Also shortlisted for the prize were Helen Garner forThis House of Grief and Sophie Cunningham forWarning:The Story of Cyclone Tracy,both non-fiction works.
The modest London said she"deeply admired"Garner's book,which follows the trial of a father who drowned his three sons,and said Garner was"a most wonderful proponent of life writing. But I suppose all writing is from life in some way."
Of her own book she says,"I feel the same about it as I feel about the others:for a time it's your obsession and then it's over and it's out in the world. A book has a life of its own."
The Golden Age draws on her memories of growing up in Perth,her parents'fear that her older sisters would catch polio,and her awareness of post-war immigrants.
"The 1950s were such an opening up of European immigration;that changed everything for us. I am always aware of how it feels to be a stranger in a new land."
She has been relieved to hear from adults who had been patients in the real Golden Age convalescent home that she got the details right.