‘Battling Demons, Finding an Angel is a poignant, honest and genuine work, into which Sally Beavis has bravely put her heart and bared her soul. She should be very proud of what she has achieved. This book deserves to be read by a wide audience.’

                                                                                                 Nancy Mortimer

‘A bravely told and beautiful story. Once I started reading, I could scarcely put it down… a timely, powerful, disturbing and very personal account of Sally’s life and its many challenges!’

                                                                                                  Belinda Kendall-White

‘I knew Sally Beavis would do a good job putting her memoir together because she is organised, highly competent and intelligent but she delivered so much more. This book is well written and brutally honest… the dialogue kept bouncing along. It is an extraordinary story… because Sally and John met and their lives were transformed. It demonstrates courage, resilience and hope. Many people would be inspired by reading this. It is unique and brilliant.’

  Dr. Elizabeth Lewis, psychiatrist

‘What a story. I enjoyed it immensely. It is well written – simple, straight forward and unpretentious –  engrossing and, in places, heart-rending. Sally has the happy knack of setting up a sentence in such a way as to entice one to read the following sentence, and uses adverbs with skill. Few writers do this as well as Sally… Battling Demons, Finding an Angel is a compelling read. At times it brought tears to my eyes, and at others, made my heart sing.’

                                                                                                   Dr. Michael Tronson

‘The memoir is a powerful example of how life’s misfortunes are so closely connected with mental health problems. The chapters are imbued with Sally’s optimism and generous spirit despite her having to deal with many painful episodes. Much can be learned from how Sally coped with life as a single mother. What stands out in particular is her mother’s support for her and how Sally in turn stepped up to support her mother towards the end of her life.’

         Emeritus Professor Bernadette Mc Sherry

‘A great read… Sally really knows how to write and does so with humour and a light touch… There are some wonderful pen-portraits of her extended family and friends. It was astonishing yet obvious that Sally and John’s relationship fell into place… they were meant for each other.’

                                                                           Rev. Dr Ian Savage, former chaplain, Prahran Mission

‘Sally Beavis has written her memoir without compromise and with brutal honesty. I found it riveting reading. I literally couldn’t put it down and read it in just over one day. This brave, uncompromising book touched me enormously and left me laughing one minute and almost crying the next. I longed for a happy ending to the story; a place where Sally would be content and truly happy. Against what seemed all hope, one was found. On finishing this memoir I closed the book with a smile on my face and hope again in my heart.’

                                                                                                            Diane Mainwaring

‘Never underestimate Sally’      

                                                                                                            John Beavis

Maud. What’s in a name? The largest component of the word ‘maudlin’ is in her name - that’s what. I doubt it is a coincidence. Maud did not have a face, though not in a literal sense. In my child’s eye there is no face. She was not faceless as in ‘the faceless men who can’t be named’. She had a name, just no face, but was not faceless.

Maud did have a presence. It controlled and chilled rooms. She came with her own atmosphere – never pleasant and mostly intimidating. Maud didn’t like children, didn’t have children. I am a child. She didn’t like me or my sisters.

I can see Uncle Bill’s face. It smiles and he came with humor. He tried to see the good side of things – unlike Maud. He married her. They were old people when they married. Why would you do that – and why did he choose her?

She was suspicious and so was her dog. They say a dog can look like its owner. This little dog’s face is clear in my mind so that can’t be right. It is snarling and snapping as it leers at me from the armrest on those thick, drab green lounge chairs in that dark, musty lounge room. So in this case it did not look like its owner – but it sounded like her!

I wonder how they chose the dog. Maud must have said ‘Let’s pick the one that seems unhappy and dislikes people’ - a dog in her own image, minus the face. His was cute when he paused long enough not to give me the evil eye.

Staying in her lounge room longer than ten minutes was soul destroying. Never did I want to get outside and kick the footy more than when we had to visit Aunty Maud. Dad felt some kind of obligation because she had looked after him somehow during his childhood. I just felt sick at the thought of going there.

I should have written her a letter and left it in the letterbox so she would read it one day. I might have written:

‘Dear Aunty Maud,

My dad thinks you are OK.  I think you are mean. Please tell me what he has seen in you to make him think that because I haven’t seen anything that would change my mind.

I am sorry you are awful. Can you change and be more like Uncle Bill?

John’s boy (though you call him ‘Jack’)

Simon’

BURIAL RITES – Hannah Kent

P 84 Agnes

God has had His chance to free me, and for reasons known to Him alone, He has pinned me to ill fortune, and although I have struggled, I am run through and through with disaster; I am knifed to the hilt with fate.

A LOVE LETTER FROM A STRAY MOON - Jay Griffiths

P 6-7

I recovered from polio, and I grew fierce, boxing, playing football and swimming, and I remember those days of skates, bicycles and boats as if it was a girl’s boyhood, those days when I was sleek and disobedient as an otter, tempestuously playful and reveling in it. I was sent to catechism class with my sister and we escaped and went to an orchard to eat quinces. I will never forget how sweet was the fruit of our disobedience in that orchard.

A JOKE FROM MY CHARISMATIC ACCOUNTANT – (Old but Gold!)

On realizing both our paternal ancestry’s go back to Tipperary, Ireland, Jim tells me there are only four words a traveler in Ireland need use – preferably together but they can be broken up into pairs

WHALE                                OIL                                       BEEF                                    HOOKED

(I think it could be at least a chapter heading for a book I am writing that has links to Ireland)

The sublime in a time of COVID