A would-be biographer demands to know the life story of a well-loved composer of joyful but reflective music. She always evades him, but she confides in us, as she considers the extraordinary story of what made her, and her creativity.
Sue Woolfe: ‘I wrote this story because I wanted to alert people who are puzzled by the erratic, bewildering behaviour of older relatives whose stories of their childhoods don’t stack up- I discovered, long after she died, that my mother, not an orphan – most children in orphanages weren’t! – didn’t go to the exclusive convent she pointed to out the bus window, but to a horrific, abusive orphanage. She went to her death too shamed to tell us. Your relatives may be bearing anguish no human should be asked to bear.’
Watch world-renowned soprano Heather Lee at the launch of the novel (Gleebooks, Sydney, 13/5/26) sing her own improvised song from a scene fromThe Girl Who Climbed on Rooves, when the heroine discovers her mother’s secret too late:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyeg-o6wvoM&t=16s
‘I didn’t want to stop reading this unique and wonderful book, and afterwards, my heart was ragged. She Woolfe says things that, to me, have not been said before.’
– Helen Elliott (critic)
Buy The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves from Amazon Australia here