In conversation

Beatrix & Fred: Emily Spurr in conversation with Jane Rawson

Beatrix is a loner.

She has a love-hate relationship with her one friend, Ray, a hate-hate relationship with everyone else in her office and a genuine attachment to a stuffed canary named Horatio. She drinks alone far too much. Lately she’s been finding the edge of the railway platform dangerously seductive.

Her life needs to change. Then she crosses paths with an old woman who seems to be stalking her, and that’s exactly what happens. Eighty-something Fred is smart, earthy, funny and not the harmless elderly lady she appears to be. She is, in fact, quite literally something else. But what?

When something happens to Ray, Fred decides to reveal herself. And Beatrix realises she has some agonising choices to make.

Beatrix & Fred is an off-kilter love story wrapped in a satisfying layer of moral complexity and tied up with a ribbon of sheer fun. Warm, witty, more than slightly weird—it takes the age-old question of what it is to be human beyond humanity itself.

Originally from Tasmania, Emily Spurr lives in Melbourne with her partner, their twins and the ghost of a deaf, geriatric cat. Emily’s first novel A Million Things was shortlisted for the prestigious Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Prize, voted BookBrowse Best Debut Novel of 2021, longlisted for the 2022 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award and Highly Commended for the 2022 Barbara Jefferis Award. Beatrix & Fred is Emily’s second novel.

Emily will be in conversation with Jane Rawson, editor of Island magazine, passionate conservationist and author of A History of Dreams, From the Wreck and other wonderful books.

Join them at the Afterword Cafe.

You can purchase tickets below.