Forthcoming book by
A.M. Bauld

Confessions of a Reluctant Hypocrite:
publication 2024

Ink drawing for ‘Confessions of a Reluctant Hypocrite’ cover by Alison Bauld

Confessions of a Reluctant Hypocrite is a novel about identical twin sisters, Rhonda and Deborah Callcott, recalling their childhood in fifties and early sixties Australia. It unfolds in diary form, describing their fractured relationship within the family through occasional interruptions by one or the other twin. The truth of their contributions is not revealed until the final pages, creating more of a psychological thriller than a diary. Who writes which entry becomes a guessing game as well as a conversation between writer and reader.  

Their story starts in a period of social upheaval after the second world war in NSW. It is set in an Australia that defined itself by historic connections to Europe, convinced that its validity as a nation relied on European approval and patronage, suspicious of its own, indigenous worth. Suburban Sydney’s youth can’t wait to catch a boat to the other side of the world.

Rhonda, Deborah and their two older siblings feed on dreams of escape, playing one another off with varying success, convinced that life overseas would be better if only they could leave home. 

Ellen, the eldest child retreats into her arrested world of Peter Pan balletomania. Ted imagines himself as a romantic dilettante in an alien world. At a time when homosexuality in Australia is seen as men who wear suede shoes, Ted is a prisoner of chronic discontent and contempt for those he knows because he is never content with himself. The mother hangs her escapist laundry on their rotary hoist and bakes lamington cakes for her students instead of teaching modern history which she is employed to do. The father is digging his life away on a block of land overlooking Sydney Harbour, keeping his blood sugars level by the sweat of his toil and dreaming of retirement in a copper roofed house with a gum tree growing through its centre. The grandmother hides in her room, listening to 78 records of singers from the past or treadling on her sewing machine.

The twins study the piano at the Conservatorium of NSW with their Russian, emigre teacher, wanting to be duo pianists - each one playing the same music in synchrony on two pianos. Their doubling of sound would be a first in the concert world but it becomes apparent that this is not to be. Which twin is the main protagonist in this recollection or is one twin the phantom of the other’s imagination? The final twist is revealed on the penultimate page.

Confessions of a Reluctant Hypocrite is currently in production and will follow ‘The Lodgers’ in 2024. It will be published as a paperback and
e-Book. Further details follow.