All the characters in the Perth timeline are fictional, including the women in the vulvodynia support group. Isaac Baker Brown was a real person, as were the Victorian-era politicians, headmasters and published physicians referred to, but all other characters in the Victorian timeline are imagined.
On vulvodynia: informational and self-help books were useful in the writing of this book, as were articles in medical journals; the Journal of Reproductive Medicine has published material on the subject since the 1980s. The Gynaecological Awareness Information Network (Australia), the International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease, the Australian and New Zealand Vulvovaginal Society, the National Vulvodynia Association (US), The Vulval Pain Society (UK) and a number of Facebook groups provide information and support to women and their families.
An earlier version of chapter one was published as ‘That Hand’ in the anthology Other Voices (Peter Cowan Writers Centre Inc., 2013).
A small amount of material in the novel has been previously published in the following of my personal essays:
‘Affectionate Love’. Peripheral Visions, special issue of TEXT, no. 57, October 2019.
‘Mark My Words’. Southerly, vol. 76, no. 2, 2016.
‘A Conversation with the Enemy’. Outskirts, vol. 32, May 2015.
‘Vulvodynia and the Ambiguous Between’. Axon: Creative Explorations, vol. 3, no. 1, March 2013.
In visualising Arthur’s walks through 1860s London, I relied on the ‘Map of London 1868’, by Edward Weller, sourced online at Mapco (london1868.com). Quotations in the novel have been drawn from the following publications:
Baker Brown, Isaac. On the Curability of Certain Forms of Insanity, Epilepsy, Catalepsy, and Hysteria in Females. London, Robert Hardwicke, 1866.
Briffault, Robert. The Mothers. Abridged ed., George Allen & Unwin, 1959.
British Medical Journal: Issues for 28 April 1866, 24 November 1866, 15 December 1866, 29 December 1866, 12 January 1867, 6 April 1867.
Charcot, Jean-Martin. Clinical Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System: Volume 3. Translated by T. Savill, London, The New Sydenham Society, 1889.
Charcot, Jean-Martin. Lectures on the Diseases of the Nervous System. Translated by G. Sigerson, London, The New Sydenham Society, 1877.
Dodson, Melvin G., and Eduard G. Friedrich. ‘Psychosomatic Vulvovaginitis’. Obstetrics and Gynecology, vol. 51, suppl. 1, 1978, pp. 23s–25s.
Frazer, James George. ‘Part I: The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings’. In The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. 3rd ed., vol. 1, The Macmillan Press, 1911.
Harding, M. Esther. Woman’s Mysteries: Ancient and Modern. Harper & Row, 1971.
King, Leonard W. Enuma Elish: The Seven Tablets of Creation; The Babylonian and Assyrian Legends Concerning the Creation of the World and of Mankind. Vol. 2, Luzac and Co., 1902. (Note: some lines from the translation of the prayer to Ishtar have been omitted.)
Moore, Bruce, editor. Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 2009.
Sargeant, Hilary A., and Frances V. O’Callaghan. ‘The Impact of Chronic Vulval Pain on Quality of Life and Psychosocial Well-being’. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, vol. 47, no. 3, 2007, pp. 235–239, Wiley Online Library, doi:10.1111/j.1479-828X.2007.00725.x.
Sims, J. Marion. ‘On Vaginismus’. Transactions of the Obstetrical Society of London, vol. 3, 1861, pp. 356–367.
Plutarch. Plutarch’s Lives: Translated from the Greek, by Several Hands. Vol. 1, London, Jacob Tonson, 1716.
Thomas, T. Gaillard. A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Women. 5th ed., London, Henry Kimpton, 1880.
A full listing of texts used in the research and writing of this book can be found on my website.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I’m fortunate to live by the wardan on Whadjuk Noongar boodja, and I wish to pay my respects to their Elders past, present and future. Country sustains and informs my writing in ways for which I continue to be very grateful.
My thanks to Whadjuk Noongar Elder Len Collard, for providing information on the land where I write and for generously offering me language for it.
