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When you think of rural Australian stories, you don’t instantly think of the Parisian runways, but this local author has found they make quite the interesting pair.
Tania Blanchard’s latest novel, The Paris Prize, follows Australian grazier Maddy Rainforth who has one dream – to produce the world’s finest Merino wool.
Tania is known for writing historical fiction, inspired by the true stories and the rich cultural heritage of her family’s history.
Sitting down with New Idea, Tania tells us she was “pretty keen to write a rural story about rural women”, and reveals there is a long tradition of farming on both sides of her family.
“The Paris Prize is inspired by my husband’s great-grandmother,” she says.
“They had a farming property in rural New South Wales, the area my husband grew up.”
The author adds, “My father-in-law told me stories about his grandparents, and my husband shared family stories.”
Tania tells us she used to live on a farm around 30 years ago, and while she was there she learnt “a bit” about Merino wool.
“My husband would show me how to actually help birth the lambs,” Tania says.
“And then of course the sheering shed, that was a whole new and very interesting experience.I got a lot of inspiration out of being in the sheep yards, being in the ute with my husband, dogs in tow, moving the sheep from one paddock to another,” she tells us with a smile.
Tania reveals that after she wrote the novel, out of her own curiosity she tried to spin wool – and even shared some pictures of her attempt on Instagram!
“It’s a lot harder than it looks, I must say. It looked like it would be a simple process, but no, there’s a lot of skill involved in that,” she says with a chuckle.
“I take my hat off to those who spin and weave wool. It was actually a beautiful length of wool to start with and all I had to do is break it into smaller sections … I think [what] I’m going to do is try that again. It’s nice to take a fair bit of practice to get it right.”
Aside from farming, Tania also loves high-end fashion.
“They are two very different things, but work so well,” she says. “I’ve always been intrigued by fashion. I haven’t got a background in it, but while researching I discovered the link to Christian Dior in the 1950s to Australia, and it reminded me of how much I love his early collections, those gorgeous feminine gowns.”
Tania recalls, “When I was in high school, I used to cut out pictures of those designs and beautiful gowns and glue them onto the covers of my school books and diaries – I thought they were so glorious and I loved the fabric!”
