Imagine WWII is close at hand, you’re aged 12, and are taken to the police station for questioning on suspicion of espionage? All because you wrote a letter to your uncle who happens to be an officer in the Navy.
This happened to Warriewood author Natalie Scott and the story features in her new memoir A Secret Grief, which she will be discussing at this year’s Manly Writers’ Festival.
Her letter of disdain about life at a Blue Mountains’ boarding school must have ruffled some feathers. “I didn’t know the letters were being censored,” she recalls. “I was called to the principal’s office where two burly police officers took me to the station to be questioned and fingerprinted. The principal accompanied me and she was most upset.”
Natalie says the pressure was relieved when one of the officers offered her a glass of milk. “He might have had a daughter the same age,” she muses.
Now 97, Natalie says she was amazed at how memories about those sensitive times came flooding back to her when she wrote A Secret Grief. These included recollections of strict discipline at the boarding school, inedible boiled eggs for breakfast, and nearly freezing to death after becoming lost in the mountains. Another memory is of her loving dad buying a motorbike with a sidecar, and coming to the school to collect her. “The other girls were very envious,” she says. “When it rained I sat in the sidecar with an umbrella.”
Still, some things remain private and Natalie says she’s not prepared to relinquish them to public history. “I guess you could say I am a half-open book!”
Her writing has been published in London and New York. She wrote for both The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald before going freelance. What followed were acclaimed works of fiction, short stories, non-fiction pieces, books for children and audiobooks. She also wrote for television and radio and has contributed to many literary magazines, including Griffith Review and Southerly. Her latest novel The Rim of the Sky will be released in May.
“It’s set in Russia in the 1880s and it took me more than five years to research,” she says. “Longer than anything I’ve ever written. A friend was a Russian professor at ANU. I used to send drafts for checking – to get it right.”
Her writing has been described as poetic. Natalie calls herself impressionable. Most of her work is a product of her imagination: “I’m looking out my window at a marvelous magnolia tree and if I was writing I might describe it in detail. I think being observant has been the most important thing for my writing.
“I also believe writing has been my saviour. My fingers are a bit wobbly, but cognitively … it and writing go hand-in-hand.
“I think publishing is hard these days. People want to express themselves. Some do it through music or poetry. I always wanted to be a writer, for as long as I can remember.
“I’m quite happy being alone; happy with the isolation.”
Manly Writer’s Festival will take place across various venues in Manly, March 19-22, bringing readers and writers together for conversation, storytelling and ideas.
For programs and tickets visit manlywritersfestival.org.au
