Press
Australian Book Review
Francesca Rendle-Short
When it was first published in Australia in 2012 “The House of Fiction” attracted many reviews and a host of radio interviews – it was the shock of the revelations about an Australian literary icon that provided the hook. This review by academic and author, Francesca Rendle-Short in a literary magazine was one of the…
» Continue Reading
The ‘Spectator’ reviews The House of Fiction
an intriguing story of an Australian literary icon’s bizarre hoax, and her stepdaughter’s attempt to comprehend it.
There aren’t many places you can get shouty about Proust without losing your job. The Lane Bookshop in Perth, Western Australia, is one of them. As an undergraduate, I’d pitch up there for work on Saturday mornings with as much song in the heart as a hangover allowed. Because for me the Lane wasn’t just…
» Continue Reading
The secret sister my father kept hidden
The Guardian Family Section 24 May 2014
It was 1967, the summer of love, and I was going to get married. But I needed my father, Leonard, to give permission because I was under 21. I hadn’t seen him since I was four, when he left my mother, Joyce, and disappeared from my life. I knew he was living in Australia with his…
» Continue Reading
Caroline Baum in conversation with Susan Swingler
Sydney Writers Festival
Susan Swingler talks to Caroline Baum during the Sydney Writers Festival. Caroline is one of Australia’s leading journalists and broadcasters and runs the Bookshots websites.
House of Fiction a “moving and captivating memoir”
Sunday Herald (Glasgow) Review
A short but very nice review of the UK edition of House of Fiction from Glasgow’s Sunday Herald on Sunday, 3rd May 2014: Perhaps fiction writers are best placed to create fictions out of their own worlds, but as Susan Swingler’s moving and captivating memoir shows, the damage wreaked can be huge. When her father,…
» Continue Reading