Elsie blogs on Jane Sinclair for An Author for All Seasons with Jane's new work Shy Love Smiles & Acid Drops

Jane Sinclair shares her book and ebook, ‘Shy Love Smiles and Acid Drops’ – at the Mentone Public Library. ‘An Author for All Seasons’ Series 12 on 12 November 2022.  

Jane Sinclair at Mentone Public Library
12 Nlovember 2022

Wow! Jane Sinclair had us all ears and wanting more when she presented at The Mentone Public Library, a tell all (or almost) book, “Shy, Love, Smile and Acid Drops.”

We who merely read history were intrigued. Jane lived through it!

Jane used her letters between her deceased parents that documented in 1st person the bohemian freedom of artistic world, when she accompanied her charismatic mother, Jean Langley, who was having an affair with Arthur Boyd at the time, to London.  Her estranged father, John Sinclair, was a Music critic for the Evening Herald at the time.

The letters document this interval in their lives from 1960 to 1962, a whirlwind of adventures mixing with the art elite of Australia and Europe, particularly the Heide Group of artists and their associates.  Nothing was off bounds and they lived an exotic and sometimes chaotic life, not caring for society’s rules and moral judgments. 

It was only in hindsight that Jane realised what an inside look she had enjoyed.

Jane has the inside info and kept the disappointingly small group of us at her presentation, delighted and enthralled as she deviated from her script and filled in many blanks.  Audience member, John, a ceramic sculptor, knew a different Jean – the academic artist - who classified and painted Mornington Peninsular wild flowers which she published in three books on the subject. 

Jean’s mother was a complex and fragile character and the push and pull of the letters between ex-husband and ex-wife underlies this.

She riled at him but she needed him to rile against.  It seemed that her ex husband was one of the few constants in her life.

 

Blog post by Elsie Johnstone. Photography by Nathaniel Davies

 

For information on purchase of the book you can visit the publishers website: https://www.hybridpublishers.com.au/product/shy-love-smiles-and-acid-drops-letters-from-a-difficult-marriage/