Where were you born?
Chicago, but like everyone else after the war, we moved to Los Angeles. Real Hollywood Stories stuff. My father was one of the three top entertainment lawyers. My stepfather was a screenwriter. My mother was an actor. We knew all the stars, Groucho Marx, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Doris Day. Everyone here thought I was just bragging when this topic would come up. What Hollywood really taught me though was that I didn’t want any part of it. My mother was a communist for about 5 minutes in the 1930s. With McCarthyism, our family was blacklisted for many years. It was horrible.
What brought you to Australia?
My first husband, John Dowse. He had a scholarship to UCLA. We met through a friend. Next thing I knew, I was 7 and a half months pregnant and on my way to Australia. As we were coming through the Sydney Harbour heads in 1958, John turned to me and said, “I better tell you, my parents, they’re a bit rough.” They weren’t, they were lovely, and owned what is now the Blues Point Hotel – McMahons Point Hotel then – a very working-class pub, my introduction to Australia. I couldn’t believe my eyes when we got to Manly. In America, anything by the beach was privatised, especially in LA, so to arrive here and see beautiful water everywhere, and all accessible. It’s paradise.
How did you become the Head of Australia’s first ever Women’s Affairs Office?
I was completing my original UCLA studies in Canberra at ANU. One day I went to the Asian Studies unit and two women asked if I’d like to come to a meeting that night…a Women’s Liberation meeting. I must admit, I was pretty appalled by how women were treated in Australia at that point. So, I went along. It changed my life. Through a series of flukes, there was a connection established to Gough Whitlam’s team, and a role I was told to apply for. I didn’t want to. I was a Yank, and I didn’t believe in Government. Sanity prevailed. I applied. Became Head of the newly established Office. We were able to respond to the huge volume of correspondence coming in and design policy around that. Childcare, equal pay, part-time employment. Very exciting times.
What led you to becoming an author?
You may have heard, Gough got fired. Malcolm Fraser came to power. He was far better than we expected, more like what he became at the end of his life. But I never wanted to be a bureaucrat. I always wanted to be a writer. In 1977 I resigned, good fortune still in my favour. I’d worked with Brian Johns in Gough’s team, and he had moved to Penguin to produce a fiction list. He came to see me and said, “Sara, I hear you have a manuscript.” I mean, how lucky can you get?!
Then to becoming an artist?
Penguin changed. Brian Johns left. It was taken over by a big German conglomerate, a new regime. They gave me my first rejection…They termed me a midlist writer. And, in so far as I’m an artist, as much as that sounds very pretentious, what interests me most is experimentation. I always like to try something I haven’t done before. I had a version of Adobe Photoshop 7 and would play with that. Paint. Scan. Play with the images. Print on a variety of papers. Lots of experimenting.
What inspired your cover art?
Simplicity. A loving couple, a beautiful moment. And I do love that spot at South Steyne, but at my age, the idea of sitting on a hard surface and looking at the ocean is a distant second to a good nanny nap. I’ve had plenty of excitment in my life, I’m happy to still be around, even if I am very dull.
More from Sara
Follow @sara.dowse on Instagram, visit saradowse.com.au online and say G’day to Sara at Manly for all updates and timeless insights.
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