Product Description
anything can happen is a memoir from a prize-winning Australian author. Funny, heartbreaking, it has exactly the arc of a good story. Among a slice of social history of Sydney’s inner west, there’s a farm in Victoria, a rural lesbian subculture, Mardi Gras, the pleasures of teaching writing, and flashbacks to the working-class fishing culture of Stockton (Newcastle) in the 1960s and 70s.
Juxtaposition is her gift, as is the very natural speaking voice. With the eye of a poet, and someone who has experienced it all, straight and married, gay and married, mother, friend, lover, writer, this is a raw and truthful account of a life lived fully.
“It’s the sort of writing Hampton excels at. There’s no-one else I know who can hit that dry, droll, edgy note and conjure place and time and character and the random nature of memory and story-telling.” —Kim Mahood
“Perfectly pitched, alive on every page … The Tommy thread is achingly knowable to all lovers I think, straight or gay. My emotions were fully engaged.” —Gail Bell
“I read this memoir for its sly mix of beat sensibility, high culture, and suburban realism … that wry, warm Hampton voice I remember from Surly Girls, briefly sounding profound chords as it weaves laconic observations into an artfully told narrative.” —Paul Gillen
“It made me think a lot about patience, acceptance, understanding, revolution, art, poverty, meaning, self-discovery, and the energy that’s created between people as they each take their own journey through life, and maybe how we’re all shaped by that energy.” —Conrad Buffier
WINNER OF THE VICTORIAN PREMIER’S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION, 2025
Judges’ report: This subtle, supple memoir cut through a strong and crowded field of contenders with its wry observations and delicious prose. Susan Hampton takes us through the swings and roundabouts of her life: marrying into the Slovenian immigrant community at 19, raising her son among artists in Sydney’s gay 80s, navigating lesbian poly drama in the Central Goldfields, and coming of age in the working-class fishing towns near Newcastle in the 60s. What emerges is a mosaic of 20th-century Australia in all its incongruous glory, peopled with lively, opalescent characters who each catch the light in their own way.
REVIEWS
Susan Lever reviews Anything can Happen in Inside Story
