Anna Funder’s Wifedom explores the exploitive relationship between the writer George Orwell [Animal Farm and 1884] and his wife Eileen. Although not credited with any influence on her husband’s novels, Funder argues that Eileen was instrumental in assisting him to edit and publish his works. In return he abused and neglected her, facts that his previous biographers have ignored.
Helen Garner sat through every day of the trial of Robert Farquharson for murdering his three children by driving their car into a dam. This House of Grief allows readers to decide for themselves if the jury was correct in convicting him. This sensational trial attracted wide community interest in 2005.
Both books were well researched novels about real events. Both are worth a read.
Meg Dillon