Darry Fraser writes bestselling, empowering feminist historicals that put women back in the Australian story. Her latest book, her twelfth novel is called The Milliner of Bendigo.

Hi there. I'm your host, Jenny Wheeler. And today on the show, Darry talks about her fascination with the contribution women have made in every generation, whether recognized or not.

And how in all of the books she somehow had the story sparked by a personal or family connection.

Links to items highlighted in this episode

Darry Fraser and Arnott's Christmas Tin: https://www.darryfraser.com/the-drover-comes-homes-for-christma

Candice Fox, The Chase, https://www.candicefox.org/

Jodi Taylor, Chronicles of St. Mary's series; https://joditaylor.online/

Rachael Mead, The Art of Breaking Ice

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/152232958

Kate Grenville, A Room Made Of Leaves;

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50993145-a-room-made-of-leaves

Where to find Darry Fraser online

Website: www.darryfraser.com

Facebook: @darryfraserbooks

Instagram: @darryfraser 

And that’s the housekeeping over.  Here's our guest for this week. Darry Fraser.

Introducing author Darry Fraser

Darry Fraser - historical fiction that restores women's place in history

Jenny Wheeler: Hello there Darry and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us.

Darry Fraser: Oh, thank you, Jenny. Thanks so much for having me.

Jenny Wheeler: Darry, you're a best-selling author, some of your books have reached the Top 100 lists in Australia. And you write “empowering feminist adventures.” That's the way you like to describe them.

They're all historicals as well. So tell us, what do you like about writing feminist adventure stories?

Darry Fraser: The first thing I hear quite a lot, especially when I'm doing library talks or bookstore events or something is, ‘Gee, all your leading ladies are well ahead of their time.’ and so on and so forth.

And I had to have a think about and about that and address that women back in the day were just like you and I are in our 21st century, except they had greater restrictions on what they were allowed to do by law or within the family or whatever.

But I don't believe that too many women were just wimps. I think they had as strong a personality as people you might meet today.

But what fascinated me was how they maintained their own strength and their feminist, - and we're not talking feminazis here, we're talking feminists  - being your own true self, within the restrictions that they came across.

And... I think when you step back in time, which is basically what I do, and I love doing that, you find these people dotted throughout history, because we don't often have a great glimpse of the ordinary person's day-to-day life.

Finding fascinating historical stories

That glimpse of strength comes through, and we're finding more and more stories about let's say Australian and New Zealand women who did their own thing within the confines of society's rules and regulations.

And that's what fascinates me.

Jenny Wheeler: Where do you look for those kinds of stories or how do you find them? Because as we know, even the written record that women left behind is often less valued than the male record left behind.

Darry Fraser: Yes, that's true. I think especially with those sorts of written records you and I today might be able to read between the lines.

They did have to be careful what they wrote. Certainly, that's just it, what they wrote. I find them in digitized newspapers at Trove.

The National Library of Australia digitizes all our newspapers, and often I'll go to the classifieds or the little articles that the local papers might publish, and there'll be snippets of women's lives.

They might be having a. a swipe at somebody. They might be interested in having a gentleman friend.

There's all sorts of things that you can pick up in the tiny wee little bits of l...