Lesley Parker - Reprise
Reprise was a collaborative effort between me and Lesley Parker, a retired academic whose family sought to mark her 80th birthday with a reminiscence-in-writing. She had been a keen pianist, so the title “Reprise” was particularly apt.
Lesley is hailed as a pioneer in furthering education opportunities for girls and women, which gave extra point to the substantial memoir. Her early life, not only as a student at Perth Modern School but also as the daughter of parents who were too, illustrated much of what Australia was like immediately after the Second World War.
She and I met weekly in 2017, recording her verbal journeys into the past. From my drafts she would amend, add and occasionally subtract. A thoroughly satisfying project all round. life. - Patrick Cornish
