How to Avoid a Happy Life

From domestic dysfunction to extraordinary bad luck, Julia Lawrinson reflects on her intriguing and eventful life with disarming honesty and wit.

Some people are born into bad situations, some people have bad situations thrust upon them, and some people find bad situations through their dodgy choices, lack of information and personal idiosyncrasies. Julia’s life sits at the intersection of all three.

From high school dropout on a psych ward to card-carrying lesbian on a motorbike, from enduring a controlling relationship with her ex-lover’s brother to being chased by a media scrum outside a Perth court, the life of beloved children’s author Julia Lawrinson is stranger than fiction – and she draws on all her power as a storyteller to turn a life of intense headlines into a wild, marvellous tale.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

‘Astute, compassionate, heartbreaking, compelling – and sometimes downright astonishing.’ Kate Evans

‘Julia Lawrinson is that rarest of thing: a true original voice. Such an inventively irreverent and fearlessly honest memoir!’ Howard Norman

‘… bursts with a vibrant voice and resonates with glittering resilience’ InReview

‘Startling, raw, and beautifully written, How to Avoid a Happy Life is the net result of Julia’s reconciliation with her life – fulfilling a last request from her mother – and it is a wild, sometimes urine-soaked and caffeine-fuelled ride.’ WritingWA

‘This is a different sort of memoir, and one whose author will wholly endear herself to you, if you let her.’ AU Review