I’ve known Georgia Blain for many years. We are about the same age and her childhood memories are familiar to me—a decade of educational experimentation (the seventies); family dynamics complicated (further) by the rise of feminism, both parents working and divorce; a certain pressure to be sexually active before one really knew what such matters entailed. Her essay ‘Strange Times’ begins, ‘On the night Gough Whitlam was elected Prime Minister, my parents held a party.’ So did mine. But there are many things about Blain’s life that are particular and her stunning collection Births Deaths Marriages is about, in part, having lived a life more publicly documented than many. Her father, Ellis Blain, was an ABC broadcaster, and her mother is the commentator Anne Deveson. Deveson’s bestselling book Tell Me I’m Here charted her son Jonathan’s—Georgia’s brother—struggle with schizophrenia and eventual death. Soon after that book’s publication Georgia Blain’s first novel, Closed for Winter, was published. Since then Blain has written three novels—Candelo, The Blind Eye and Names for Nothingness. Births Deaths Marriages was published in March this year and is her first book of nonfiction. She lives in Sydney with her partner Andrew Taylor and their daughter Odessa.

Sophie Cunningham: I want to talk to you about your nonfiction writing compared to your novel writing. Of the five books you have written, which was the hardest to write?
Georgia Blain: I don’t think you can say that one form is harder than the other, I think every book has different challenges. Your first book has the huge challenges of: Can I possibly do this? Can I get to the end? Am I able to be a writer? I think you get technically more adept as you go along, but I don’t think your confidence necessarily gets better because you’re more aware of the pitfalls in the public process.