Riverina first-time author Andrea Palmer has written the story she’s been itching to tell.
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Raised in the US and now settled at Jerilderie, Palmer had wanted to tell the fascinating story of her long-time friend Plum Rutherford Haet for decades.
The biography, Plum, documents Ms Haet’s life from the last days of the British Raj, tiger-hunting in Nepal with the Maharaja and then to the Burmese Army in World War II.
From working with Ava Gardner filming On The Beach to the glamour of Beverly Hills, the wilds of Samoa and the heady days of drugs, sexual freedom and political protest in Berkeley in the 1960s, Palmer reveals the life of an extraordinary woman.
“When I met Plum in 1982 she was dating a number of men and having a menage a trois and teaching the sociology of sex to the marines,” Palmer said.
“It was one of those stories I felt had to be told and now is.”
Palmer, who has worked in the banking and finance sector and as a research assistant for Tim Fischer, wrote the self-published book over seven years.
She travelled to India in 2013 as part of her research for the book.
“I got a feel for the riches and the poverty there and can see how easily Plum’s childhood would have made her completely disinterested in wealth.”
Palmer will launch Plum at Dymocks Albury on September 24 at 5.30pm.
She will also speak during the Lost the Plot presentation of the Write Around the Murray Festival on Friday from 7.30pm to 9pm at the Library Museum in Albury.
