A book about the sweetness of escape, and the mix of pain and acceptance that comes with returning home. Her memory is imperfect, but the strength and resilience she shows over the years is nothing short of extraordinary. Nora Porteous flees her small-town family and stifling marriage and creates a new life for herself in London. With grace and humor, Nora recounts her desire to escape, the way her marriage went wrong, the vanity that drove her to get a facelift, and one romantic sea voyage that has kept her afloat during her dark years. A novel that tells of one woman's remarkable life. They help to nurse her back from pneumonia, and slowly let her in on the dark secrets of the neighborhood in the years that have lapsed. At home, the neighborhood children she remembers have grown into compassionate adults. Tirra Lirra by the River is a moving account of one womans remarkable life, a beautifully written novel which displays the lyrical brevity of Jessica. Her life has taken her from a failed marriage in Sydney to freedom in London she forged a modest career as a seamstress and lived with two dear friends through the happiest years of her adult life.

The Lady is cursed never to look directly upon. One of Australia's most celebrated novels: one woman's journey from Australia to London Nora Porteous, a witty, ambitious woman from Brisbane, returns to her childhood home at age seventy. Tirra Lirra by the River quotes from Tennysons poem The Lady of Shalott.

Tirra lirra by the river