Mrs Forsythe

Marjorie Forsythe is an intelligent woman who is let down by marriage and child-raising, when this is the expectation for women of the period. She finds this domesticity far from ideal and yearns for a time she can be on her own. She is sixty before that day arrives. It is 1970s Wellington, and the city beckons her to explore a different life, where her options and choices are based on her talents and intellect rather than on societal norms. The crux of the story deals with how she responds to this new dream. But will Marjorie's brittleness with family and friends soften when she finally has, as Virginia Woolf says, 'a room of one's own', and opportunities arise to be more than mere housewife or mother? Will she ever be able to give and receive the love she needs and others wish for?

Forthcoming.

Vivienne Lingard is an artist, illustrator and writer. Mrs Forsythe is her third publication.

She has previously published Pocket Money & other stories (2022), and the fictional memoir The (almost) True story of a Man called Jack (2020). 

Originally from Silverstream, Hutt Valley, Vivienne now lives in Devonport, Auckland.

She worked as an illustrator and artist before entering university as a mature student. Soon after graduation she taught English in Japan, where her fiction writing began.

She has a BEd (Massey University), a Cambridge Certificate in ESOL (International House, Barcelona), a Masters in Creative Writing (University of Auckland), and was awarded a NZSA mentorship to complete the draft of another novel.  She has also studied short story and travel writing at Massey University, and was selected to join a short story masterclass with writer and editor Tom Jenks in San Francisco.

Vivienne continues her art practice alongside her writing, and plans to combine the two skills. Her next book will be a graphic novel. 

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