Pamela Irving

Surviving the Seventies Pamela Irving

Flared skirts, beehive hairdos, stay-at-home mums ... Australia in the fifties and sixties was comfortably conservative. Then along came the seventies ...




This is the story of how one young Australian navigates her way through a decade of upheaval.




It's 1971, past midnight on a cold Sydney winter's night and Pamela finds herself alone in the darkness on the side of a deserted highway with no money and no idea where she is. She's just escaped an abusive relationship and so begins her life as a single parent, living in communal houses, racing across the city between child-care and work and home, saving for her dream of travelling the world.




Drug-dabbling along the Hippie Highway in Asia, battling homelessness in London, living in France and Greece in a rusty old Kombi van, Pamela hones her survival skills. And all the while surpassing Bridget Jones in her selection of unsuitable men.