These are the letters that were never posted.

They introduce readers to the life of a young journalist living a double life. By day, she mixed with celebrities; by night, she became a single mum-desperately juggling laundry, cleaning, study, and the daily challenge of feeding a hungry and mischievous brood of boys.

Divorced in the 1950s and branded the "guilty party," she received no government support. With no income from her ex-husband, Jennifer relied heavily on the kindness of friends-and some of these letters are a tribute to them. Others are ones she wishes she'd written when things unravelled. It is a story of survival: funny, sad, and tenacious.

Later in life, Jennifer's second marriage to artist Robert Dickerson saw her life bloom-a source of strength, laughter, and shared purpose. Her resilience bore fruit not just in professional achievement but in personal joy as well.

These letters of the imagination are by turn insightful, funny, heartfelt and occasionally angry, creating a portrait of a life lived well, with resilience, loyalty, laughter and industry. They remind us that in living memory women could be denied entry into professions like teaching if they were divorced and had to answer questions like, "If you're working, who is minding your children?"

Jennifer corresponds with family and friends, but also with school heroes and bullies (of both the student and teacher variety), sports stars like Ken Rosewall and Frank Sedgman, celebrities like Barry Humphries and Laurence Olivier, business giants and politicians such as Keith Murdoch, Reg Ansett, Jack Lang, Harold Wilson and Franklin D Roosevelt, the American president with whom she felt a special connection since he, like her, had fallen ill with polio. Jennifer directs some of her letters to L Ron Hubbard; the influence of Scientology took its toll on her first marriage. And of course, she corresponds with numerous artists she met through her second marriage to Robert Dickerson, including Sidney Nolan. Brett Whiteley, David, Hermia and Arthur Boyd, Nicholas Harding, and Charles and Barbara Blackman.

Areas of interest:

Australian Artists of the 20th and 21st century

The Antipodeans

Robert Dickerson

Women's studies

Journalism

Feminism

Single Parent