Such sad news. I have just heard that Marion Halligan, one of Australia’s literary treasures, died yesterday. She has been frail for some time, but the last time I saw, and spoke briefly to, her was at the 2023 ACT Book Awards in December. She was her usual engaged self, though also frustrated with the limitations her health was placing on her life. Getting old, as many of us know, isn’t a heap of fun.
Before I share a few thoughts of my own, here is how I heard the news. It was from Karen Viggers, via Facebook. I hope she’s OK with my sharing this:
It is with infinite sadness that I share the sad news with you today that the wonderful literary champion, Marion Halligan, died peacefully last night.
Marion was just the most amazing, beautiful, graceful, wise and generous person. She always had time to talk to and support other writers and was always generous in her friendships. She had a sparkling wit and personality, was always astute and sharp in conversation and she enjoyed books and literature to the end.
She has had an incredible life and will be very sadly missed.
It is so hard to know where to start. I do not want to write an obituary, as there will be plenty of those in the coming days and weeks. Rather, I’d like to share my experience of her, which started in the 1980s when I decided to focus my reading on women writers, and particularly on Australian women writers. I read three of her novels with my reading group, Lover’s knots, The golden dress and Valley of Grace. For this last discussion, Marion attended our meeting. What an absolute treat that was.
Outside of the reading group, I have read more of her books, including The fog garden and The point, and I have around five others waiting on my TBR. It was through Marion, too, that I met Carmel Bird when she approached me about posting the speech she was making to launch Marion’s novel Goodbye sweetheart.
Marion lived her writing life in Canberra, and was a member of the “Canberra Seven” or “Seven Writers” group about which I have written. I have seen her at award events, festivals and conversations, sometimes the interviewer and sometimes the interviewee. One memorable occasion was when she interviewed Margaret Atwood back in the early 2000s. Atwood was not easy to interview, but Marion held her ground with grace and humour. I will never forget it. (I was glad it was she and not me in that seat!)
Marion is loved here as our grand dame of literature, and her presence will be greatly missed. Not only did she support local writers generously, as Karen Viggers says above, but she was for many years patron of the ACT Writers Centre (now named Marion partly in her honour), was at one time the chairperson of the Literature Board of the Australia Council and also an organiser of Canberra’s previous writers festival, the Australian National Word Festival.
She was a versatile writer. She wrote eleven novels, several of which won and/or were shortlisted for some of Australia’s best literary awards, and which included a little foray into crime fiction. She was a big supporter of the short story form, ruing their unpopularity with publishers, and she also wrote non-fiction books, as well as journalism, including articles on food. Wikipedia lists her books and awards. Searching her in your browser will retrieve several interviews with her, and she was interviewed by Irma Gold and Karen Viggers for their Secrets from the Green Room podcasts I posted on recently. You can see most of my posts involving Marion on this tag. (There are few reviews here, though, because most of my reading of her books was before blogging.)
I could go on, but this is enough for now. I will close with a quote I’ve shared before on this blog. It comes from one of my favourite books of hers, a work of autofiction, The fog garden. I just loved this book, her cheeky, wry way of telling us that it was fiction not biography. It’s a lesson, in fact, in how to read fiction, and it also has one of my favourite statements about the value of reading. It goes like this:
Read a wise book and lay its balm on your soul.
All I can say is, thanks Marion for your intelligent wit, your warmth and your wisdom – and for the balm you laid on our souls. We will miss you muchly.
Whispering Gums 
Very sad news indeed. I have read one or two of her books quite some time ago but don’t remember their names at the moment and have now passed them on. Always sad when a revered author passes on though I never met her. 🌺
Thanks Pam, yes, it is very sad – and, I know she was 83, but it feels too soon, all the same.
Oh yes, this is sad news. But what a legacy she leaves!
I don’t have enough of her work reviewed on the blog either, for the same reason as you, but I did review what has turned out to be her last novel, Goodbye Sweetheart.
Thanks Lisa. I’ve been wanting to get more of her work on my blog – I have Goodbye sweetheart, Words for Lucy, her recent-ish short story collection, and some of her older ones on my TBR. She had a tough life really, losing her husband over 20 years ago, then her daughter and more recently her son, not to mention her own health issues – yet she kept going with grace and acceptance.
I’ve just written a post to acknowledge her passing, oh, I feel so sad, it’s as if I knew her!
It is very sad because she had such twinkle despite all that she had to deal with. She was sharp as a tack (in terms of intelligence) but also very warm (at least from what I saw.)
It’s so lovely to hear her say in that interview that she had “good readers”. Not always buying her books (though I did, except for the crime novels) but readers who felt that her books were important.
And they were…
Thanks for this, Sue. I heard the news today and feel as if a great chunk is missing from my life. Where to begin? Friend, colleague, brilliant writer – all the things that you and everyone else who knew her have written and others will do so in coming days. But the fact that she could rise above all the tragedy she’d endured with grace, wisdom, wit and her special feeling for the beauty to be cherished in living, was perhaps her greatest achievement of all.
