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ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- When Jacqueline Kent was a young woman, quite independent and happy in her life as a freelance editor, she met Kenneth Cook. He was nearly twenty years older, a man from a different age and mindset, formed in ways and attitudes of a differing generation to hers. He was also the author of the famous novel 'Wake in Fright' although he had written other things, dabbled in different business ventures and was generally known as a larger-than-life character. When they met again, they formed a relationship, one which challenged, sustained and fulfilled - but which ended with his sudden death less than a mere two years later.
This is not a biography of Cook, or even of Kent, but an account of a beautiful friendship and love that gave both of them something they hadn't been looking for. It is a beautifully written testament to the power of attraction of opposites, and also a window into a certain time in Australian society and literary culture, one that seems much longer ago than the mid 80s... Lindy Jones
Jacqueline Kent was born in Sydney and grew up there and in Adelaide. After completing an arts degree she returned to Sydney and worked as a journalist, radio producer and scriptwriter for the ABC; in the 1970s she changed direction and became a book editor. She has written books of social history, general non-fiction and biography. A Certain Style, Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life won the National Biography Award and the Nita B. Kibble Award, and she is the biographer of musician and activist Hephzibah Menuhin, and of Julia Gillard. She holds a Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Technology, Sydney. Beyond Words- A Year with Kenneth Cook is her first memoir.
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- When Jacqueline Kent was a young woman, quite independent and happy in her life as a freelance editor, she met Kenneth Cook. He was nearly twenty years older, a man from a different age and mindset, formed in ways and attitudes of a differing generation to hers. He was also the author of the famous novel 'Wake in Fright' although he had written other things, dabbled in different business ventures and was generally known as a larger-than-life character. When they met again, they formed a relationship, one which challenged, sustained and fulfilled - but which ended with his sudden death less than a mere two years later.
This is not a biography of Cook, or even of Kent, but an account of a beautiful friendship and love that gave both of them something they hadn't been looking for. It is a beautifully written testament to the power of attraction of opposites, and also a window into a certain time in Australian society and literary culture, one that seems much longer ago than the mid 80s... Lindy Jones
