The Girl in the Painting

Tea Cooper's latest novel is The Girl in the Painting. For two thirds of the book it is largely written in two sections telling the story of Michael and Elizabeth and how they came to Australia in 1862 plus the continuation of their story when they meet Jane and invite her to join their family in 1906. Eventually the two stories converge into one for the remainder of the novel.

Both Elizabeth and Jane are very good at maths and help keeping track of the financial accounts of Michael's business ventures. All appears to be going well until one day they visit the technical college where Elizabeth sees an item that causes her to faint. Jane is determined to try and discover what is upsetting 'Aunt Elizabeth' so much. When the family agrees to host an art exhibition at their auction rooms it soon becomes obvious that some of the paintings have triggered memories of events occurring during Elizabeth's childhood in England. It takes time before the mystery of the paintings is revealed.

This is a work of fiction but the author includes a section at the end of the book where she briefly refers to some of the true events used in the novel. A book that is hard to put down once you start reading it.

Woman in the green dress

This book by Tea Cooper is set in Sydney and the Hawkesby region of New South Wales in two time periods - 1853 and 1919. It was primarily because of the Hawkesbury setting that I decided to read the book.

In 1853 Della Atterton lives on the family property at Mogo Creek, a tributary of the Hawkesbury River. Della's parents had recently died and her aunt sent Della from Sydney to work on the farm in order to use her skills as a taxidermist, preparing exhibits for sale in the family store in Sydney. Della made friends with the local Aboriginal people and became concerned with the way they are treated, especially by two men who are in the employ of her Aunt Cordelia. Della's life changes when she meets Captain Stefan von Richter, from Austria, who assists her to return to Sydney where she discovers that Aunt Cordelia has not only changed the name of the shop, owned by Della. but has also introduced another range of products to be sold.

In 1919 Fleur Richards arrives in Sydney to discover information about the family of Hugh, her husband who died a few days before the end of the war, plus information about the property in Australia that she has been told that she now owns. Initially she travels to the Hawkesbury where she meets an elderly man at the property who tells her that she must locate the family heirloom and return it to him. Back in Sydney, with the assistance of Kip, a returned soldier, Fleur investigates an old boarded-up building which she is told that she now owns - the former Curio Shop of Wonders.

Fleur and Kip gradually uncover the story of the shop of curios, information about Hugh's family and learn what Aunt Cordelia, who always wore a green dress, was really doing in the shop.

One of the threads throughout the story is the attitude of some of the locals in the 1850s to the remaining Aboriginal people living in the area around the Hawkesbury, and no doubt other regions of New South Wales. Part of the story also touches on the post war effects of World War I on communities, especially on returned servicemen trying to readjust into civilian life after the war. Then there is the story of the opal ...

The Woman in the green dress is a work of historical fiction providing glimpses into our past and attitudes.