Kiama's Blowhole: Charmian Clift, Kiama, NSW, Australia

Charmian Clift was born in Kiama, New South Wales, on 30 August 1923. She attended primary school in Kiama.


From Kiama to Mosman, via London and Hydra.


"Kiama's Blowhole", a poem written by Charmian Clift at the age of eight.


Kiama Blowhole, images


See also:


From novelist to essayist: the Charmian Clift phenomenon (pages 460 to 464 on her 1964 return to Kiama)


THE FOND HEART WANDERED: CHARMIAN CLIFT AND KIAMA


When we lived in Sydney, we would often drive to Kiama and to Jervis Bay. I wish I'd read more of Charmian Clift in those years. I've just finished her gripping and powerful novel,  Walk to the Paradise Gardens (London, 1960), a novel well ahead of its time, full of both light and darkness.

It's strange that she allowed the publishers to include these words in the biographical note on the rear of the dust jacket :

"She has no hobbies except food and wine and talk and sitting in the sun, or, better, lying in it, and swimming as much as possible."

We'd often go to Mosman to visit friends. That is where she lived (at 112, Raglan Street) after the family returned from the Greek island of Hydra. It is where she took her own life on the night of July 8th, 1969.

It's hard to believe that July 2019 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of her tragic and untimely death.