Notes from the Strangers’ Corridor

A Story of Editing, Insomnia, and Minor Mental Illness. A Californian of English/Australian parentage, a high-school dropout with a Ph.D., Gillian Kendall moved to Melbourne for love. She became a Hansard reporter hoping to grasp – or at least transcribe – Australian political debate. Struggling to do an impossible job well, she changed her attitudes and adherence to ‘authority’ both linguistic and governmental. But she had fun, too: in the glamourous, ghostly Parliament House, the drama of a demanding workplace and the snarky, savvy ways of her new Australian mates made up for sleepless nights and incoherent speakers. A story of punctuation and personality, this memoir connects the stories of the people (reporters, editors, and politicians) and the action (reporting, editing, and politicking) of Victorian state parliament. If you’ve ever silently corrected someone else’s grammar, wondered about what a politician meant, or wished people would make more sense, you’ll connect to her story.