Many of you know the wonderful Anna Loder, Sydney bookselling and event personality and champion of Australian writers.

We first met in 2019 when I did an event at her iconic café and bookshop in Cronulla for my novel The Invitation, but I was unaware until that evening that she and I had been travelling parallel lives. Our story goes like this:

1998 – SYDNEY

At my friend Fiona’s cocktail party, I meet an interesting man named Dave Dillon who somewhere in our conversation mentions that his mother, Lyn, lives in Bathurst.

2000 – NEW YORK

While living and working in New York, I am writing my first book White Gardenia. The main character, Anya, ends up in a migrant camp in Bathurst. I write to Fiona and ask her if she could ask Dave to ask his mother if she knows anyone in Bathurst who remembers the camp. Lyn puts me in touch with Kay Campbell, a lovely lady of Polish origin who had been in the camp with her parents.

2002 – BATHURST

I have a publishing deal for White Gardenia and travel to Bathurst with my colleagues Jodie Lee and Kim Swivel (now a published historical fiction author herself Kim Kelly) to do some fact checking with Kay about the camp. Kay makes us a delightful Polish afternoon tea.

2002 – SYDNEY
WHITE GARDENIA LAUNCH

Kay comes along in her national costume!

2008 – CRONULLA

Anna Loder opens a bookshop café in Cronulla named Anna’s Shop Around the Corner and the wonderful vibe and delicious cakes, coffee and conversation earn her a loyal clientele. But Anna, an avid booklover, has a dream of one day turning her café into a meeting place for Sydney’s literati.

2010 – COLES SUPERMARKET

While pushing her trolley down the aisle, Anna reaches the book section and the cover of a book Tuscan Rose by an author named Belinda Alexandra captures her attention. She buys it and reads it. She thinks: ‘One day this Belinda Alexandra is going to come to my cafe and I’m going to interview her about her writing.’

2013 – SYDNEY NIGHTLIFE

Anna is taking out a newly single friend to ‘show her the ropes’ when she spots Dave Dillion who is part of a buck’s party. They get to talking and he comes to visit Anna at her shop the very next day. (And the rest is fireworks, folks!)

2019 – CRONULLA

Anna decides that life is short and that she is going to live her dream of holding soirees in her café for Australian writers. One of the first authors she invites is me. I arrive to the sound of bagpipes and realise that the player is none other than Dave Dillon who I haven’t seen for almost a decade since that cocktail party in Sydney. Anna and I become firm friends and do many other book events together.

2022 – BATHURST

I go to Bathurst for a book talk at the library about my latest book, Emboldened, thinking I will simply do the event at the library, have lunch and go home again. But then Kay Campbell, who I haven’t seen for twenty years arrives with her sister-in-law, Gayle and granddaughter, Cassie, and we spend the rest of the day visiting the sites of Bathurst including a café much like the one Betty owns in White Gardenia and taking a lap around Mount Panorama. Lyn Dillon, Dave’s mother, also comes along to say hello.

2022 – BONDI JUNCTION

I visit Anna, who is now the manager of the newly opened Dymocks Bondi Junction store and is living the dream of a beautiful bookstore where she gets to help customers find their perfect next read.

So, the moral of this story?

Go visit Anna at Dymocks Bondi Junction as soon as you can. Because Anna creates magic and is connected to everyone and everything!

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