I would not have been able to understand the many worlds in which Sandra Pankhurst lived without the insights provided by the following people and the access to materials provided by the following institutions. I am gratefully indebted to each of them: the woman called ‘Linda Collins’ in this book, Pat Balfour, Margaret and John, the STC Services staff, Simon Ceber, Doug Lucas, Terri Tinsel, Sandra’s friends and sister-in-law, Lois Greig, Sally Goldner at Transgender Victoria, Nick Henderson at the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives, the research archivists at the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division of the New York Public Library who guided me through the vast LGBT periodicals collection, the librarians at the State Library of Victoria and at the Victorian Supreme Court Library, the many contributors to the Facebook group ‘Lost Gay Melbourne’ and Elaine McKewon for her significant and captivating study, The Scarlet Mile: A Social History of Prostitution in Kalgoorlie, 1984–2004 (University of Western Australia Press, 2005), which gave me an intricate web of historical detail in which to situate Sandra’s personal experience. In addition, I am thankful for the time taken to identify and retrieve records by Victoria Police, the County Court of Victoria, the Supreme Court of Victoria and the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
My deepest thanks to the following people:
The editors at Narratively for publishing an early incarnation of this story. Hannah Ozer for getting the ball rolling.
Josie Freeman, Daniel Kirschen and Heather Karpas at ICM Partners and Karolina Sutton at Curtis Brown for believing in this book from the very beginning, for their good guidance and for their efforts on my behalf.
Michael Heyward, the talented crew at Text Publishing and Mandy Brett, editor and human extraordinaire, who sees the beauty in the ‘dark velvet’—thank you seems very small in return for all that you have done, but here it is: thank you.
My early readers, for their valuable time and wise counsel: Paul Chadwick, Declan Fay, David Krasnostein, Patricia Stragalinos, Charlie Pickering, Alexandra Bowie and Nina Collins.
Norma and Jack Krasnostein, Ruth and John Krasnostein, the Stragalinos family, the Pickering family, the Berger family, Tony Jackson, Nina Bilewicz, Laura Chasen, Lee Kim, David Philips, Caren Silver, Fran Brooke, Kris Smith, Emily Fishman, Gaby Wolkenberg, Sarit Musat, Emily Mars, Nina Collins, Lisa Kentish, Roslyn Borg and Joanna Kahn for their wisdom and their warmth and for making it possible, each in their own vital way, for me to write this book.
For the type of unbounded love and support without which books do not get written: my father, David Krasnostein, who is my hero and guide; my stepmother, Patricia Stragalinos, whose positivity and beautiful sense of perspective always inspire me; my brother, Josh Krasnostein, who is wise and hilarious.
My husband, my person, Charlie Pickering, for everything, forever. And to our great joy, our beautiful child, for opening doors in my house that I never knew were there and for filling them only with light.
This book is dedicated to the indomitable Mrs Sandra Pankhurst for her bravery and her sheer strength. ‘My life is a book,’ she said to me on our first day together. Sandra, you were right. I will be forever honoured that you let me write it.