Before I Forget

<p>In the tradition of romance novels, Jacqueline Fahey brought the curtain down at the end of her first memoir, ""<em>Something for the Birds</em>"", after her marriage to Fraser McDonald. In ""<em>Before I Forget</em>"" she continues the story from this happy-ever-after moment, charting her life since 1960. </p> <p>While raising three daughters and many dogs, handling the deaths of her parents and battling the politics of mental hospitals, the expectations on doctor’s wives and the perils of a boozy culture, Jacqueline Fahey remained committed to her painting life – ‘the art world where I could be something like myself’. From Porirua Mental Hospital to Melbourne (where Fraser trained as a psychiatrist), Kingseat Hospital to Carrington (where Jacqueline had a run-in with Titewhai Harawira), she describes a brimming, shifting life of family, politics, ideals and art. She dwells warmly on her friendships with Rita Angus and Eric McCormick and includes a vivid account of a trip she made in 1980 to New York, where she stayed in the legendary Hotel Chelsea. </p> <p>After some tricky learning curves with the closure of Carrington, Fraser’s illness and a period of teaching at Elam, Fahey moves into town after Fraser’s death and – with characteristic verve and aplomb – finds new stage sets for her life, dramas and paintings. From the retrieval of contraceptive pills in the face of a raging bush fire to an account of a strange encounter with a possible CIA agent on a plane, the stories in this deliciously told memoir are those of a passionate nonconformist, a risk-taker, a woman for whom painting has always been ‘a present necessity’. </p>