Westerly+Vol.+39+No.+1

Editors' Notice After many years of work with Westerly Peter Cowan has decided to call it a day. He retires as the longest serving editor of any Australian cultural magazine, and we wish him well for his future writing. The editors are pleased to announce that Julie Lewis has agreed to join Margot Luke in editing fiction for Westerly; and also that Giovanna Capone, Director of the Centre for Australian Studies at the University of Bologna, Italy, has become an Editorial Consultant - both commencing this issue. PATRICIA HACKETT PRIZE The editors have pleasure in announcing that the winner of the Patricia Hackett Prize for the best contribution to Westerly in 1993 is Christopher Doran for his story "Christmas Cake", published in the Summer issue, Number 4. CONTENTS WESTERLY VOLUME 39, No.1, AUTUMN 1994 STORIES The Granny Killer Karen Van Ulzen 27 Story Butties Lynn Daniel 36 At Night the Enemy Terry Tredrea 53 Heinz's Women Stephen James Carleton 56 Static in Pink and Blue Quendryth Young 61 Dreame, The Impossible Dreame John Griffin 83 Going Back Frances Hardy 87 POEMS Susannah Vass 21 Jeff Guess 50 Graham Wood 23 R K Liversidge 52 Peter Bibby 24 Peter Hicks 64 Walter Vivian 25 Alan Close 66 Lynn Reeves 26 Kate O'Neill 80 Barbara Brandt 41 Alec Choate 81 Adrian Caesar 43 Ian Templeman 82 ARTICLES Katharine Grant Watson, the artist's wife Elizabeth Perkins 5 The Stranger Fiction Ric Throssell 45 This Country is my Mind Carmel Gaffney 67 REVIEWS 'Four New Poets' David Gilbey 92 Robert Drewe, 'The Picador Book of the Beach' Veronica Brady 94 Joan London, 'Letter to Constantine' Beate Josephi 97 Elizabeth Jolley, 'The Georges' Wife' Delys Bird 98 Caroline Ambrus, 'Australian Women Artists' Michael Denholm 100 CONTRIBUTORS 103 Cover design by Susan Ellvey of Designpoint using "Quiet Time", a hand-stitched bed quilt, silk, cotton gauze, indigo and acid dyes, 240 em x 168 cm (1991), by Fremantle artist Jane Whiteley. Printed by Lamb Printers Pty Ltd. WESTERLY, No.1, AlITUMN 1994 Mediterranean Issue Each year the Summer issue (no. 4) of Westerly is a special issue of poetry, fiction and articles on a selected theme. The editors would now like to receive contribu tions in each genre for the 1994 Summer issue, which is to be a "Mediterranean Issue". Contributions need to be received by 31 August at the latest; material received sooner has a greater chance of acceptance. Perth and some other areas of Western Australia, and other parts of Australia as a whole, are often seen as having a Mediterranean climate. Westerly is interested in receiving material concerned with links or similarities between Australia and the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. These might deal with features such as climate, food and wine, dress (or undress), art and architecture, the quality of light, beach culture, attitudes to time and many other matters. Creative and critical work from Australian writers with links to these countries is particularly encouraged. WESTERLY, No.1 AlITUMN 1994 WESTERLY a quarterly review ISSN 0043-342x EDITORS: Delys Bird, Dennis Haskell EASTERN STATES EDITOR: Bruce Bennett EDITORIAL ADVISORS: Margot Luke, Julie Lewis (prose), Brenda Walker (reviews) EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS: Diana Brydon (University of Guelph), Giovanna Capone (Bologna University), Yasmine Gooneratne (Macquarie University), Brian Matthews (Flinders University), Vincent O'Sullivan (Victoria University, Wellington), Peter Porter (London), Robert Toss (Universi ty of Texas at Austin), Anna Rutherford (University of Aarhus), Andrew Taylor (Edith Cowan Uni versity), Edwin Thumboo (National University of Singapore) ADMINISTRATOR: Caroline Horobin Westerly is published quarterly at the Centre for Studies in Australian Literature in the English Department, University of Western Australia with assistance from the Common wealth Government through the Australia Council, and the State Government of W.A. through the Department for the Arts. The opinions expressed in Westerly are those of individ ual contributors and not of the Editors or Editorial Advisors. Correspondence should be addressed to the Editors, Westerly, Department of English, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia 6009 (telephone (09) 380 2101, fax (09) 380 1030), email [email protected]. Unsolicited manuscripts not accompa nied by a stamped self-addressed envelope will not be returned. All manuscripts must show the name and address of the sender and should be typed (double-spaced) on one side of the paper only. Whilst every care is taken of manuscripts, the editors can take no final responsi bility for their return; contributors are consequently urged to retain copies of all work submit ted. Minimum rates for contributors - poems $40.00; reviews $60.00; stories/articles $90.00. Subscriptions: $24.00 per annum (posted); $42.00 for 2 