Review of Alistair Thomson, 'Moving Stories: An intimate history of four women across two countries', University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2011. 344 pages. ISBN 978 174223 278 2.

Abstract

I am a great admirer of Alistair Thomson's work. I particularly appreciate his ability to travel to and through different encounters with the past and, each time, add significant insights into our understanding of memory, interviewing, interview relationships, and the complementary place of oral history interviews as one source among many. In 'Anzac Memories' he got us thinking about the clashing and convergence of individual and public memory; in 'Ten Pound Poms' (with Jim Hammerton) he got us experiencing the emotions and daily lives of British migrants; and in his many articles and other writings, he has immersed us in the changes, challenges and richness of oral history scholarship and practice. Now, with 'Moving Stories', he explores the ways in which different sources, including oral history interviews, fold into the telling of women's lives and migration experiences. 'Moving Stories' addresses multiple themes. It lures us to engage with the transnational nature of migration through the going and coming, going and coming of migration and return migration. It invites us to empathise with the ties that bind and the ties that tear: the fraught connections to family and place that so often mark moving between countries and cultures. It encourages us to contemplate the transitional roles experienced by women in the post World War Two years in England and in Australia with their tensions between expectations about marriage and motherhood and the possibilities of greater independence and other forms of fulfilment. It immerses us in the power and richness of life stories, and also in the power and richness of the ways in which memories, letters and photographs offer different and complementary perspectives on the exploration and construction of life stories. It also invites us to contemplate the challenges and depths of close collaborative authorship.