Memoir

The Chase by Ida Mann

by Hilary McPhee •

May 1987, no. 90

Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 224 pp, $14.95 pb

Memoir

The Chase by Ida Mann

by Hilary McPhee •

May 1987, no. 90

Ida Mann’s autobiography reminded me a little of the kind of speech that well-known elderly women tend to give to girls’ speech nights – full of zest, homely admonition, and assurances to the rows of upturned young faces that they’ll get out of life what they put in.

Hilary McPhee

Hilary McPhee is a publisher, editor and writer. She was Chair of the Australia Council and the Major Organizations Board 1994–97. Her books include Other Peoples' Words (2001), Wordlines (2010), and Memoirs of a Young Bastard, the Diaries of Tim Burstall (2012). Her most recent book is Other People's Houses.