Nick’s latest book is the product of five years’ research, following Lorraine Murray through the history of the 20th century, ranging across Western colonial society in Shanghai, the Japanese onslaught on China, Soviet intelligence penetration of the Australian government, post-war society on the French Riviera, and London of the Profumo scandal.
published by Earnshaw Books
From sex worker to society matron
The extraordinary hidden life of Australian woman Lorraine Murray (1910–2000).
In 1936 Lorraine quit the Shanghai brothel where she had been working for some years. But though supported by wealthy businessman Edmund Toeg, she struggled to find a new path, until the American author Emily Hahn took her under her wing. This was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the two, during which Emily guided Lorraine away from a life of banality and Lorraine provided Emily with raw material for her books – particuarly her 1947 novel Miss Jill. Lorraine spent WWII in Australia, including a stint as a counter-intelligence informant, but after the war she joined Emily in England. There, Lorraine reconnected with Edmund Toeg; the two married and settled in London, where she re-invented herself as a Knightsbridge society matron.
Lorraine Murray
Studio portrait, Shanghai, 1938
From sex worker to society matron. A publication from Earnshaw Books.
by Liu Yichang, translated by Charlotte Chun-lam Yiu. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.
The Golden Years, By Michael Duffy and Nick Hordern, NewSouth Press.
Sydney’s Unpatriotic War by Michael Duffy and Nick Hordern. NewSouth Publishing.