Australian Story: Oct 28

Caroline Jones introduces tonight’s episode of Australian Story in which Susan Swingler’s quest for her father’s love unearths a nest of family secrets and lies involving celebrated author Elizabeth Jolley.

Sixty years ago Susan Swingler, aged four, was seen off at a train station in Birmingham by her father Leonard Jolley. The family were due to be reunited in a few weeks, in Scotland, or so Susan believed…

But Leonard Jolley never returned. He ended up in Australia with the mistress who became his second wife and bore him three more children.

Although Susan and her mother quickly learned that he wasn’t coming back, they had no idea what had happened and the rest of Leonard’s family in the UK were led to believe he was still with Joyce and Susan.

Leonard had started constructing a sophisticated illusion. It seemed he couldn’t tell his family that he had in fact fathered two girls from two women at virtually the same time, one his wife, the other his mistress. So he pretended that he was still with Joyce and Susan.

Susan’s quest to find the father who abandoned her eventually unearthed the family secret he was so determined to bury.

She would discover letters seemingly forged in her name and her mother’s. The letters were designed to maintain the illusion that Leonard was still with his first wife and daughter. So who wrote the letters and why?

Susan was shocked to discover that Leonard’s second wife was actually the woman who had become one of Australia’s best loved authors, Elizabeth Jolley.

Susan Swingler’s story sheds new light on one of Australia’s greatest writers and brings a new level of understanding to her work.

The programme contains previously unpublished love letters between Elizabeth Jolley and Leonard written at the height of their affair.

Monday October 28, 8pm on ABC1.