Sea Green

Virginia is on a ship bound for London, lured by her creative dreams, leaving behind her weeping mother and father in Adelaide. On the cocoon-like journey she is struck by the messiness of relationships and her uncontrollable body. But things on the other side of the world are no neater, as she is pulled between her conservative expectations and her magnetic internal life.

In innovative poetic prose, artist and author Barbara Hanrahan plunges us into the possibility-filled London of her youth while reflecting the all-but-unchanged experience of finding independence as a creative woman. Originally published in 1974, Sea Green was inspired by Hanrahan’s experiences but has a life and immediacy all its own.

This jewel-like new edition, featuring an introduction from Stella Prize–longlisted author Laura Elizabeth Woollett and Hanrahan’s own distinctive artwork, re-establishes Sea Green’s place in hearts and minds.

‘An artistic coming-of-age novel like no other. Barbara Hanrahan is as wonderfully idiosyncratic a writer as she is as a visual artist, her prose both extravagant and frank. I hope this book will be remembered as a modern classic.’ – Laura Elizabeth Woollett

‘Arguably the best woman writer to have emerged in Australia in the last decade.’ – Australian Book Review (1970s)

‘One of the most important creative writers at work in Australia today.’ – The News (1970s)

‘One twentieth-century Australian writer who will still be read 100 years on. Her poetic vision of ordinary people and events includes and earthy curiosity about the minutiae and meaning of people’s lives.’ – Times on Sunday

‘Without condescension or nostalgia, Hanrahan tells stories of people who grow up and grow old but whom life passes by. Their haunting quality is that for many readers these tales could be autobiographical.’ – Time Out

Barbara Hanrahan is one of Australia’s most visionary authors and artists. She trained at the South Australian School of Art and the Central School of Art in London, and exhibited and taught art internationally throughout her life. Her expressive, playful and unapologetic stories and artworks often centred around the female experience, her childhood in post-war Adelaide, and her creative and personal evolutions. Hanrahan and her partner, sculptor Jo Steele, lived between Adelaide and London until her death in 1991. Her prolific career resulted in an enormous catalogue of celebrated artworks; the National Gallery of Australia alone holds almost 500 pieces. She also published 16 books, including her somewhat scandalous posthumously published diaries and her debut novel, the perpetual classic The Scent of Eucalyptus.

If you enjoyed Sea Green, we suggest:

• Going down the ‘birth of an artist’ reading rabbit hole, with classics like Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career or more recent takes like The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt, How to Be Both by Ali Smith and Plastic Budgie by Olivia De Zilva

• Embracing London lit like Evenings and Weekends by Oisin McKenna or an antipodean take such as After Story by Larissa Behrendt

• Of course reading more Hanrahan, including Michael and Me and the Sun (almost the non-fiction Sea Green) or Annie Magdalene

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