“It’s an ordinary Wednesday afternoon in Sydney, the first week of July, when two police officers dressed in plain clothes knock at our front door.” 

So begins Hannah Richell’s soon-to-be-released memoir about the death of her husband Matt after a surfing accident in 2014. The internationally-renowned UK-born novelist and mother of two small children turned to writing as a way of processing her grief. An Ocean and a Day, which will be launched in July, is the story of Hannah’s 10-year journey. 

An Ocean and a Day is being hailed as a defining work on modern grief. It has drawn comparisons to Joan Didion’s seminal book The Year of Magical Thinking.  Says journalist, author and podcaster Leigh Sales: “Hannah Richell writes beautifully about the fragility of life, it’s ability to devastate in an instant, but also the miraculous hope and joy that somehow still show up.” 

“This Memoir had be transfixed from the very first page.” Says Hannah’s publisher Catherine Milne of Fourth Estate. “I read it in the privacy of a quiet, dark house in one marathon session, finishing it messy crying with tears streaming down my face. 

“I love it for its vulnerability, the beauty of the writing, and its many gritty little peals of insight and hard-won wisdom.”

Sorrento Writers Festival, Gasworks and Avenue Bookstore are delighted to be hosting a special “in conversation” with Hannah Richell and Festival Director Corrie Perkin.

Gasworks Creative Precinct, 21 Graham Street, Albert Park