Alex Miller, BA (1965) - Author, Miles Franklin Award Winner, co-founder of the Anthill Theatre and founding member of the Melbourne Writers' Theatre
This is an excerpt (reprinted with kind permission of the author) from "Landscape of Farewell" - Chapter 12 - "Winifred's Naked Shoulders" Allen & Unwin, 2007.
The following scene depicts the main protagonist, Max Otto, recalling his first meeting with his wife, Winifred. He sees her from the stairs on his way down. She is at the old card index boxes on the ground floor. To anyone knowing the Baillieu in the 60s when Alex was there the scene will be familiar.
"Most people, I think, would probably not have described her as beautiful at that age. She became beautiful later, and people who knew her only when she was young were surprised when they met the woman of beauty and distinction Winifred grew into later in life.
I saw her beauty, however, from the first moment. I was in my early thirties when we first met. I was coming down the central staircase at the university library and she was standing at the index boxes on the lower floor going through cards, bending forward to make a note, then straightening again. There was something so lovely in the way she moved her shoulders, her dark hair falling forward over her face, that it made me catch my breath. Entranced, I stood on the landing of the stairs and watched her until at last, feeling my gaze on her, she looked up and saw me. For more than thirty years we were happy together..."
- From Landscape of Farewell" (Allen & Unwin, 2007) by Alex Miller
Transcript of Radio interview between Ramona Koval & Alex Miller: "Alex Miller's Landscape of Farewell (The Book Show, ABC Radio National, 19th November 2007):
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2007/2086393.htm