years (posted). Special student sub scription rate: $18.00 per annum (posted). Single copies $5 (plus $1 postage). Email Subscrip tions $10.00. Subscriptions should be made payable to Westerly and sent to The Secretary, CSAL, Department of English, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia 6009. Work published in Westerly is cited in: Abstracts of English Studies, Australian Literary Studies Annual Bibliography, Australian National Bibliography, Journal of Commonwealth Litera ture Annual Bibliography, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Current Contents/Arts & Human ities, The Genuine Article, Modern Language Association of America Bibliography, The Year's Work in English Studies, and is indexed in APIAS: Australian Public Affairs Inforamtion Service (produced by the National Library of Australia) and AUSTLIT, the Australian Literary On Line Database. Three Westerly Indexes 1956-77, 1978-83 and 1984-8, are available at $5.00 each from the above address. Department for theArts Guvemmenl ofWeslem Australia WESTERLY.• No.1, AUTUMN 1994 4 WESTERLY, No. 1 AUTUMN 1994 ELIZABETH PERKINS Katharine Grant Watson, the artist's wife: Portrait of an English Lady* Katharine Hannay was a young Englishwoman who married the novelist and natu ralist Elliot Lovegood Grant Watson in 1919, six weeks after they met at the inaugu ration of the Arts League of Service. On that occasion, Katharine nervously shared the platform with Wyndham Lewis to explain the aims of the League, which evolved into the Arts Council of Great Britain. A few weeks later, Grant Watson helped Katharine move the books of the League from the top flat to the basement of the building, because the upper rooms were wanted by the owner, Mrs Annie Besant. Grant Watson, because his mother disliked his Puritan Christian names, was always known as Peter. During a pause in their work, Peter congratulated her on the speech she had made at the meeting: "You made a good speech. You must be an idealist" (2: 184).1 Katharine explained that she did not really believe the League would succeed, but that "somehow, as a sceptic, I think I can put the thing far better than I could if I were a dedicated enthusiast ... if you are detached and reasonable, if you can see both sides, you may be more efficient than if you are blind with enthu siasm." The idea seemed to disturb Peter, who thought it "cynical", but Katharine's ability to assess fairly matters with which she had little emotional sympathy was to play an important part in their relationship. Peter asked Katharine if they could meet up in Wales, where he and his step-father were taking a cycling tour and she was about to visit with her married sister. In Wales, Fate threw them together alone for two days. Peter told her about the expedition he made in 1910 and 1911 to Western Australia with Radclyffe Brown, and about his love for a woman, some eight years older than he. She was unhappily married, and a brave attempt to leave her husband for Peter had disastrously failed. This precipitated Peter's breakdown, from which even then he had barely recovered. Katharine felt that the story she had to tell him was less significant: her early life in the cultural circles of London society, her war work on English farms, and the death from war wounds of the man who had wanted to marry her. On the evening of their * This paper was originally given as the Dorothy Green memorial Lecture at the 1993 confer ence ofthe Association for the Study of Australian Literature. Katharine Grant Watson's story occupied much of Dorothy Green's thinking in the year before her death. 1. Bracketed numbers refer to the five typescript volumes of Katharine Grant Watson's autobiography, "Between Two Worlds." Held with restricted access in the Department of English, James Cook University. WESTERLY, No.1, AUTUMN 1994 5 first day, Peter, who had been living for two years with a woman who wanted to marry him, spoke ambivalently about marriage: "I have always been very much against the institution of marriage, " he said. "A prison ... you know wnat Bernard Shaw says about it; but I want children ... I want little girls so that I can teach them to swim, and read Shakespeare with them" (2, 188). On the evening of their second day, he explained how his mother taught him to love living things, and to look at them "with eyes that could see." "We had shared it together, she and I," Peter said. "There is so much in sharing things ... did you know that?" Katharine felt as if she were about to jump off a cliff: "Do you think it possible that you and I might try to share things?" she said. "How do you mean?" "To share life together." Here is Katharine's own account of that moment: "'Lots of women have wanted to marry me." He said this with an earnest ness which absolved it from its naivete. "But I couldn't do it.

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