Launch of ‘The Thing I Came For’

We celebrated ‘The Thing I Came For’

Ross Gillett launched The Thing I Came For by Susan Bradley Smith, Port Fairy 13 September 2026

Fantastic to hear Ross share his enjoyment of this book… the created voice … is so sharply self-knowing, so unself-pitying but so shrewdly self-accusing, so grimly and despairingly humorous at times, that its tone and intensity become very compelling. This voice is saved from anything approaching self-pity or melodrama by the sheer originality of its vision, of what reaches us as memoir, as memory, yes, but also as a web of strikingly imagined and reimagined experiences.

Then Susan read from her fictional memoir-in-verse, taking us from wild girlhood to untranquil 21st century womanhood, motherhood and beyond, her prose poems unfolding a raw saga of one woman’s often chaotic hunt for freedom, finally laid bare for a beloved daughter.

‘One of the best launches I have ever been to’ – said an author in the audience – so 5-star recommendation. Do enjoy reading Ross’s speech in full, and the book of course!

Introducing the Liquid Amber range