First Friday Book Club | The End of the Morning by Charmian Clift (Edited by Nadia Wheatley)

The End of the Morning is the unfinished autobiographical novel of Charmian Clift, published 55 years after her death. Clift herself regarded it as her most significant work and although she did not live to complete it, the typescript left among her papers was fully revised, and stands alone as a novella. It is published here alongside a new selection of Clift’s essays and an afterword from her biographer Nadia Wheatley.

It looks at the life of a young girl on the south coast of New South Wales, Cressida Morley, and her eccentric family, during the Great Depression, as they live in a weatherboard cottage on the edge of a wild beach. Cressida moves beyond childhood, and she starts to outgrow the place that once seemed the centre of the world. As she plans her escape, the only question is: who will she become?

The End of the Morning is a book that provides us with an excellent way to discover or renew an examination of Clift’s writings.

Join The Friends for another morning of lively discussion.

This event will be held in the lounge of the Pullman Melbourne on the Park. NOTE: Tickets for this event do not include access to our exhibition-house, Fairhall. Guided tours of the current exhibition can be booked separately.