Dear Quentin Letters of a Governor-Central is a book written by Quentin Bryce, with the help of his numerous contacts :-) published by Miegunyah Press, Melbourne University Publishing recently.

I thank the publishing house so badly because my NetGalley copy of this eBook is in my broken netbook. It was one of the books I was reading when also this mess took place.

Melbourne University Publishing replaced the e-book with another digital copy very soon and here I can write what I think of this book.

What at first I find impressive are this lady's pictures.

It's impressive Mrs.Bryce's class, charm, elegance, open smile, sunny face, amiability and her big capacity of interacting with everyone with great joy, pleasure, simplicity and great human connection.
She is another fearless woman, very modern close to all women's fights, someone with a very open mind.
Academic, lawyer, Mrs. Bryce is a community and human rights advocate, senior public officer, university college principal, and vice-regal representative in Queensland and Australia. In 2016 she was chair of the Queensland Premier's Domestic and Family Violence Implementation Council.
Mrs Bryce or Dame Quentin Alice Louise Bryce was from September 5 2008 to march 28 2014 the 25th General Governor of Australia. The first woman to take up the office.
And the letters taken in consideration, Mrs Bryce specified she wouldn't never thought that one day would have become public, cover this period.

In this book Mrs Bryce choose, and she told that it was pretty hard, some letters from the intense correspondence received and kept when she became General Governor of Australia.
A plenty, absorbing work she truly enjoyed and that permitted her a connection with all the Australians folks.

Royalties of this book will be donated to the Murdoch Children Research Institute. MCRI is the largest child health research Institute in Australia and one of the top five worldwide. There, work more than 1900 researchers dedicated to making discoveries to prevent and treat childhood conditions.


At first Mrs Bryce tells her relationship with correspondence. When she was little she looked at her mom while she was replying some letters received.

This habit followed her also during the adult age, and in particular when she became General Governor with more curiosity and interest. The problem of a country the most different ones.
In this book we will meet the most diversified letters.
Mrs Bryce loves to receive letters from children.

A farmer Mr Grills, wrote to the Governor for let her know that they appreciated her and not only Mrs Bryce answered back but after that first contact they are still exchanging letters and she visited their farm as well!

Not only: you have the sensation, reading the correspondence of Mrs. Bryce that she loves to take care of all the people who touch her existence continuing to follow all of them and this is wonderful and remarkable according to my point of view.

What kind of letter will you find?

There is the letter of the teenager reporting her all his progress at school and his projects for the future, the one of a child telling her about his plays, his lizards, the departure of a gecko and replacement with another lizard, including outdoor adventures. The reply of an enthusiastic governor in love for children and for all the beauty that they can tell her is visible.

You will meet letters of people asking for more attention regarding certain areas where school could be built.

There are Mrs Bryce's letters about her meetings with Pope Benedict and when also she met with great joy and excitement the Royal Family.

Letters of soldiers from Afghanistan, Vietnam Veterans, another letter from doctor Catherine Hamlin thanking Mrs.Bryce for her visit to Addis Abeba at the hospital Mrs Hamlin created.

A kid wrote her asking to "sort out the prime minister."

I didn't know Australia and technically and politically I see that it's different from the USA and also UK but reading this book I learned a lot about policy, opportunities.

Mrs. Bryce hasn't included in the book the letters sent and received from the relatives of the victims of the terrorist attack. Too painful.

I think that everyone should read a book like this one. It's inspiring and it is a devote homage to a population, their problematic, their sufferance, their joys, their expectations, and their dreams. You will start to discover Australia if you are not Australian and vice versa you will appreciate to see that there are politicians like Mrs Bryce in this world with which is able to communicate frankly the exigencies that there are in the various communities.

It's also a portrait of a lady who, with extreme class and strength was able to leave a wonderful memory of her political presence in a glorious land like Australia is.

I thank NetGalley and Melbourne University Publishing for this eBook.

Oh, I don't want to forget to add this: at Melbourne University Publishing they are all happy to open their doors to international orders.
Their website if you want to buy Dear Quentin or any other one is: www.mup.com.au
Free international shipping cost is possible when customers purchase two or more print books. If you buy Dear Quentin it will be for a great cause!

‘Yes, mine is a generation of letter writers.’

Do you remember the joy of writing and receiving handwritten letters? I do. When I moved away from home some 43 years ago, when ‘phone calls were expensive and the internet had not yet been invented, letters were the way I kept in touch with family and friends. Such memories.

These memories, of handwritten letters, are one of the reasons I wanted to read this book. I was curious, too, about the kind of letters our first female Governor-General received and wrote. Quentin Bryce’s letter-writing skills were no doubt further developed as a consequence of boarding school, where writing home was a weekly occupation. But some people are natural letter writers, with a gift for connection and communication. Quentin Bryce seems to be one of these people.

‘I like to think that as my hand holds my pen and moves across the paper, concentration and affection shape the letters, heart and mind blending in an art form as old as time.’

As I read each of the letters included in this collection, I was taken across Australia and around the world. Quentin Bryce handwrote more than fifty letters a week during her six-year term as Governor-General. There are letters to prime ministers Rudd and Gillard, letters to and from friends including Wendy McCarthy and Anne Summers, letters to and from war veterans, Indigenous elders, girl guides and Corporal Mark Donaldson, VC.

The letters I enjoyed most were the ones between Quentin Bryce and various children. In each letter, she seemed to strike just the right (or should that be write?) note. Each response is clearly personal, each observation offered, each question asked is warm but never intrusive. There are lovely colour photographs as well, documenting different aspects of the life of a Governor-General.

This is a lovely book. A keepsake for both those who love letters as well as for those wanting to see a more personal side of our 25th Governor-General.

Royalties from this book will be donated to the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.

Note: My thanks to Melbourne University Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith