Meet Author Lisa Ireland at Cowra Library

Join us at Cowra Library when author Lisa Ireland launches her latest book The One and Only Dolly Jamieson. The book is described as a compelling feel-good novel featuring a proud and gutsy heroine with a truly unbreakable spirit.

This free event will be held on Friday 17 February at 10.30am and is supported by Collins Booksellers.

Local author Kelly Rimmer said “from the glamour of Broadway in the 1960s to the realities of life for the unhoused today, this is a riveting and heartbreaking story of friendship, second chances and hope.”

Author Lisa Ireland was inspired to write the novel due to the shocking rise in the number of homeless women over 60 and a chance meeting with a homeless woman one evening.

“One night, while I was waiting outside a grocery store for my husband, I struck up a conversation with a homeless woman about the book she was reading.

“When my husband returned, the woman thanked me for talking to her. She said most people didn’t even make eye contact, let alone take the time to chat, and that she appreciated the opportunity to feel normal for a little while.”

‘Afterwards, I couldn’t stop thinking about her words. I tried to imagine what it would be like to go through life feeling invisible . . . I knew that this was a topic I needed to explore further.”

About the book

In the 1960s Dolly Jamieson was an international star of the stage, the acclaimed lead in shows on Broadway and the West End. Now, at 78 years old, Dolly is homeless, and spends her days keeping warm at the local library.

So how did she end up here? When Jane Leveson, a well-to-do newcomer to the library, shows an interest in Dolly, the pair strike up an unlikely friendship – and soon Jane is offering to help Dolly write a memoir telling of her rise and fall across seven decades.

Thoughtful, inspiring and nostalgic, The One and Only Dolly Jamieson is a compelling, feel-good novel for fans of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and The Single Ladies of the Jacaranda Retirement Village. It is a book about human connection, the pain of invisibility and the power of being seen.

About Lisa Ireland

After working for many years as a teacher (and a brief stint as a professional organiser – before Marie Kondo made it cool), Lisa Ireland is now a full-time writer. The One and Only Dolly Jamieson is Lisa’s seventh novel, following most recently The Secret Life of Shirley Sullivan. Lisa lives with her husband in a small town in Gippsland, Victoria. When not writing, she spends her days mentoring aspiring authors, drinking coffee, and playing minion to her incredibly spoiled dog, Lulu.

 

When

Location

Cowra Library, 77 Darling Street, Cowra, 2794, View Map