Always Greener

The true story behind Restless Dolly Maunder

By: Kate Grenville

Narrated by: Kate Grenville

'If there’d been a gun in her hand at that moment she knew she’d have shot them.... She’d been so pleased with little Dolly Russell, the good life she’d got for them all. Thought she had it made, had got her hands at last on the levers of her life.... Now it turned out that all that, being so pleased with herself, was no more real than a puff of smoke.'

Always Greener is an exquisite portrait of Kate Grenville's complex, conflicted grandmother, who she feared as a child and only in adulthood came to understand. Born in rural Australia, Dolly Russell becomes a successful businessperson, mother and troubled wife. Then came the depression, bankruptcy and World War I. Yet, in a way, those disasters freed her. They allowed her to use her intelligence and ambition to make a space for herself in a man’s world.

With all the pathos and subtlety that defined Grenville’s Australian classics such as Lilian’s Story and her Booker-shortlisted The Secret River, Always Greener tells the story of a generation of women often forgotten at our own cost.

©2021 Kate Grenville (P)2021 Audible Australia Pty Ltd.

Feminist before feminism

I loved this biography. This intimate recollection of how women were trapped and disregarded and subjugated and not valued. As a militant feminist myself, I know I could not have lived in those days. My heart aches for these women. And sadly this persists in much of the world.

With Age We See More Clearly

As an author who also writes about my grandmother's difficult life, I feel the author's dawning understanding and respect for her grandmother's determination to rise above the obstacles placed in her life. No one could have narrated this story better than the author herself.

the hard truth

an easy enough listen - a sad story, but triumphant somehow. A woman born at the wrong time manages to carve out a place not just for herself, but ensures her daughter will have a future and a legacy.

Bittersweet & Beautiful

Dolly, a clever girl tethered by her time & place, is elegantly bought to life through Kate’s compelling prose. Dolly could have been my grandmother, same era, same hard scrabble childhood, same ambition, same struggles, same sadness. I just hope I told my grandma I loved her.
Kate’s writing is so strong & evocative, there was no need for the sound effects.

The storyline

Good narration, sensitive period piece told in a way that felt authentic. Highly enjoyable and thoroughly recommended