Penguin Books Australia

Q&A: Carol George interview with Peter Yeldham, author of Glory Girl.

Glory Girl is partly based on a true story?
Yes it's based on the real life story of an amazing Australian woman called Jessie Miller and the incredible record attempting flight she undertook from the UK to Australia, with an English pilot, Bill Lancaster in a light aircraft.

What period are we talking about?
It's the 1920s. They call it the golden age of aviation and Glory Girl, which blends fact with fiction, is about their relationship and flying adventures together. It's also an intriguing murder mystery.

When did you first come across it?
I wrote a mini-series called The Lancaster Miller Affair, based on that same story. It screened on Australian television back in 1985 with a cast that included June Salter, Charles 'Bud ' Tingwell, Kerry Mack and Nicholas Eadie. It was the producer of that min-series, Paul Davies, who discovered the story and asked me to write the script.

What about the story appealed to you?
The whole thing - this wonderful young Australian woman who was such a character and the pilot who wanted to do this record breaking flight from the UK to Australia, but had no idea how to raise the funds for it.
I remember I gave it to my wife to read and she went off with it and suddenly I heard this great shout: "My God, there's a murder in it too!"
I said "yes, there's everything in it - adventure, romance and murder."
Glory Girl is a book I always wanted to write.

I don't think many Australians know this story very well or would even have heard of Jessie Miller - why didn't she become famous like other Aussie women aviators?
I don't know, it's strange and often been commented upon but somehow nobody took her seriously. Yet she went on to become a good flyer. Even took part in those races called the Powder Puffy Derby across America. Maybe it was because Kingsford-Smith was so big at the time he over-shadowed all the other Australian aviators?

In your book, the character Sarah Carson who is based on Jessie Miller is a pretty unconventional woman - was Jessie as unusual?
I think so. She definitely had an affair with the pilot, Lancaster. Of course I've added my own bits and pieces to the truth. But she was a big personality in real life.
The other main character in Glory Girl, Fleet Street correspondent Daniel Anderson is a product of my imagination.

In all your research have you been able to find out what made Jessie Miller such a singular person?
No, sadly, there is very little known about her early life before she got to London. I made up her - or Sarah's back story - in Glory Girl.
But don't forget, this was a time when some women were pretty daring. It was the 1920s, the flapper era. I think women were far more unconventional then than in the 1930s and 1940s.

The flight sounds like a nightmare - are the mishaps on the flight in Glory Girl a replica of the real flight?
Yes, some of it really happened. It's a mix of fact, the mini-series dramatisation and my imagination.

Did you watch the mini-series again?
No, I wanted to get well away from that and tell the story by starting afresh. I wanted to write a totally new story.

Your descriptions in Glory Girl of what it was like to be in the cockpit are vivid - is that all research it or have you flown in a light aircraft that is open to all the elements?
No I've never been on an open aircraft like that. I built those descriptions from reports at the time - and again, imagined it.

It was a very dangerous flight, especially without today's sophisticated navigation equipment or communications?
Yes and when you think that aviator, Bert Hinkler, who did the same UK-Australia flight, beating Miller and Lancaster, used a London Atlas as a navigation guide!
They were extraordinary people those early flyers.

Seems like such a harebrained thing to do, to try to break a world record in such a daring and dangerous way?
I know it's like asking Hilary why he wanted to climb Everest and he said "because it's there . . . " I think that's how those early aviators felt.

I guess there are still people doing dangerous things to break world records?
What about that guy who crawled along the Kokoda Trail last year? I mean . . . amazing. I'd find it very difficult to walk it. And there are all those lone yachts people. I think there's a whole new group who have been inspired by our own Jessica Watson.
People will always want undertake reckless adventures.

Have you ever been tempted to do something daring or dangerous?
Nothing, don't even like going outside the Sydney Heads in a small boat.

In the real life story, Lancaster eventually faced a murder charge - you used that in Glory Girl as well?
It was a fascinating murder case. I've got notes I took at the time of the mini-series when I was interviewing someone involved in the defence and I asked him - was Lancaster guilty? The reply was "I don't know . . . "
Of course the jury found him innocent.

But there was always a lingering doubt?
Yes.

Lancaster had a tragic end, didn't he?
Yes he was on another record breaking flight in 1933 when his plane went missing. His mummified body and the plane weren't discovered until 1962.

Lancaster kept a diary as he lay there, injured and dying - was there any confession relating to the murder?
No, so some people took that to mean he really was innocent.

Did Jessie ever have children?
No. She married after the death of Lancaster again but had no children. But Lancaster, who was married before he met Jessie, had two.

You ever been in touch with Lancaster's descendants?
There were two daughters but they were very bitter about Jessie and her role in their father's life and didn't like to talk about it at all. They'd be quite old now.

When you set out to write Glory Girl, what did you want to achieve?
I love that spirit of adventure that Jessie (Sarah in Glory Girl) showed. It's incredible when you think of it - she was only in her 20s. It is one helluva story.
And it was a fascinating time in the history of the world, with the rise of Hitler and Mussolini and all those monsters.

What made you want to write historical blockbusters such as Glory Girl?
All those years I always wanted to write a book. And for like 20 years when I lived in the UK and wrote for television, the cinema and the theatre, I always longed to write some of our own, Australian stories.

Where were you born and raised?
In Gladstone, near Kempsey on the north coast of NSW. My father was a GP. Unfortunately my mother died when I was about three. I think after my twin brothers were born she never quite recovered. I can't remember her. What I do remember is acquiring a step-mother, who I didn't like at all.
We had some very unhappy childhood years. I left home and went to live with my Grandmother when I was about 15. She was the only one who supported me when I said I wanted to be a writer. My father said I was nuts.

Your grandmother must be a hero to you?
She is. I've just written a memoir, mainly for my kids and she figures very strongly in it. I've still got a Webster's Dictionary she gave me something like 40 or 50 years ago which I still use.

What was your grandmother's name?
We just called her 'Bah,' because I couldn't say Grandma. She was a lovely, gracious woman.
 
Of all the television you have written, you must be particularly proud of All The Rivers Run?
Well, yes, but I didn't write the entire thing. There were four of us who wrote it. Everything else I wrote entirely so it never felt completely mine. It's the one everyone remembers.
Captain James Cook was my favourite. I formed a company to make it, went around the world to raise the money. It was a big, big deal.

You live in Yarramalong on the Central Coast, what's that like?
It's just over an hour from Sydney and I live on 10 acres. State Forest behind. Very quiet. Lovely little spot, just wonderful.

On the coast?
No inland, about 20-30km. Bryce Courtenay lived here at one stage. When I adapted Jessica for TV we became friendly and he came here for lunch one day and finished up buying some land in the nearby area. He lived here for 4 or 5 years.

How long have you lived there?
Before, my wife and I were perpetual movers but here I've lived for 20 years.  My wife died about four years ago. I stayed on because it's full of great memories and it's such a beautiful place.
I love living here, I like getting outside and gardening when I'm not writing or getting on my tractor. I always say you get great ideas when you're on the tractor.

Any pets?
Not now. We had dogs all our lives and you get so attached to them, it's too much of a tie and a wrench when you lose them.

What was your last dog called?
Oscar after Oscar Wilde. He was a labrador. The kind of dog if you put a sign on the gate 'Beware of the Dog,' everyone would laugh because he was so friendly.

Any children or grandchildren?
I have two kids and they've produced seven grandchildren. And they're all growing up and are terrific.

Describe yourself in 3 words?
A compulsive writer, gregarious and easy-going. A good friend, I have no enemies . . . I hope!