Ann Blainey took more than four years to write her biography on Dame By Helena Adeloju
MELBOURNE based author Ann Blainey has paid tribute to Australia’s first opera superstar in a new biography titled I Am Melba.
I Am Melba is the fifth book written by Melbourne author Ann Blainey.
“I wanted to write on someone very famous and Melba has been familiar to me for as long as I can remember,” Ms Baliney said.
Having grown up listening to and singing along with Dame Nellie Melba on her parents’ records in the 1940s, Ms Blainey said that she had always wanted to write about a very famous Australian woman.
An internationally acclaimed author of four other biographies, Ms Blainey said the task of writing a biographical tribute to one of Australia’s biggest superstar was a challenge.
“At first I didn’t know whether I would find anything different to other books, but once I began to dig the information came in one big avalanche,” Ms Baliney said.
She said that she found most of the information for the biography in newspapers of the time including the New York Times, The Times of London, Melbourne Punch and Table Talk.
“She was hardly ever out of the Melbourne newspapers even when she wasn’t in Melbourne,” Mrs Blainey said.
Dame Melba’s granddaughter Lady Vesty released a number of articles she kept and gave Mrs Blainey exclusive access to them while she was writing the biography.
It took four years for Mrs Blainey to complete the book, with the search for information about the famous Australian singer taking her to Lillydale Museum and the Melbourne State Library.
Mrs Blainey said that the region was always Dame Melba’s first love.
“She was terribly attached to the Yarra Valley, her happiest memories were of going to Steels Creek,” Mrs Blainey said.
She said Dame Melba always wanted a home in the Yarra Valley and eventually settled at Coombe Cottage in Coldstream with her son and daughter-in-law.
She said she wanted to encapsulate Melba’s human side.
“She was always in the news but she was also a fun person, something I think has been forgotten.
“She had a great sense of humour and, above all else, was a fantastic singer,” Mrs Blainey said.
