There is something potent about a writer reading their own words aloud. It’s as though the meaning of what they meant to say is being communicated exactly as they intended.
Hearing Garner at the opening of the Melbourne Writers Festival read from her latest book in her slightly gravelly voice, so full of feeling, gave the words a certain extra power.
Photograph by Jenny Audring via Flickr
Garner was reading an extract from This House of Grief, the true story of Robert Farquharson, who murdered his three sons on Father’s Day in 2005 by driving his car into a dam in Winchelsea. He escaped but left the boys to drown. Jai was 10, Tyler was seven and Bailey was two.
It took Garner eight years to complete the book. Farquharson’s first trial began in August 2007 and in October that year he was found guilty and given three life sentences. The conviction was overturned on appeal and Farquharson was granted bail and a retrial. In October 2010 he was again convicted of murder and sentenced to a minimum of 33 years in jail.
Garner wrote another book as the cases took their course but she thought about this story the whole time. “It was hanging over me like a dark cloud,” she said. There was a collective wish among those following the case that Farquharson would be found not guilty. The alternative, she said, was too horrific to contemplate.
Garner also spoke of her fascination with the court environment, of her excitement when she gets to court each morning, always the first to arrive, and of the rich stories to be found there.
“I reckon I could get a book out of anything that happens in court,” she said. “I wish there was a little bed I could sleep in there so I didn’t have to go home.”
Garner described a kind of worship she has of the wigged judges and how she sees them like “parental figures”. Initially she thought the tradition of wearing wigs was silly, but now sees it as important – somehow representative of “the spirit of the law”.
Two of Garner’s earlier books, The First Stone (1995) and Joe Cinque’s Consolation (2004) were also about true crime cases, exploring the darkest aspects of human behaviour.
Both books, particularly First Stone, attracted controversy, debate and critical praise.
It will be interesting to see how readers respond to This House of Grief, but there is no doubt it will be a book worthy of discussion
This House of Grief was published by Text last week.
The Melbourne Writers Festival runs until August 31.
