A Descant for Gossips

This stylish reissue of one of Thea Astley’s finest early novels is a classic story of small-town life. Two schoolteachers are drawn to each other by their concern for a lonely young girl. As long as Vinny Lalor could remember she had been on the fringe of things—in her family and at school. But as the final term of the year progresses, rumor and malice mount against Vinny and her two teachers, sweeping them toward scandal and, for one of them, disaster. A Descant for Gossips was Thea Astley’s second novel, released in 1960 in England and Australia. In 1983 it was adapted for television by the ABC.

Thea Astley held a position as fellow in Australian literature at Macquarie University until 1980, when she retired to write full time. She is a prolific author who won many awards, including the Miles Franklin Award four times—for The Acolyte, Drylands, The Slow Natives, and The Well Dressed Explorer. Other awards include the 1975 Age Book of the Year Award, the 1980 Australian Literature Studies (ALS) Award, the 1986 ALS Gold Medal, the 1988 Steele Rudd Award, the 1990 NSW Premier’s Prize, and the 1996 Age Book of the Year Award.