Dianne Dempsey

Ghosts haunt the eerie Whipstick forest, just north of Bendigo.

While Sheba is not a girl to scare easily, when she hears a knocking at the door one dark night, it seems the past has come calling. Living in a small community, Sheba knows that whatever is out there she will have to face alone.

Her mother Clover has too many of her own troubles to bother with damaged Sheba and her sister, red-headed chubby Brigid, whose victim status at school is fast reaching dangerous levels.

The extended family, descended from Irish immigrants and steeped in the misery-laden but defiant history of this once gold-rich landscape, can’t possibly help her as she tries desperately to control her longing for her boss, the enigmatic solicitor, Mr Rowley.

Dianne Dempsey’s tender and funny tale is about a sharp-witted girl who yearns to find love and instead finds sex; who struggles to grow and instead finds neglect – it’s about girls in our town.

Her story resonates with secrets that gradually seep up from hidden places and surface with the dazzling clarity of truth.

Like the characters in this beguiling story, the Whipstick Forest is full of toughness and beauty. It is harsh, rich and resilient – hard to get to know and impossible to leave. The forest is not just the setting for this gothic tale; it is one of the principle characters. Dempsey cleverly reveals its dark secrets.

John Wolseley

For decades authors and filmmakers have ‘threatened’ a full-length treatment inspired by Bob Hudson’s beloved composition “Girls in Our Town”…so far there’s only been the song, and a photography exhibition. At long last, Dianne Dempsey’s evocative novel – with its engaging characters, smart humour, refreshing vernacular, mystery / romance elements – is that overdue expansion on the timeless Australiana classic.

Margret RoadKnight

After 20 years of analysing what’s right and what’s wrong about other people’s books, it takes courage to bring out a novel of your own. But Dianne Dempsey delivers her tale of love, family, trauma and a girl from the wrong side of the tracks with an unerring mix of comedy and poignancy.

Jane Sullivan, The Age literary journalist and book reviewer

Girls In Our Town

Bob Hudson ©1975

Girls in our town, they just haven’t a care
 You see them on Saturday floating on air
 Painting their toenails and washing their hair
 Maybe tonight it’ll happen
Girls in our town they leave school at fifteen
 Work at the counter or behind the machine
 And spend all their money on making the scene
 Then plan on going to England
Girls in our town go to parties in pairs
 And sit ‘round the barbecue, give themselves airs
 Then they go to the bathroom with their girlfriend who cares
 Girls in our town are so lonely
 The girls in our town are too good for the pill
 But if you keep asking they probably will
 Sometimes they like you or else for a thrill
 And explain it away in the morning
 The girls in our town get no help from their men
 No one can let them be sixteen again
 Things might get better but it’s hard to say when
 If they only had someone to talk to
 The girls in our town can be saucy and bold
 At seventeen, no one is better to hold
 Then they start havin’ kids, start gettin’ old
 The girls in our town ...
 The girls in our town