Lunch Hour Talks
Lunch Hour Talk 17 April 2025
Image credit: Tolga Tuncay
Thursday 17 April 2025
Speaker: Margaret Ann Spence
Topic: The Price Women Paid For Political Choices Made by Men
While writing Cold War in a Hot Kitchen: a memoir of mid-century Melbourne, Margaret Spence delved into history to understand the political and social tensions that pervaded her childhood home as well as society at large: immigration, inflation and industrial unrest, government secrecy and suspicion, the legacy of the masculinist culture of mining on her paternal grandmother and father, and a disturbing career vs. child choice faced by her adored aunt, later known as the feminist journalist Nan Hutton. With a domestic cold war mimicking the external Cold War, Margaret considers the influences and challenges facing women then and now.
Margaret Ann Spence’s first novel, Lipstick on the Strawberry, was a winner in the First Coast Romance Writers 2015 Beacon Contest and her second, Joyous Lies, was a finalist in the 2021 Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction. She now lives in the United States.
Where – The meeting room at the Customs House Library, at Circular Quay.
When – The talk will begin at 12.15, The room is open from 11.30 for tea/coffee/sandwiches.
Entry – $20 JSNWL members $25 non-members
PLEASE BOOK BY NOON Monday 17 February 2025
Phone the library on (02) 9571 5359 or email .au
Lunch Hour Talk 20 February 2025
Thursday 20 February 2025
Speaker: Rose Cutts
Topic: Researching Women of Colonial Australia
Our first speaker in 2025 is Rose Cutts who comes to us following a generous donation of three volumes of Women of Colonial Australia series. The stories were produced by twenty women who participated in an educational program offered by the Society of Australian Genealogists (SAG) in 2022/2023. Acting as a consultant, Rose taught, guided and mentored the group and subsequently edited and arranged publication of the volumes in association with SAG. The books were donated by Wendy Pryor, a participant in the group.
Rose, who will tell us about how this project came about, its challenges and highlights, has worked across the print media, music and tertiary education sectors in a career spanning over 25 years. Her roles have included sub-editing, copywriting, and several years editing a quarterly fiction publication. For the last 17 years Rose has worked in a variety of roles in universities.
Through her studies, along with several creative writing programs, Rose developed a keen interest and focus on blending historical facts and creative story telling. She is also a passionate researcher of her own genealogy. In 2022, Rose conceived and delivered a writing program through the Society of Australian Genealogists, to share these skills and interests with others, and with a focus on the Women of Colonial Australia.
The Society of Australian Genealogists is an education charity that has been supporting family historians since 1932.
