An Archives enquiry with a difference
The KRB School Archives is a rich repository of records, photographs and memorabilia which tell the stories and share the memories of the school, dating back to 1882. Each year, the Archives receives dozens of enquiries, ranging from family history enquiries, requests from alumnae for copies of photographs and records of their time at school, through to teachers seeking resources to support their classroom lessons.
Every now and then, something different pops up in the inbox. In 2018, an aspiring author’s research led her to the Kincoppal – Rose Bay School Archives. In her quest for historical accuracy, Kyra Geddes was determined that the settings and context for the historical novel she was working on were as accurate as possible.
Inspired by Henry Lawson’s classic 1892 story, ’The Drover’s Wife’, The Story Thief is a novel that spans the period 1900-1954 and provides a feminist retelling from the perspective of the protagonist, Lillian, who believes Lawson based his story upon her own family.
Lillian is born in 1892 as the daughter of a drover, and lives in the red-dirt country of outback NSW. After losing her family in a tragic bushfire in 1900, Lillian is raised in a convent boarding school in Sydney (‘Sacred Heart’) where she takes comfort in books and dreams of an independent life as a teacher. It is there at school, at the age of 16, that she first reads Lawson’s story and is immediately convinced it is based upon her own family, with her mother as the original but unacknowledged drover’s wife (hence why she regards Henry Lawson as a ’story thief’). All this sets Lillian on a path to search for the truth and reclaim her family story, and the novel follows her journey of love and loss through the first half of the twentieth century, spanning pivotal events in Australian history including Federation, women’s suffrage and two world wars. Lillian’s fictional story is thus set against the backdrop of Australia’s coming of age in art and literature, and as a former British colony. The Story Thief is about mothers and daughters, love, loss and the power of words.
Underpinned by substantial research, The Story Thief features numerous real people and places, including various historic Sydney settings, including Rose Bay Convent (where Lillian goes to school 1900-1909), a carriage ride through town circa 1908 culminating in high tea at Quong Tart’s Tea Rooms in the Queen Victoria Building, The Women’s College within Sydney University (where Lillian resides and studies 1910-1913) and Waverley Cemetery (scene of Henry Lawson’s 1922 state funeral). During the years between WWI and WWII, the setting shifts towards Sydney’s Upper and Lower North Shore and Northern Beaches locations, including North Sydney (in the footsteps of Henry Lawson), Taronga Zoo (1922), Ravenswood School (where Lillian teaches), Eryldene (Historic Home of Professor E.G. Waterhouse in Gordon), Killarney Castle (used during WWII for air raid drills), Lady Gowrie Convalescent Home and Narrabeen Beach.
Readers familiar with KRB will recognise both the setting and some of the novel’s characters who are based on real people. Determined that the school attended by Lillian be rendered as faithfully and respectfully as possible. Kyra communicated regularly with Tracy Bradford, the School Archivist, and visited the School on several occasions in her quest to depict the school setting as accurately as she could.
As we approach the end of the year, and bells begin to jingle, the inevitable question arises “What will I get everyone for Christmas?” Whether it’s a gift for that favourite auntie who has everything, a stocking filler for the nieces and nephews, or a gift for the office “Secret Santa”, The Story Thief might just be what you are looking for.