Thank you Philippa. We had a wonderful time at all your book launches . We are very proud of you and John would be also. We raised $2000 for  the fund at the Mallesons function.

The King and I – $35 per copy

Thank you to Rowan Russell and Malllesons for hosting the event . Also to Whispering Brook Vineyards, Julia Hill of Mimi and Me , and Embellish atelier www.embellish-hats.com for donating raffle  prizes for the evening

You are cordially invited to a reading/book-signing of The King and I, by Philippa Kelly, with prefatory remarks by John Bell, AO, OBE. All proceeds from the evening will go to the Trust Foundation The John Skipper Kelly Fund in support of disadvantaged teens.

The King and I offers a unique personal meditation on contemporary Australian life, as Kelly tells her own story through the prism of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Outlaws, irreverent humorists, political underdogs, authoritarians…these are the images of Australians as revealed through the lens of Kelly’s take on King Lear. For a very long time there prevailed a generalized view of Australia as a remote outpost ambiguously related to colonial narratives of pioneering hardship.

However, starting in the 1970s, a flowering of Australian artifacts (particularly cinema), as well as the financial affordability of travel to Australia, has led to a growing curiosity about the country and a wish to understand its ‘narrative’. Because much of this narrative comes of people creating culture and society where no laws were believed to have existed, the idea of authority is fundamental, and King Lear emerges in an astonishing variety of contexts as Kelly considers the play as a filter for the complex question of what it means to be an Australian. ‘The King and I’ moves from 1976 through to 2010, taking moments in a personal history to explore, through the lens of King Lear, themes of authority, indigenous identity, feminism, and political injustice and unrest. Shakespeare Now!, of which The King and I is a part, is a series of short books that engage imaginatively and often provocatively with Shakespeare’s plays. It goes back to the source – the most living language imaginable – and recaptures the excitement, audacity and surprise of Shakespeare.
The General Editors write:

It will return you to the  plays with opened eyes

Australian author Philippa Kelly lives in America with her husband and son. Her work has been supported by many foundations and organizations, including the Fulbright and Rockefeller Foundations and the Walter and Eliza Hall Foundation. She is Resident Dramaturg at the California Shakespeare Theatre, teaches with UC Berkeley, serves as Panel Chair for the Australian Endeavour Foundation, and travels to Saudi Arabia to work with university women.

The King and I has already gone into reprint, and the Berkeley Public Library has chosen Philippa as honored author at the Berkeley Public Library Authors? Event in 2012.

Copies of The King and I (Shakespeare Now!) will be available for purchase at this event for$35 per copy.

Copies may still be ordered by emailing Catherine  at info@jskfund.com.au