For Patsy Adam-Smith, the bright-eyed little girl whose childhood is recounted in the best-selling autobiography Hear the Train Blow, the Second World War was a ticket away from a cherished but restricting life with her railway family. The Depression had taken its toll and the glorious days of dancing the three-hop polka and tin-kettling newly-weds were fading: country life held few prospects for the 17-year-old Patsy, with her thirst for knowledge and zest for life.
Enlisting as a nurse in the army, Patsy set out into adulthood as independently and with as much vigour as she continues to live life today. But the world she encountered presented more challenges than she could ever have imagined.
In Goodbye Girlie, the long-awaited sequel to Hear the Train Blow, Patsy recounts a rich but often troubled life. She writes with wit and insight of her illegitimacy, her family ('our conundrum'), her short-lived war-time marriage (which left her with two young children to raise alone), her years at sea and her loves. And, of course, she writes about her extraordinary career- a career that spans more than forty years and has produced thirty books.
A champion of the Aussie battler - from Anzacs and shearers to prisoners-of-war - Patsy Adam-Smith has fought countless battles of her own. Goodbye Girlie is the remarkable account of a remarkable life.