MAURILIA Meehan brings an obsessive knitter and erotic novelist to life in her latest publication Madame Bovary’s Haberdashery.
Ms Meehan, who is known around town as “Milla”, is one of Hepburn Springs’ resident writers.
She is the author of four critically acclaimed novels, including Fury, The Sea People, Adultery and The Bad Seed and has been shortlisted for awards such as the Vogel, Age Book of the Year and Mile Franklin.
Her latest novel has been described as “a sexy mystery story that plays with convention” and pays homage to both Christie and Flaubert.
The publication will be launched by well-known novelist Carmel Bird on April 21at 3pm at Union Bank Arts Centre in Clunes.
Milla has been putting pen to paper for about 20 years and, between novels, works as a ghost-writer.
“I enjoy solitude and have always read a lot,” she said.
“Then I started having imaginary conversations with the ideas and characters, saying to myself, ‘But what if...?’.
“From that point it all overflowed into writing.”
Milla has lived in the Hepburn Shire since 1999 and, when she’s not writing, spends her time knitting, doing cross-stitch, swimming and gardening.
“I have a lovely adult daughter and a wonderful partner who lives at the other end of town from me to give me space to write,” she said.
Milla said writing wasn’t a 9am to 5pm job, thanks to her nocturnal musings.
“The highlight is always coming out of my writing cave to have wonderful conversations such as this,” she said.
“The challenge is that my ideas always (appear to me) when I am half asleep in bed, so I have to get up and write them down.
“So when I am writing I am always exhausted during the day.”
Milla said her latest publication is aimed at people who might “enjoy a humorous take on the straight detective mystery, or a send-up of the jealousies of the literary, art and film worlds”.
“In Madame Bovary’s Haberdashery we meet two best friends, fans of Miss Marple and Madame Bovary,” she said.
“One is an obsessive knitter and erotic novelist who has no knack for relationships with men, the other a romantic ceramicist who smashes her own work. When one goes missing, a search for her begins.
“The novel explores the idea that we are all detectives in our own lives, looking for clues and often misreading them.”
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