Wendy James

The Steele Diaries Wendy James

The only child of two famous but self-absorbed artists, Zelda Steele is adopted by her parent's patrons when she is just a baby. Great things are expected of this privileged young woman, but at twenty-seven Zelda is dead, leaving two young children and a body of work that only hints at her promise.

Decades later, Zelda's daughter Ruth returns to her childhood home to find the diaries her mother is rumoured to have kept. What they reveal takes her on a journey into the past: her mother's, her grandmothers and, ultimately, her own.

Weaving together the narratives of three very different women, living in vastly different times, The Steele Diaries paints a rich and evocative portrait of the Sydney art scene from the thirties to the seventies, and the eternal conflict between motherhood and self.

"As a fan of Out of the Silence, the author's award winning debut, I had high hopes for this second effort - and it didn't disappoint. Diaries is a wonderful exploration of the tricky relationship between motherhood and art." - WHO Magazine