Thanks Sara – yes, I just commented to Lisa before I saw this on all the losses she’d had to face. I like your description of her “special feeling for the beauty to be cherished in living”. I think that’s spot on from what I knew of her, which was really just from the sides.
This is a beautiful tribute to Marion, Sue. Thank you so much for writing it. I’m having a sad and heavy day. But I’m also thankful for the gift in her friendship and the contribution of her life in literature.
Thanks very much Karen … I really appreciated your Facebook post this morning. I was shocked … she looked frail in December but still very alive and alert all the same. She leaves quite a gap.
I know the name – but had read none of Marion Halligan’s writing – so I’ve purchased “Words for Lucy”was – her 2022 “memoir”. She was clearly an important person in the world of Australian Literature – and the Canberra Seven – and of course Sara Dowse a member of that group. I have just recently finished her outstanding West Block and have another couple of her books on the digital TBR pile… (So much to read – so little time – the old lament – into Ian Buruma’s Spinoza just now – nearly finished.) It’s clear MH was much loved. Condolences to her friends, here.
Thanks Jim. Do try some of her fiction some time too … though I know I know, it’s hard.
I’ve read West Block three times now. It’s an excellent book. The Canberra Seven were quite a force!
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Sad news. Marion Halligan is one of my favourite writers – Valley of Grace and Hanged Man in the Garden especially. I am fortunate to still have The Point and The Golden Dress on my TBR pile. I am thankful for her words.
Thanks Agnes … I love hearing from people who have loved her books. I have just come home from yoga, where my teacher pulled out her copies of The fog garden and Valley of grace. Like me she loves The fog garden. Valley of grace was great too, and yes, I loved The golden dress.
Thank you for introducing me to her work, though discovering a short story writer because they died always makes me sad. I am looking forward to diving into her short stories. Do you have any favourites you recommend I start with?
Yes, I agree with that sentiment, SSE. I’m sorry but it’s a long time since I read any of her short stories. I have her latest, Shooting the fox on my TBR. I think, if you subscribe there, you can find one in the Griffith Review.
Thank you! I’ll do a little exploring and report back 🙂
I’d love it if you did.
Thank you for your tribute Sue/whispering gums. How lucky we are to have you as our gateway to literature. As we get old we know it will often be too soon but now you have introduced me to a new author.
I am thrilled Moira, if I have introduced you to a new author, because Halligan is really one of our great women authors of the last few decades. It’s a shame that like many of our women authors, she has been under the radar.
A lovely post. And I enjoyed reading the comments too, so many mentions of favourite books she wrote.
What a perfect quote, and so exactly what Marion’s work was for me. I loved that book, and what a writer she was. But more than that, what a person. She was such a generous supporter of all writers, freely giving so much of her time. And always so witty and vivacious. She was such an example to me, both in writing and in life. Our podcast interview with her was the last that she did, so very bittersweet. She will be terribly missed.
Thanks Irma … I love that book too. I just lunched at Muse … her portrait there, which I’ve always loved, will be even more special now so t it. I was telling my friend how she’d had so many sadnesses but managed to exude a brightness that wasn’t unadulterated joy but something founded in an understanding of life that was positive but knowing. (In the few times I met her.)
It’s such a gorgeous portrait. And that is a very good way to describe Marion. She had an incredible spirit.
Thanks Irma
This is a lovely tribute, Sue, I hadn’t realised she was such a stalwart of the ACT lit scene. I have read Valley of Grace (the cover is just gorgeous) and Goodbye Sweetheart, but as I pointed out on Lisa’s blog, her books are largely out of print. Wouldn’t it be nice if they were reissued.
Thanks kimbofo. Yes, she is very loved here. She was expected at an author event tonight (in the audience.) Valley of Grace is a gorgeous “product” I agree. And yes, it would be great if Allen & Urwin re-released her, perhaps in their House of Books series. I’m surprised that she’s not better known among readers. I’m going to suggest my reading group do her in the second half of the year in tribute. We could do what we did for Hehn Garner once, and everyone read one (or more) of her books.
Too many Marions, someone once said about Canberra, long before I moved here. But there was only one Marion Halligan — witty, gracious, generous, honest and wise. Her gaze penetrated the souls of her characters and expanded our sympathies. She will indeed be missed.
Thanks Diana. Beautifully said about her writing.
You are right re “too many Marions” … but I think some of the others were/are Marians! I’ve noticed people writing Marian for her too! Marion/Marian must have been the Sue/Susan/Suzanne of her generation!
I heard this sad news as I was travelling around Tasmania.
I adored Spidercup and Wishbone when they first came out (the pre-Raphaelite cover designs drew me in initially). I’m really not sure why I haven’t read any of her more recent books…an oversight I now plan to rectify.
Thanks for the various Marion-related links above, I’ll come back to check them out when I have more time.
Great Brona. It was sad news. 83 isn’t young I know, but it would have been great if she’d have been able to live through to her 90s.