New Year, 2003

Christmas was fabulous for us and I hope it was for you too! On Christmas Day we had to lunch: four friends, Chloe, and my Italian sister Jan and her new husband Giuseppe, who are staying with us this summer. It was magnificent. One of the happiest, noisiest Christmases ever.

This was closely followed by the wedding of my ‘little’ sister Alison Partridge (whom we call Lailu) to Stephan Renc on Dec 28 - a delightful occasion. Thank God both my sisters found great husbands in 2002, each for the third time! Here (below) is the story I wrote for Lailu’s marriage. You have to know my books quite well to understand the hysteria of the story, and you need to know that her first two husbands were Mr. M. and Mr. S. [There’s more Hot News after the story, should you want to scroll past it.]

Since I last wrote I have received two more honours. Each time I receive a letter or phone call about one honour or another I’m as thrilled and amazed as Wombat in Wombat Divine when he got a part in the Nativity. Like him I’m “dizzy with pride.” It’s as if I’ve never been recognized before; as if I don’t really deserve the honour even now; as if a mistake has been made by someone somewhere in some bureaucratic office. But, happily, no mistakes were made. The first, gratefully received, was from the Adelaide chapter of Zonta International, a women’s service club, for being a Woman of Achievement. So all that re-writing over the years, all the tiredness and bags under the eyes, has been worth it!

The second award, on December 1, was from the National Library of Australia, in Canberra, the Friends of whom honour the work of one Australian per year. I’m the first children’s author to be on their august list which meant I felt extra dizzy. I did, however, behave with the kind of decorum that was appropriate for the event, so it was a riot. I took Malcolm with so he could share in the very special occasion and so that we could meet up with two sets of old friends whom we hadn’t seen for years. It was entirely fabulous, particularly as I was thin enough to be able to wear my wedding dress. No, no, not THAT wedding dress—the cute suit I wore to both my sisters’ wedding this year!

Since before my last message (which was hardly hot news, more hot sadness,) my whip-wielding editor Allyn Johnston, from San Diego, has been to stay for her usual ten days a year. By the time she left I was exhausted, astonished and grateful for all the work we had done.

Usually in ten days we manage to wrap up an entire book and begin work on another. This year Malcolm was away in Chile, Argentina, Syria, Ethiopia, you name it, on the holiday of a lifetime which he adored, so Allyn and I completed FIVE books, one of which I wrote in three days, an unheard-of miracle. It’s called The Night Goblin. I don’t know quite what it means, nor where is came from, although I do know it appeared on the page from the depths of my subconscious. The Green Sheep was edited to Allyn’s exacting standards and now looks as if it will be one of my all time classics. It’s my next book and is due out in early 2004. Also in 2004, there will finally be in the bookstores a particular favourite of mine called Hunwick’s Egg , illustrated by Pamela Lofts of Koala Lou fame. Allyn and I also put the finishing touches to A Particular Cow which we edited down to half a page of text after working on the story for eleven years! And together we re-wrote an old out-of-print book: A Cat Called Kite , which is now really zappy and funny.

So October was a tiring month in between two tiring but heart-warming trips to the USA where my welcome is always huge and where I have a big fat smile on my face the entire time.

In between all this my mum is doing very well even though she won’t walk again. She was at my little sister’s wedding in a wheel chair on Saturday: her first trip outside the home since she broke her hip in mid-July.

Finally, a happy New Year, my dears, in a year that is shaping up to be very unhappy indeed, thanks to the grotesque actions of ghastly madmen and unprincipled, self-seeking politicians the world over. I hope we all remember that we can think for ourselves, and that we are allowed to think for ourselves - and think clearly - even if the news media imply that we can’t. At such a time as this let’s bear in mind Mark Twain’s wonderful maxim: “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to reform.”

Radically yours,

Mem Fox