 27:13)

And to set the scene. We’re at 1880.

Gwen(27:13 – 27:47)

So this is 1883. Three. And if there’s anything of Louisa that would mimic Pride and Prejudice, which this version doesn’t, the romance version did, but Charles Bremner, who is a draper, is the Mr. Collins. He’s a real nuisance. He’s pious. He’s priggish.

He’s very full of himself. Yes. Yes.

And he’s decided that he and Louisa should set up a school on the ship for the little kiddies that are running around. The kids don’t want to go to this school. But anyway.

Robyn(27:48 – 27:59)

But also, what I’m imagining, too, is, for example, from England, where it might have been absolutely freezing, they’re coming to a country with a completely different climate.

Gwen(27:59 – 27:59)

Yes.

Robyn(28:00 – 28:05)

Completely different everything. Yes. Yes.

Yes. So you’ve got the little rats running around.

Gwen(28:05 – 28:07)

Yes. So…

Robyn(28:07 – 28:09)

And they don’t want to be tamed. No.

Gwen(28:10 – 28:11)

I don’t dwell too much on that.

Robyn(28:11 – 28:12)

Yes.

Gwen(28:12 – 28:28)

I had to cut so much of the sailing ship scenes. But anyway, Louisa keeps trying to find ways around these situations. So she’s come up.

She’s brought a lot of books with her. So she’s had a trunk up from the hold. Normally this only happened once when you’re crossing the equator.

Robyn(28:29 – 28:30)

And now I’m imagining for her to be bringing books.

Gwen(28:31 – 28:49)

Well, she thinks she’s going to be a governess. So she’s decided that she’s going to read books to everyone on the ship. There’s not a lot of passengers on this ship, only about 50.

And Charles Bremner gets a hint of this, and he’s aghast.

Robyn(28:49 – 28:52)

Aghast. How dare she?

Gwen(28:53 – 28:53)

And novels.

Robyn(28:54 – 28:57)

Good heavens. Good heavens, no. Please go along.

Gwen(28:58 – 29:59)

And she’s sharing the cabin with Alice, who’s got the little baby, Thomas.

Reading:
A sharp rap on the cabin door the next morning revealed an agitated Charles Bremner. His back was ramrod straight, his moustache twitched, and his hands were clenched as if he was tempted to hit me.
‘Forgive the intrusion, Miss Whitley. I must speak with you about a most urgent matter.’
‘Have you come to see my books, Mr Bremner?’
‘Quite so, Miss Whitley, quite so.’ His moustache twitched double-time. ‘I hear you intend to read novels to our children. The very idea is appalling.’
I stifled a laugh, but when I spoke, my voice was firm. ‘They are not our children, Mr Bremner.’ I stared hard at him. ‘If their parents permit it—’
‘It is my school,’ he interrupted, ‘and I don’t permit it.’
Priggish little man. How dare he dictate what I can and can’t do. This was Arthur all over. ‘Mr Bremner…’ the indignation in my tone was clear.
Behind me, Alice gave a light tap of her foot.
I took a deep breath. ‘Mr Bremner.’ I began again, switching tack. ‘Of course, I intended to consult with you.’ I smiled. ‘I simply needed time to sort my recommendations.’
‘Which are?’
‘I thought we should start with Small Beginnings and Sad Ends. You know of it, I’m sure…’ my voice was as smooth as the honey Alice signalled, but my intent was barbed, ‘as it is published by The Religious Tract Society. It is quite the thing for teaching children good Christian conduct.’
‘Well…’
I enjoyed seeing Bremner squirm. I felt sure he’d never read the book. And just wait until he found out I would read for all those who would listen. Although it wouldn’t be that book.
‘Well…’ The finger strayed to his forehead. ‘Quite so, quite so… most apt.’
‘Is that all, Mr Bremner? The baby is restless.’ I mimed holding a baby to my breast, enjoying the look of horror crossing the draper’s face.
Bremner stepped backwards so fast he tripped against the opposite cabin. I watched through a slit in the door until he regained his balance and teetered towards the saloon.”   end reading.

This transcription is missing the last five minutes, which was mostly wrap up conversation.

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Footnote: In draft, this post had a long exposition on how I managed the technology of cutting out off-air chitter-chatter from the phone recording and working out how to upload it in a format most people could listen to. I decided that was a very boring read and deleted it. Sheesh! Writing Louisa was hard, and this promotional stuff is even harder. But I sure am adding to my skill set.