Confessions of a Homegrown Alien

CONFESSIONS OF A HOMEGROWN ALIEN: An Australian Memoir You can take a girl out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the girl, especially not a farmer’s daughter from Australia’s most alien state, and even before WW2, Jan Smith, voracious reader and precocious enquirer, was pretty sure folks Down South had got things horribly wrong, not just about Queensland, but how the world worked. Despite their faith in linear progress, it would be the same old cyclic story which had been going on since the days of the Greek myths. The Age of Aquarius would be a double edged sword. Horrifyingly funny, uniquely perceptive, and packed with sub-text, Confessions of a Homegrown Alien traces eighty years of cultural imperialism, world-class misogyny and petty snobbery in the Lucky Country through her relationships with real foreigners encountered along the way, at home and abroad, who enriched her life immeasurably. If you’re old enough to think she was right, this book will ensure hours of schadenfreude. If you’re still young enough to learn a few tricks about staying true to your beliefs and values, it could save you untold misery. A book for everyone who ever needed to pass as normal.

By 1942 Jan Smith, a farmer’s daughter from Eumundi, Queensland, already two jobs, helping her mother, a plane-spotter, and busking for troop trains. At boarding school she failed to meet girls with nice brothers, and surprisingly found herself getting a scholarship to university. Horrified by Psychology, where rural people were regarded as superstitious hillbillies, she dropped out to be a cadet journalist and before long was a feature writer on Woman’s Day, Sydney, where (this being the Dark Ages) her career was terminated after she married a member of staff. She then freelanced, notably for The Bulletin, wrote two novels, and when forced to leave her miserable marriage, regrettably without the kids (see above, Dark Ages) spent four years in London, most memorably at Forum the sex magazine. Returning in 1973 to Sydney, she freelanced for Pol, Cleo and Cosmopolitan, had a home birth at 40, and after two years of Naturopathy, co-authored Health for Life: Are you Allergic to the Twentieth Century. Her last real job,in the late 1980s as management writer for Australian Business, being taken to lunch in five-star restaurants. During the 1990s recession, she worked as a home carer and studied Judaism until accepted by university. A decade later, she had a Masters in Islamic Studies and had visited most of the Middle East. She now lives in Kings Cross, Sydney, with her cat, doing what she’d have rather done all along. Show Less

Jan Smith is the author of two novels, An Ornament of Grace (Sun Books, 1966) and The Worshipful Company (Cassell, 1969), and co-author, with Dr William Vayda, of Health for Life: Are You Allergic to the Twentieth Century? (Sphere Books 1981). After dropping out of the University of Queensland and working as a cadet journalist on The Courier Mail Jan went to Sydney and joined Woman's Day magazine. After three years on Woman's Day, she was forced to resign because she had married a staff member, and for the next fifty years survived by freelancing, notably for The Bulletin and Pol magazine, apart from a year on Forum UK, the sex magazine, and Australian Business. She now lives happily in King's Cross, Sydney, with her cat, doing what she'd have rather done all along.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.