Charmian Clift’s Kalymnos, Gleebooks — Sunday 12 May, 3.30pm-6pm

In the winter of 1954, Australian author Charmian Clift arrived on the remote and poverty-stricken Greek island of Kalymnos with her author-husband, George Johnston, and their two young children. Clift described herself as ‘looking for a mermaid’ – for something magical or mystical that would change her life.

What she found was her own unique literary voice, expressed in her first solo book, Mermaid Singing. In this memoir she recorded her observations of the island’s society of sponge divers and matriarchs, and her own adaptation to the rhythms of Kalymnian life. This authentic Greece was the change Clift was seeking.

Clift’s biographer, Nadia Wheatley, will share these discoveries in a talk illustrated with archival and contemporary photographs.

Sydney Writers’ Festival: Literary Legends — Wednesday 22 May, 2pm-3pm

Following her biography The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift, Nadia Wheatley contributed the afterword to The End of the Morning, Clift’s final manuscript, which was recently published more than 50 years after her death. Literary scholar Brigitta Olubas (Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life) joined forces with journalist Susan Wyndham to edit Hazzard and Harrower: The Letters, which reveals the deep and vexed friendship between two of Australia’s greatest writers. 

Learn more about these fabled authors’ work and writing lives with the scholars who are salvaging their stories from the archives, in conversation with Caroline Baum.

Charmian Clift’s Kiama: A Life-long Inspiration, Kiama Library — 1 June, 2pm-4pm

In this talk, Nadia Wheatley will discuss the significance of The End of the Morning as a source for her award-winning biography, The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift. A power-point presentation will evoke the landscape of the novel, and of Clift’s early life.

Having the last word: Charmian Clift’s The End of the Morning, Jessie St Library — 20 June, 11.30am-2pm

Jessie Street Library — Members and their guests

In this talk, Clift’s biographer and the editor of this posthumous work will discuss its significance both as a work of literature and as a biographical source.

Bookings open to JS Library members and their guests

Having the last word: Charmian Clift’s The End of the Morning, Five Dock Library — 27 June, 5.45pm-7pm

In this talk, Nadia Wheatley will discuss the significance of The End of the Morning, both as a work of literature and as a source for her award-winning biography, The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift. A power-point presentation will evoke the landscape of the novel and of Clift’s early life.