The Heritage You Leave Behind defies categorisation. It’s got the lot: love story, period drama, family dysfunction, violence, betrayal, intimidation, discrimination, art world intrigue, insurmountable obstacles and all written in a distinctive voice that keeps you hooked on every word of its 263 pages.
It’s hardly surprising this book is so compelling because its author, Susan Steggall, another long-time Northern Beaches resident (Manly in fact), is someone who has jammed a few accomplished lives into one. Born in Maitland NSW, she achieved degrees in the biosciences from the University of Sydney in the 1960s, then worked in the pharmaceutical industry for some years until her love of winter sports drew her to the French Alps for a decade (the 1980s), taking her husband and small children with her. When she returned to Sydney she gained Master and Bachelor Degrees in Art History & Theory, followed by a PhD in Creative Writing. She wrote a memoir of her time in France, Alpine Beach: A Family Adventure and she translated it into French. She has also written three other novels that blend art and its history: Forget Me Not, It Happened Tomorrow and ‘Tis The Doing Not The Deed.
These are just snippets of Susan’s writing and her achievements; she even made the small sculptures that appear on the front and back cover of The Heritage You Leave Behind. These sculptures are influenced by figures in the paintings of French artist Marie Laurencin.
The character at the heart of this book is a young woman, Ellie Gilmartin, who becomes a sculptor despite immense opposition from her one remaining relative, Aunt Agnes. It starts in Glasgow in 1948 with Ellie’s relentless desire to understand more about her heritage. As information emerges, she questions whether her mother really did die when she was a toddler and why she left Ellie alone with a father who clearly suffered from what we now know to
be PTSD. That wasn’t the only thing he suffered from.
Ellie is one determined and lonely human. Aunt Agnes is no help at all and withholds vital information while doing her best to manipulate Ellie who stands up to her and to her equally manipulative employer, but almost as bad are the bureaucratic obstacles that would
make most people throw in the towel. Not Ellie. She embarks on a lonely journey from Glasgow to Australia to find out the truth. It’s only the strangers Ellie meets who are helpful and caring, her family are “a ghastly, ghastly nightmare” as my favourite Glaswegian Billy Connolly would say.
Susan’s depiction of the feel, smell, sound and sights of Sydney are depicted with such clarity that I discover things about my hometown I either never knew or had forgotten. The depiction of Ellie undertaking her detective work at The Mitchell Library, the Art Gallery of NSW, the Anzac War Memorial and taking the ferry from the city to Manly, the train from Central Station to Maitland, to follow up on leads are so perfectly described that I felt like I was walking alongside her.
Ellie spends quite a bit of time in Maitland and from Susan’s description of the landscape I’ve decided I need to visit Maitland and walk in the steps of Ellie. I’ve already gone to the Anzac War Memorial to remind myself of the extraordinary sculptures by Rayner Hoff that Ellie admired there. I love how this book has introduced me to Australian artists, such as Margot Holden, Theodora Cowan and Dora Barclay, and now I can explore their work too.
Who needs to travel when there are books like this! it’s my first Susan Steggall book and it won’t be my last. I have a lot of catching up to do.
You can buy The Heritage You Leave Behind on Booktopia, Amazon and Google books but why not just email Susan and order it directly, swal1@bigpond.net.au