In a quiet moment at the end of the first act of Australian Gospel, Lech Blaine’s mother, Lenore, a “saviour of the small details”, sits at her desk and types up that day’s diary entry about life with her husband, Tom, and their three foster kids, Steve, John and Trent. Hannah, the biological sister of Steve and John, hasn’t yet arrived on the scene, nor has another foster daughter, Rebecca. Lech, Lenore and Tom’s only biological offspring, hasn’t been conceived. The household hasn’t yet been upended by the violent harassment of Michael and Mary Shelley, the biological parents of Steve, John and Hannah.
Australian Gospel tracks the relationship between the Shelleys and the Blaines over several tumultuous decades. Lenore told her family that one day she’d be the one to write the story of the “Shelley Gang”. She didn’t live to do so, and Australian Gospel is dedicated to her. Fair enough, as Lenore’s records of family life provide Blaine (the author of 2021’s Car Crash: A Memoir) with a rich fund of small details to draw on. As well as working through his mother’s files, Blaine interviewed hundreds of people whose paths crossed the Shelleys’, including his siblings and parents. He sifted through court records, foster care reports and newspaper archives to understand the events and relationships that form the narrative arc of Australian Gospel.
