Acclaimed Australian author Helen Garner has won the 2023 Baillie Gifford prize for Non-Fiction with her collected diaries, How to End a Story, a work celebrated for its unflinching honesty adn insightful observations on life, aging, and societal expectations of women. Garner, who will turn 83 this week, continues to write daily, despite noticing the beginnings of cognitive decline, and views even her own aging process as a subject worthy of forensic observation.
The diaries,published by Wiedenfeld & Nicolson in the UK (£30) and Text Publishing in Australia (A$59.99), span decades and reveal Garner’s candid thoughts on a range of topics, including the societal pressures surrounding female anger. As noted in the book,and widely reported,Garner observes,”Anger is frequently enough very shameful for women.” She finds freedom in diary writing, stating, “I feel free when I’m writing in it.I’m not writing to please anybody else, I don’t have a deadline and I can say things in there that I wouldn’t say elsewhere.”
Garner’s writing has evolved alongside her life. her recent focus has shifted from her now-adult grandchildren, who previously featured prominently in her work, to navigating the challenges of aging. She acknowledges experiencing increasing forgetfulness and frustration with spelling errors, despite a lifelong dedication to precise language. “I’m starting to forget a lot of things,” she says.”But the most annoying thing is,I make spelling mistakes now… And now I flip back and think,’What is that word?'”
Despite these challenges,Garner remains committed to her craft. She intends to continue writing in her diaries untill her death, finding endless captivation in the world around her. “I can’t imagine finding life boring,” she says. “The world around me is so captivating. There is always something to write about, so I’ll keep going.”
