Extract of a movie — a group of school girls and boys watch a Police Patrol car drive off with siren wailing
GIRL1
Where are they off to?
BOY
I don't know.
GIRL2
I hope it's a murder! Never been in a murder! Come on!
Cover of The Harp In The South
VOICE-OVER
The 1946 book created controversy because of its raw portrayal of life in the inner city slums of Sydney.
PAUL BRUNTON, Curator, NSW State Library 2010
It spoke of previously forbidden subjects — child abuse, abortion…
Interview of Ruth Park, 1993
Black-and-white images of Sydney city slums
RUTH PARK
One of the quaintest criticisms was because I wrote about poor, underprivileged people, I was a communist. And in the same mail, I would get letters saying because I wrote about underprivileged people, I was a capitalist, I was making money out of them. But, of course, there were many other defensive letters from people whom I really respected, like the writers of the time, but it didn't alter my absolute bewilderment at what I think I actually described as a domestic comedy, which I thought it was — I thought it was a funny book.
Jennifer Byrne and guests
JENNIFER BYRNE
Published in 1948, never out of print. I think, like me, new for you, Marieke?
MARIEKE HARDY
Yes, I hadn't read it before, and it's a complete… it's a masterpiece. And I started reading it, and it is a comedy — it's wicked, it's naughty, it's sweet, it's funny — but some of that writing… I think it should be No.1, personally, on this particular list. I think the writing is just incredible, the way that she writes about love, the way that she writes about parenting, about mothers and daughters, about fathers and daughters, about grandmothers and granddaughters, and the way that she writes about two people falling in love is some of the best writing I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing.
JENNIFER BYRNE
We should explain — it's about basically one family, isn't it? One family and we follow the whole family but particularly Roie, one of the daughters, and her love affair. Did you love it?
MICHAEL WILLIAMS
I adored this book. I reread it around the time Ruth Park died, and it was that thing, that revelation that she was still alive… In particular, I remember reading Playing Beatie Bow as a teenager and loving that book, and Ruth Park, long before I ever came to Sydney, Ruth Park told me what Sydney looked like, told me what to expect. So Surry Hills, as it's depicted in the Harp In The South, was incredibly vivid for me — that's what I expected it to look like when I came here. I had a cab driver this morning who thought the same thing, still was driving on maps that Ruth Park had drawn for him.
JENNIFER BYRNE
You actually spent time in Surry Hills in the '70s, wasn't it?
JUDY NUNN
Yes, yes. I absolutely adore this book too. How could one not? How could one not? I love everything Ruth Park has ever written. But, yes, I did — I bought a little rundown Surry Hills terrace house in 1975, and it still had this feeling there, seriously, if a neighbour had troubles and you were living cheek by jowl… And my little house was a real little dump — I had to spend twice what the house cost me just putting a roof on it and floors in it — it was falling down. And it was just… It was quite extraordinary. You know, I feel I've lived part of this book.
JENNIFER BYRNE
'Cause even though it's a story of this Darcy family, it's really a community story.
JASON STEGER
It is a community story.
JUDY NUNN
Oh, absolutely.
JENNIFER BYRNE
The madness and the misery. I mean, it's… She calls it a comedy, and it is, but it's dark.
MARIEKE HARDY
Those dark moments really… I mean, they only add to it, they don't detract from the comedy. They're just so… And the characters, not just the lesser characters, but the main characters are consistently letting you down. I mean, the way that the parents… When the dad gets money to give to his daughter and just drinks it, and you're really cheering for him, and any other author would have taken that, 'And then I came home with a floral gift basket…' and she doesn't and you're still sympathetic to that character. I mean, he's a drunk who comes home in these fits of rage and you adore him! That's masterful.
MICHAEL WILLIAMS
It was quite controversial when it came out. When it won the Miles Franklin Award, there was this outcry. Some of the stuff in it was maybe less than savoury, but that was OK, but… you know, the local council and government didn't like the suggestion there were slums in Surry Hills. This was not something well received.
JENNIFER BYRNE
They actioned, as they say — they actually moved in and did work on Surry Hills.
JASON STEGER
As a result.
JENNIFER BYRNE
Absolutely. It caused such a scandal when this was published.
MICHAEL WILLIAMS
I was reading a great thing that said Park's parish priest gave a sermon against the book when it won the Miles Franklin Award that included a tirade that said that the Virgin Mary certainly wouldn't have written any kind of book, but if she had, it wouldn't have been this kind of book!
JASON STEGER
Well, it was described as 'a wallow in depravity, filth and crime' in one review when it came out.
MICHAEL WILLIAMS
They really should be putting that on the front cover.
JASON STEGER
Yeah, it's fantastic.