Book of Life

A no-holds-barred memoir that charts the rise and fall - and rise - of one of Australia's most iconic music performers.


You think you know Deborah Conway? You think seeing her scowling and striding and smouldering in her music videos over the years means you know who Deborah Conway is? She figures you probably don't know the half of it. 


If you have listened to any of Deborah's iconic songs and were curious about their origins; if you ever wondered what happened to that chick who covered herself in Nutella and was photographed shovelling cream cakes into her mouth; if you gave a nanosecond's thought to whose bare arse adorned the giant billboard ads for jeans in the 1980s and how much someone got paid to do that; if you liked Tracy Mann's vocals in Sweet and Sour but asked yourself, 'did she really sing them?'; if you thought Running On Empty was a classic before it became a cult phenomenon and need behind-the-scenes gossip, now's your chance to find out all this and so much more. 


Conway pulls back the curtain on the fevered world of 1980s post-punk and the spectacular rise and fall and rise of one of the more obstreperous women in Australia's music industry, a woman who has straddled the high arts and the low without losing her footing or her mind. A woman who said no to the system and whose fierce independence has seen her produce her best work.


Welcome to the good, the bad and the ugly of an extraordinary life from the vantage point of a music insider (and outsider) with a deep need to tell the truth about it all.


'An enthralling, unputdownable read.' Toni Collette


'A witty, searingly honest testimony of what it really took to become one of Australia's most beloved storytellers.' Clare Bowditch


'Candid and revealing, witty, wise and full of wonder.' Brian Nankervis


'I appreciated every honest, emotional, human page.' Sofie Laguna


'A wild ride through sex, love, birth, death, business, friendship, creativity and the magic of song. She is as sharp, honest, brave, funny and brazen on the page as she is on stage or at her table, offering nourishment for all comers.' Ramona Koval


'Deborah has been surprising me since she was 13. This brave and passionate book has done it yet again.' Caroline Wilson