In Conversation with Victoria Purman

Victoria Purman will be in conversation with local journalist Mary Card they will be talking about Victoria's new book The Marriage Trap.

In 1960s Australia, the scent of freedom is in the air. The Langley family – Olive, Len and their two daughters, twenty-year-old Cathy and ten-year-old Evelyn – live a peaceful suburban life, although Grandma Langley turns up each Sunday lunch like a bad fairy to castigate them for their dubious morals.

Cathy, training to be a teacher, thinks women have it tough. No sex until marriage, then no work, child after child and the sacrifice of their desires to church, husband and family. Cathy is determined not to marry right away. Once married, it's all over. A life no longer her own.

Young Evelyn wants to be a fairy princess, until she sees for herself the price women pay for such dreams.

When the new contraceptive pill arrives women can suddenly sense freedom. But powerful forces are aligned against women's reproductive choice and a fight begins.