Book of the week

A Q& A with Courtney Collins

The Burial is the debut novel of Courtney Collins. It has been optioned for a feature film by Pure Pictures. Courtney grew up in the Hunter Valley in NSW in Australia and  now lives on the Goulburn River in regional Victoria.  She is also a pen-kleptomaniac.  See more about the book below, or listen to Courtney speak here

How long did it take you to write the novel?
I was writing it on and off for about seven years. There was a lot of life around it – day jobs, share houses, relationships, travel, interstate moves. I wasn’t exactly chained to the desk so it just took that long.
 

Where did you write The Burial?
Given those peripatetic years, I wrote The Burial in many places. But the place I kept returning to was an old postmaster’s cottage in the bush which I live in now. It’s not so hard to conjure life in the 1920s in Australia when there are possums in your roof and you have to chop your own wood.

How did you first hear about Jessie's story?
I grew up near to the Widden Ranges in NSW where the story is set. As a kid, I was intrigued by rumours of this wild woman who had lived in a cave in the mountains for years and had gotten by stealing horses and cattle. But there was nothing much written about her at that time.
 
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