A Secretive Century

A Secretive Century by Tessa Morris-Suzuki reveals Australia's modern transformation through the life of an extraordinary woman.

Monte grew up in a secretive century. She lived in a society where appearances mattered, and keeping them up often involved creating silence around ancestral origins, painful memories, and personal desires.

Monte Punshon refused to be labelled. She was, at various times, Ethel May Punshon, Miss Montague, Monte, Mickey, and Erica Morley Punshon. She moved effortlessly from the Methodist respectability of bourgeois Ballarat to the bohemian world of children's travelling theatre, from patriotic amateur acting to pioneering radio work. Monte transformed from a dear old lady with perfect nineteenth-century diction to the bad girl who frequented edgy Melbourne bars, playing a lively part in the secret drag parties of 1930s queer Melbourne.

There were social as well as personal reasons for her concealment. In a life that spanned more than a century - 1882 to 1989 - Monte Punshon witnessed crucial events in Australia's history, and her story shines a light on the hidden corners and complexities of late nineteenth- and twentieth-century society.

In this imaginative biography, Tessa Morris-Suzuki brings to life a woman who was unafraid to be, and who accepted, willingly, the price of her liberation.