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About Mary

I was born in Whakatāne, New Zealand, and spent my childhood in Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty. Since then I’ve lived in Auckland, Hamilton, Puttaparthi, Rishikesh, Pune and other places before I settled in Australia in the late 1970s. After 32 years in Queensland - living in Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast hinterland, and the Bundaberg Region - I moved to Castlemaine in regional Victoria in January 2022. I move around a lot, collecting experiences. I stayed in several ashrams in India during the 1970s seeking so-called ‘enlightenment’ and for some years I was interested in intentional communities and lived at Crystal Waters Permaculture Village, near Maleny, and Kookaburra Park Ec0-village, Gin Gin. None of these places were the utopia they are often portrayed to be - in fact, they were quite dysfunctional.

Although I worked for my father when I was growing up (he was a tomato grower), my first ‘real’ job was at Tauranga Library during the school holidays. I loved it. I was 12. I’ve had many jobs since. I’ve worked as a waitress, a babysitter, a cleaner, a model, a cinema usherette (I was fired after two nights), a strawberry picker, a nurse’s aid, a primary school teacher (I was hopeless), a caterer and a research assistant. Since 2011, I’ve been the accounts manager and secretary in our family bicycle business, KWT Imports. I love this work. I’ve always been good with numbers and figuring things out. (I studied Pure Maths at Waikato University in the 1960s.) I write when I can, when I am inspired.

My new book, a memoir called My Father’s Suitcase, comes out in May 2024. Please email the amazing Kristin or Sarah (emails below) if you’d like an advance copy. I’ve also written another memoir, The Serpent Rising, on my years in India in the 1970s under the spell of dangerous gurus. First published in 1988, it won the High Country Indie Book Award 2021. In 2023, I was interviewed about this book for The Cult Vault. This interview has just been short-listed for the best Indie podcast for True Crime Awards 2023-2024. I also co-authored Neo Tantra: Bhagwan Rajneesh on Sex Love Prayer and Transcendence (Harper & Row, 1980) and wrote a collection of erotic poems, Coming Together (1992). Both these books are pretty cringe-worthy and I never talk about them. My last book, Sundowner of the Skies, was a biography of my father, Oscar Garden. He was a famous pioneer aviator before he met my mother. I was pretty chuffed when Sundowner was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s History Award 2020.

I’ve been a freelance journalist since 2001 and have written for The Humanist, The Australian Financial Review, Meanjin, The Guardian, New Zealand Herald, The Australian, The Northern Times, Aviation News (NZ), Newsroom (NZ), New Zealand Geographic, Newtown Review of Books and many other magazines and news sites.

Writing memoir is a way for me to make sense of things, to get rid of shame, to be free. By looking closely at one’s life, you can find things that resonate with other lives. I love this quote by Anne Lamott:

You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.

My Father’s Suitcase
Publicity: Australia - Kristin Gill Kristin@northernbooks.com.au; NZ - Thornton Communications, sarah.thornton@prcomms.com
Distribution: Australia - Peribo Pty Ltd, Ph (02) 9457 0011; NZ - David Bateman Ltd, Ph (09) 415 7664