Sylvia Martin

Sylvia Martin is the author of three biographies of women neglected in Australian literary and cultural history. Ida Leeson: A life: Not a Blue-Stocking Lady (Allen & Unwin, 2006) was awarded the 2008 Magarey Medal for Biography and shortlisted for the NSW Literary Awards and the Kibble Award. She has also published widely in literary and academic journals. Her latest book is Sky Swimming: Reflections on Auto/biography, People and Place (UWA Publishing, 2020).

Sylvia Martin reviews 'Vida: A woman for our time' by Jacqueline Kent

October 2020, no. 425 • 24 September 2020

Miles Franklin used to delight in relating an anecdote about a librarian friend who, when asked why a less competent colleague was paid more, replied succinctly: ‘He has the genital organs of the male; they’re not used in library work, but men are paid more for having them.’ I was reminded of this when I found that the subject of Vida, Franklin’s friend Vida Goldstein, had preserved a pie ... (read more)

Sylvia Martin reviews 'Unnamed Desires' by Rebecca Jennings

January-February 2016, no. 378 • 22 December 2015

It is almost twenty-five years since Garry Wotherspoon's City of the Plain (1991) was published. In his ground-breaking history of Sydney's gay subculture, he stated that the 'history of life for lesbians in Sydney ... is more properly part of women's history'. Rebecca Jennings seeks to redress that gap in Unnamed Desires. She offers a nuanced understanding of Sydney's lesbian history from the 193 ... (read more)

Sylvia Martin reviews 'Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John', Helen Trinca

June 2013, no. 352 • 26 May 2013

My Swedish neighbour is rebuilding. From my back garden I overheard her Australian builder loudly introducing her to a tradesman named Hans. ‘Now, we’re for it,’ he chortled. ‘It’ll be talk, talk, talk, no stopping you now.’ As I hung out the washing, I reflected that the Australian nervousness around ‘Continentals’ that Madeleine St John details so deliciously in her novel about 1 ... (read more)