Casting Off ─ A Memoir

At the end of the first volume of Elspeth Sandys’ absorbing memoir, What Lies Beneath, an adult Elspeth has solved the riddle of her birth parents and begun to piece together the events of her early life and find her place in the world. Casting Off begins on the eve of Elspeth’s first marriage. She and her husband will soon depart New Zealand for England, joining a throng of Kiwis who chose to uproot themselves from their native land. New attachments will be formed: new loves – of people; of places – will take the place of the old. But the home country will continue to exercise a pull. Backgrounding the personal story in this deeply satisfying memoir is the story of the Thatcher years and the creeping virus of neo-liberalism, the sexual revolution of the sixties, the beguiling world of books – reading and writing – and theatre. Elspeth Sandys’ refreshing honesty and her skill as a writer of fiction and drama propel the reader through an absorbing life story that is equally a commentary on the meaning of memoir and the peculiarities of memory.

Elspeth Sandys has published eight novels and two collections of short stories, and has written extensively for the BBC and Radio New Zealand. Her novel River Lines was a finalist in the Orange Prize (UK), and her short story collection Standing in Line won the Elena Garro PEN International Prize in 2003. The stage play Masquerade (now known as Vagabonds) was selected for the London International Playwriting Festival in 2005 and was shortlisted in the Columbus State Theatre competition in 2006. Elspeth has received many awards and fellowships in recognition of her work and in 2006 was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature.