Marvellous Miss Markham: Bunbury author to launch debut novel at 86 years old

An 86-year-old Bunbury woman is set to launch her debut novel, despite a busy life of completing her PhD at 75, being a farmer’s wife, a teacher and a psychologist.

Dr Helen Byles-Drage’s new book, titled Marvellous Miss Markham, is a historical romance set in England during the reign of George IV.

Going by pen name Helen BeDe, she is a farmer’s wife, teacher, psychologist and sociologist who went back to university when she was 75, after retiring from her day job at Bunbury Regional Prison.

She has won multiple prizes for her writing in the past, many of which she achieved while doing a PhD when she returned to university as a mature student.

“I had to find something to fill 24 hours a day,” she said.

“Initially I tried artwork up at ECU here in Bunbury, but I found I could get better marks if I wrote than I did painting, so I switched over to creative writing.

“I began to develop this story, and it was set right at the very beginning of the 19th century.

“I thought, ‘gee, I don’t know enough about this’ — so I did a University Of The Third Age course in social life in the 18th century.”

Byles-Drage said the course opened her eyes to the lack of legal rights women had during the time.

“The fact that women had no legal existence, they were property, they belonged to their father, until he with a dowry, managed to buy them a husband,” she said.

“I knew women were expected to be little house mice at home, but it just rocked me the extent to which they were kept under.

“The fact that a man was perfectly legal to beat a wife, his children or his servants, so long as the rod he used was not thicker than an inch.”

While the novel is set in a historical period, it still deals with contemporary concerns such as “the need and desire to belong, to be loved, to have some personal power and importance to cope well with life”, the writer said.

On Saturday, Byles-Drage will celebrate the book with a launch at the Bunbury Public Library from 10am, with morning tea and book signing opportunities.

“It’s quite a moment when you hold your own book in your hands,” she said.

“I do want to encourage people to explore and make the most of themselves and try the things they want to do — that are legal of course.”