By Sonia Isaacs
AUTHOR, arts critic and former Dean of Music, Gillian Wills will return to the hinterland this month to launch the revised edition of her memoir Elvis and Me: how a musician and a broken racehorse rescued each other at Rosetta’s Books Maleny, on August 21.
First released to strong reviews and popular response, Elvis and Me has been reissued by Hawkeye Publishing with new material, including a moving eulogy to Elvis and additional reflections on Wills’ brilliant yet volatile father – a Russian linguist, Fleet Street journalist and former British intelligence operative.
Wills, a former Dean of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, traces how leaving a prestigious post and relocating to Brisbane left her grappling with lost identity and purpose.
Into this void stepped Elvis, a skeletal, neglected ex-racehorse she found on a hillside and bought on impulse, only to discover he was unpredictable, “saddle-phobic” and widely considered dangerous.
Instead of sending him to the abattoir, as some advised, Wills sought out specialist training and slowly forged a deep bond with the horse that terrified her.
That unlikely partnership opened up a new world of semi-rural Queensland horse people for the ex-Londoner, and ultimately emboldened her to reinvent herself as a writer.
Elvis and Me is, Wills insists, not simply a horse-rescue tale. It’s a story about second chances, triumph over adversity, identity, and the courage required to reinvent oneself in midlife.
Readers who “hate horses” have told her they were moved not by the animal, but by her determination to reclaim a long-suppressed aspect of her creative life – an element that has particularly resonated with women considering reviving abandoned ambitions or considering later-life career or creative shifts.
At the Maleny launch, Wills will be interviewed by Lea Dodd. True to her musical roots, the evening will also feature live performances from local musicians, underscoring the book’s intertwined themes of music, risk and renewal.
With Elvis and Me now widely available through major chains and independent bookshops from August, the Rosetta’s Books event offers hinterland readers a chance to meet an author who has turned chaos, courage and a difficult horse into an inspiring portrait of late-life reinvention.
Friday August 21 5.30pm for a 6pm start. $5 includes glass of wine and cheese. Tickets via www.rosettabooks.com
