Wearne’s new book heads on Tour

Home: Author Olivia Wearne and her husband moved to Ballarat 12 years ago from Melbourne and are enjoying raising their children regionally. Photo: EDWINA WILLIAMS

FORMER screenwriter Olivia Wearne has harnessed a love of novel writing to produce The Grand Tour, her new book released yesterday.

The title is set in Ballarat, and has been a decade in the making, with Wearne putting pen to paper not long after she moved to the city with her husband 12 years ago.

The Grand Tour is a “romp” surrounding a group of recently retired characters and a “new freedom” they’re coming to terms with.

“If your 20s are about starting out, then your 60s are about starting over,” Wearne said.

“Your relationship might have ended, your family’s away, your career’s come to an end and you’re back to having all this free time, and basically, they don’t deal with it very well; it’s grownups behaving badly, up to lots of misadventures.

“Two women who are best friends decide to do a tour of Australia. They get a young stowaway, and that runs amuck. Another character, Bernard is an ex-regional news presenter, so he has a certain amount of cultural cache…but becomes a local ‘celebrity behaving badly.’”

Wearne said Ballarat readers will enjoy the sense of regional community and loyalty in the story, and a few recognisable locations.

“There’s a lot about local news, being a big fish in a small pond, and there are a few Ballarat places littered about like billboards, restaurants and bridges that people will know.

“…and obviously, the Ballarat weather,” she laughed.

Heading out of the challenging year that’s been 2020, she said the book “doesn’t take itself too seriously,” and will be a fun summer read for those ready to relax.

“I’m so happy it’s come out now, because it’s a really feel-good read, it’s a great bit of escapism, and the last thing we want this season is heavy, dark stuff. We all need to lighten up and breathe, and it is a breath of fresh air,” Wearne said.

“There’s an idea of being in your own isolated world, belonging to place, and a sense of community. It’s got a lot of fun, and a lot of colour.”

The Grand Tour is out now. She encourages readers to support their local small booksellers.