Gabbie Stroud rose to prominence when she wrote an essay about the demise of the education system and the burden placed upon teaching staff with extra jobs, more paperwork and policies.
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Gabbie was a Walkley Award finalist for her work, but has now turned her talents to adult fiction to produce 'the things that matter most'.
Using her knowledge and passion around education and the teaching profession she zeros in on a primary school somewhere in the farming west of NSW to reveal the stories of the teachers, students and their parents.
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It is a Dickensian tale, but of our time, of the haves and the have nots. It speaks to the power of parents, set against the backdrop of the individual lives of the teaching staff and the battles they face, both personal and in their careers.
It is funny with gorgeous vignettes of the strange things kids do. It also made me weep for all those snotty-nosed kids wearing ragged shirts and someone else's shoes, but who remain stoic and with an innocence of youth, despite the hand they have been dealt.
"As I started to write the ideas around education, I couldn't get to the heart of it without looking at what's happening in society," Gabbie said of her journey with the story.
The characters led me. The story started to crystalise and it became about a lot more than education.
- Gabbie Stroud
"I didn't set out to write an issues-based book. I had the ending before I had the depth of circumstance," she said.
The kids reveal little bits to the reader but not the whole story.
"I wanted the reader to experience this just as a teacher does," Gabbie said.
I had to ask about the journalist in the story.
"I know I'm going to be apologising to every media person I speak to, but I wanted to show that parents have incredible power and they don't understand the impact when they wield it," Gabbie said of her journalist/parent character.
"Teachers do so much with their heart and as a teacher I saw so much need but you can't follow every child home."
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Gabbie said she received thousands of messages from teachers because of her previous books.
She can probably expect another deluge.
I wanted to know whether we could expect to read more of this cast of characters but was told I wouldn't.
There is another book, albeit in the early stages, but this one won't be about the education system, Gabbie said.
Join Gabbie Stroud for the launch of her book at Wheelers on Thursday, August 3 at 5.30pm. Tickets available at Humanitix.
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Denise Dion
Regional daily news journalist on the Far South Coast of NSW. Contact me on 0418 213 780 or at denise.dion@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Regional daily news journalist on the Far South Coast of NSW. Contact me on 0418 213 780 or at denise.dion@austcommunitymedia.com.au
