The Book:
The Author:
Hannie Rayson is a playwright and screenwriter. Her works-including Hotel Sorrento, Inheritance and Life After George-have been performed around Australia and internationally. She has been awarded two Australian Writers' Guild Awards, four Helpmann Awards, two NSW Premier's Literary Awards and a Victorian Premier's Literary Award. Her play Life After George was the first play to be nominated for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Hannie lives in Melbourne.
Hannie Rayson - writer, mother, daughter, sister, wife, romantic, adventuress, parking-spot optimist - has spent a lifetime giving voice to others in the many roles she has written for stage and television
Industry & Customer Reviews
*“You'd have to have a hard and humourless heart not to be cheered by Hello, Beautiful!. But there is a spiritual dimension to Hannie Rayson's down-to-earth existence: gratitude for small things: family, friendship, a sense of belonging and purpose. She knows she is lucky in love and life and her enthusiasm and appreciation spills onto these pages infectiously. Recognising your own good fortune and spreading it around must surely be a kind of grace.” --Caroline Baume
* 'So beautifully written, so funny, so insightful and so obviously written by a warm and appealing human being.' -- David Williamson 'Smart, witty, warm, self effacing and hilarious. Each chapter is a shining gem-a passionate view, a formative experience, a mortifying anecdote. Hannie Rayson's insight, honesty and ear for dialogue as one of Australia's foremost playwright is beyond dispute. Here she turns her talents to memoir and those closest to her with results so disarming and entertaining I didn't want it to end.' -- Kat Stewart
* “A Great book-club book. All my group loved this Book. It was light and relevant to Melbourne.” -- Bec from Melbourne- Verified Buyer
Our review:
Most of the book-club members read the book and most agreed it was an easy read sprinkled with light humour. Some members liked that it was a collection of anecdotal stories from Hannie’s life. Also we enjoyed the fact that we could personally relate to many of her experiences. She was a post-war baby boomer, born in the 50’s and growing up in Melbourne in the 60’s and entering adulthood in the 70’s. I could hear my mother’s voice when I read the pages describing the author’s relationship with her down-to-earth mother. We enjoyed her chapters about her trips and life while living abroad. I found the author to have a very easy, engaging style of writing with a charming honesty about her failures in life. It can’t be an easy task to write about yourself, family and your choices in life, whether good or bad and at the same time make it a pleasant experience for the reader, so my hat goes off to Hannie for her achievement in writing and publishing this book. I would recommend this book, not all of our members would.
Thank you to Margaret Cassidy for the review.
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“I realise that, despite all the references to my longing to be a writer, two things are apparent. The first is that I don't actually do much writing; the second is that my teenage reflections display absolutely no talent for it. My Diary is prima facie evidence of self-delusion on a grand scale.”
A memoir in parts, from one of Australia's best-loved playwrights.In her new book, she shines the spotlight on herself. This collection of stories from a dramatic life radiate with the great warmth and humour that has made Hannie one of the best-known playwrights in the country. From a childhood in Brighton to a urinary tract infection in Spain, from a body buried under the house to a play on a tram, Hello, Beautiful! captures a life behind the scenes - a life of tender moments, hilarious encounters and, inevitably, drama. REF: Booktopia |
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The Author:
Hannie Rayson is a playwright and screenwriter. Her works-including Hotel Sorrento, Inheritance and Life After George-have been performed around Australia and internationally. She has been awarded two Australian Writers' Guild Awards, four Helpmann Awards, two NSW Premier's Literary Awards and a Victorian Premier's Literary Award. Her play Life After George was the first play to be nominated for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Hannie lives in Melbourne.
Hannie Rayson - writer, mother, daughter, sister, wife, romantic, adventuress, parking-spot optimist - has spent a lifetime giving voice to others in the many roles she has written for stage and television
Industry & Customer Reviews
*“You'd have to have a hard and humourless heart not to be cheered by Hello, Beautiful!. But there is a spiritual dimension to Hannie Rayson's down-to-earth existence: gratitude for small things: family, friendship, a sense of belonging and purpose. She knows she is lucky in love and life and her enthusiasm and appreciation spills onto these pages infectiously. Recognising your own good fortune and spreading it around must surely be a kind of grace.” --Caroline Baume
* 'So beautifully written, so funny, so insightful and so obviously written by a warm and appealing human being.' -- David Williamson 'Smart, witty, warm, self effacing and hilarious. Each chapter is a shining gem-a passionate view, a formative experience, a mortifying anecdote. Hannie Rayson's insight, honesty and ear for dialogue as one of Australia's foremost playwright is beyond dispute. Here she turns her talents to memoir and those closest to her with results so disarming and entertaining I didn't want it to end.' -- Kat Stewart
* “A Great book-club book. All my group loved this Book. It was light and relevant to Melbourne.” -- Bec from Melbourne- Verified Buyer
Our review:
Most of the book-club members read the book and most agreed it was an easy read sprinkled with light humour. Some members liked that it was a collection of anecdotal stories from Hannie’s life. Also we enjoyed the fact that we could personally relate to many of her experiences. She was a post-war baby boomer, born in the 50’s and growing up in Melbourne in the 60’s and entering adulthood in the 70’s. I could hear my mother’s voice when I read the pages describing the author’s relationship with her down-to-earth mother. We enjoyed her chapters about her trips and life while living abroad. I found the author to have a very easy, engaging style of writing with a charming honesty about her failures in life. It can’t be an easy task to write about yourself, family and your choices in life, whether good or bad and at the same time make it a pleasant experience for the reader, so my hat goes off to Hannie for her achievement in writing and publishing this book. I would recommend this book, not all of our members would.
Thank you to Margaret Cassidy for the review.
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