Sunday Best

(Paperback)

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Description

Imagine you grew up in a strict Baptist home where cooking on Sunday was forbidden and where women were considered to have no future other than to be a mans helpmeet. What if you refused to accept your God-given place and ran off with a heroin addict And just as you found your true love, the life you had dreamt of could be snatched from you Robbi Neal was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 40. Faced with the possibility of an early death, she decided to write this memoir for her children. She details her life and includes her strict upbringing, memories of her eccentric gran and her abusive father. It is a story told with gripping immediacy that takes us through her many experiences: speaking in tongues; art school; theological school, where she was propositioned by a Jesuit priest; and her decision to leave the church. Sunday Best concludes with a devastating account of Robbis diagnoses and treatment. Far more than a story of survival, this is both a spiritual and emotional journey told with great warmth, humour and courage.

Author Bio

Robbi Neal's first book SUNDAY BEST, a memoir was developed as part of the HarperCollins/Varuna awards program and published by HarperCollins in 2004. AFTER BEFORE TIME, which told stories of indigenous life in a remote community, was published in 2016. THE ART OF PRESERVING LOVE, a story that spanned 25 years from 1905 to 1930 was published in 2018 under the pen name Ada Langton. Robbi also paints and is currently working towards an exhibition scheduled for 2022 at Redot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore. She is a mama of five wonderful humans (you're welcome world). She has lived in country Victoria, Australia, for most of her life and lives only a few of blocks from where her novel THE SECRET WORLD OF CONNIE STARR (2022) is set. She loves to walk down Dawson Street past the church her grandfather preached in, the same church with the same columns that appear in in this book. When Robbi isn't writing, she is painting, or reading or hanging out with her family and friends, all of whom she adores. She loves procrasti-cooking, especially when thinking about the next chapter in her writing. She also loves cheese, any cheese, all cheese and lemon gin or dirty martinis, the blues, and more cheese. Photo Credit: Indea Leslie