Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

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“I don’t remember ever discovering that was my nickname. Like discovering you have blue eyes or a vagina, it was something I’d always known but never thought a great deal about. I do, however, remember the day my mother found out.”

Melbourne, present day. Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is eighty-one, gloriously grumpy, fiercely independent and never far from a hot cup of tea or a cutting remark. She keeps herself to herself on her quiet suburban street, until a neighbour turns up dead and the whispers start flying. Because Elsie hasn't always been Elsie. Decades ago, she was Mad Mabel Waller: Australia's youngest convicted murderer.

Now the police are sniffing around, the media is circling and the secret she's kept buried for a lifetime is threatening to surface. Add Persephone, a relentless seven-year-old chatterbox who's just moved in across the road with no sense of personal boundaries, and Joan, a neighbour who seems to have it in for her, and Elsie does what she's always done best: she takes matters into her own hands.

There's a sense of mystery in Mad Mabel that snags your attention from the beginning, and whodunnit's on the table early, but it's the persistent joy of female friendship and the pain of relentless misogyny for women and girls (especially those who don't easily fit in) that's really at the heart of the story.

From the get-go, Sally shows us exactly what most people have missed about Elsie her whole life: she's witty, quick, curious and sublimely non-conforming. The other characters of Kenny Lane are equally lovable, even Joan and especially Persephone. As Elsie reluctantly revisits her past, we slowly (and with multiple plot twists) get the real story of Mad Mabel and remind ourselves just how resilient and powerful women can be in the face of adversity and society.

Q&A with Sally Hepworth

The fabulous Sally answered some of our community’s burning questions, and we’ve shared our (spoiler-free!) favourite answers below.

If you could write from anywhere in the world, where would it be?

My couch in my home, which is where I write! I’m pretty happy with my setup, having a bit more time would always be great, but I have three kids so that’s the reality. I love writing from home.

How did you develop your characters?

I find this tricky to answer because I don’t really do any of it separately. I don’t think about characters separately or story separately or plot separately. Developing the characters isn’t something I actively do, it’s just something that happens as I write. I can’t separate anything from the story.

What do you reach for when you need inspiration or motivation to write?

It would have to be books. I don’t really wait for motivation or inspiration - I write full-time so I sit down at the desk every day and I see what happens. Some days it happens, some days it doesn’t, but if I’m not actively reading books of all different genres while I’m writing, then I find it hard to loosen that creative brain. Sometimes just picking up a book and reading a chapter can help with ideas.

Where do you find community with other women?

My favourite question! I’ve got two daughters, a wonderful formidable mother and a horde of wonderful girlfriends that have been in my life since I was a child. I’ve always considered my life to be about women, I am a woman, I write for women, about women, and it’s all women who inspire me. I’m lucky to befriend women everywhere I go.

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One sentence that will convince you to read Mad Mabel

An eighty-one-year-old with a notorious past, a seven-year-old with no boundaries and a street full of secrets: Mad Mabel is proof that the women everyone underestimates are always the ones worth watching.