It has been a while since I took the time to read a book, but my recent trip to Sydney for the Google News Initiative Summit offered the chance, or several actually! As it turns out, I read three contrasting autobiographies, written by three totally different women with unique, yet equally interesting, perspectives.
The first was Sophie Matterson’s The Crossing, a beautifully-written memoir of 31-year-old Sophie’s trek across Australia with a team of camels. Leaving friends and family, Sophie embarked on the journey alone walking from Shark Bay in Western Australia to Byron Bay in New South Wales over thirteen months through harsh deserts, unrelenting heat, and never-ending challenges. I heard Sophie speak about her amazing experience, including the heart- stopping moment her camels fled, leaving her stranded in the desert – at the launch of Elliot Insurance, The Green Broker; a company founded by fellow cameleer John Elliot. I’m not quite sure what it is about camel trekking, but it certainly inspires people to change their lives! A great read.
The next story I read was completely different – the memoir of actress Selma Blair – a turbulent childhood, followed by a wildly successful career; punctuated by tragedy and depression. A previous guest had left their copy of Mean Baby at the Airbnb I was staying at in Sydney (I love the sharing of books this way) and I was fascinated by the odd title – I doubt I would have picked it up in a bookshop. It was an engrossing read, and a very personal confession of her battles with alcohol and chronic health issues, and an adumbration for her diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in her early 40s. Later, I spotted her on the cover of Vogue with her walking cane, the only visible indication of her illness and realised the book had only just been released and was causing quite a stir, Selma having become the face of MS and those struggling with disabilities.
Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood was the last book I read on my trip. I spotted it at the airport, but downloaded a digital copy on iBooks and read it on the plane (a lower environmental footprint, but less fun to share). It was a completely engaging roller coaster account of Suzanne’s unorthodox upbringing on a yacht circumnavigating the world over ten years.
Obsessed with recreating Captain Cook’s voyage the ‘wrong’ way around the world (against the worst weather apparently), her seafaring father sold up the family’s assets and dragged them all off on his outlandish dream. Yes, they experienced amazing wonders, yet were also denied a normal life – missing out on education, friends, and stability. Not to mention being exposed to horrendous dangers and being forced to exist on Spam and cereal for months on end. It’s an epic tale of survival really, and well worth the read – and not only because you can feel smug about your parenting (although I confess I later used the phrase, “At least we didn’t force you to live on a boat for 10 years,” to my son when asking him to stack the dishwasher).
Suzanne’s story, like all of them, had a positive, if not completely happy ending. And like all stories shared, we are often richer in knowledge and understanding for having heard them