Fremantle Press has proved to be a fabulously supportive and cohesive team, and a wonderful home for my novel. I thank especially my editor, Armelle Davies, for her care, clarity and elegant solutions; Naama Grey-Smith for her meticulous proofreading; Georgia Richter, who ‘got it’ immediately and with delight; and Claire Miller, for her warm and tireless can-do attitude. I’m also grateful for the inspired design work from Nada Backovic.
I am indebted to Lee Kofman, Donna Mazza and Susan Midalia for endorsing Eye of a Rook. It means a great deal to have my writing understood so well by three such fine writers.
Thanks to the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, who have funded the Four Centres Emerging Writers Program (EWP) through their Culture and the Arts division. The program has directly aided the publication of this novel. We are fortunate to have a government body that invests, culturally and financially, in WA writing and writers.
I’m very grateful to the Peter Cowan Writers Centre (PCWC) for delivery of the EWP, and for providing me with writing and teaching opportunities over many years, including a residency in 2018. Special thanks to Keith Melrose and to the other EWP writers.
Thanks to Edith Cowan University for assisting my efforts through the position of Adjunct Senior Lecturer (Writing). I’m grateful to the team at Westerly Magazine and the University of Western Australia for their ongoing support. The editorial board at Margaret River Press has proved a sustaining dwelling place for matters writing, editing and publishing. Of many individuals within these bodies, I am especially indebted to Danielle Brady, Jill Durey, Tony Hughes-d’Aeth, Ffion Murphy, Catherine Noske, Marcella Polain and Caroline Wood, for research, writing and/or vocational support.
Personal assistance from Jo Outhwaite at the Temple Reading Room, Rugby School, was gratefully received, as was information from librarians and other staff at the State Library of Western Australia and Edith Cowan University – a shout-out here to ECU Library’s document delivery service.
Feminist reading group Magdalena Talks Back provided a safe and nurturing space in which to present my writing. Special thanks to Lekkie Hopkins and Julie Robson, for founding the group, and to Amanda Gardiner and Rashida Murphy, for their attentive and sensitive feedback in Mags and as part of the PCWC Advanced Writers’ Group.
I’m so very grateful for the support I’ve received from the West Australian writing community. The vigour and camaraderie of local writers, writing-related organisations and publishers is something to behold and to celebrate. I’m especially thankful to Holden Sheppard for expert guidance on the business of being a debut author, and to Ken Spillman for useful suggestions in the early stages of writing.
Several friends and family members have at times gifted valuable writing spaces, for which I’m grateful. Many thanks, also, to Anna and Pat Luca, for allowing me to write Alice in your ‘beach shack’. In responding to copyedits, Phillips cabin at Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre proved to be a delightful, quiet place to find focus and clarity.
I am grateful beyond words to the women with vulvodynia and related conditions with whom I’ve had contact since 2003. To Annette, Catherine, Justine, Kath, Melissa and the two Nics: thanks for being there for me in the hardest times. Through this writing, I would like to honour the memory of Yvonne Wallis, as well as my friend ‘the other Josephine’.
To my non-writer friends, too many to name, too wonderful to single out any one of you: we all know how much you’ve helped me over the very long haul!
The men I’ve shared my life and home with over the writing years – my husband and our four sons – have provided unwavering encouragement. Thanks, guys, for your patience and belief! John, I’m so very grateful for your steadfast love; Ben, our epic conversations prompted more breakthrough writing moments than you’ll e
ver know; Ash, I’ve felt your support no matter how far away you might be. I’ve also felt the unconditional affection and acceptance of my whole family: siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews … Thank you all, so much. I’m indebted to my sisters Judy and Philippa, who have offered countless listening hours; you two have helped me find the strength to write on this topic. Thanks also to Mel, for fruitful conversations on Jung and feminism. This book wouldn’t have been written without the inspiration of my mother, passionate reader and writer Ena Taylor, who said to me right from the start of it all, ‘There’s a story here!’ You were right, Mum.
My dictionary defines a mentor as ‘an experienced and trusted adviser’. I’ve registered my mentor Susan Midalia’s experience through every facet of her response to many drafts. She recognised the intent of my writing immediately, saw the large picture of the work throughout, and applied astute, rigorous and encouraging editing. I trusted her from our first meeting, but that trust only grew as I understood her belief in and commitment to this novel and to me. It’s been a privilege, Susan.
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