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Good Reading : September 2007
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22 goodreading ı SEPTEMBER 2007 The Vinter’s Letters is a fictionalised account of the true story of a marriage, based on the recollections of Maurice and Marcia’s daughter Simone Bryce, and on the letters that Maurice wrote to Marcia during their courtship and afterwards. Maurice O’Shea was born in Australia in 1897, to an Irish father, John, and a French mother, Leontine. At 16 he was sent to France to study the science of winemaking at two universities, one in Montpellier, the other at Grignon, on the out- skirts of Paris. On graduating, he became for a while a university lecturer at Montpellier.The years he spent in France transformed him from an awkward school- boy into a stylish, sophisticated young man, highly knowledgeable about wine. In 1920 he returned from France, a qualified viticulturist and analytical chemist. Soon after his return Maurice established a vine- yard near Pokolbin, in the Hunter Valley. He also met a beautiful young Sydney woman, Marcia Fuller. A highly accomplished pianist, she was cultured, elegant, and a Protestant. He fell passionately in love with her. Their courtship was to be a prolonged one, during which Maurice wrote her letters of love – letters kept by Marcia until her death.The letters reveal that while Maurice loved Marcia, he was torn by another, equal passion: his passion for making fine wine. While he struggled to establish the Hunter Valley vineyard, living in primitive conditions, Marcia stayed in the comfort of her parents’ home in Sydney. She did not find the often filthy living conditions of the struggling vigneron an attractive proposition.The vineyard was not the only stumbling block to their courtship. Maurice was Catholic. Australian society in the 1920s was not tolerant of marriages that crossed religious lines. Despite all odds, they eventually married in 1925, in a Protestant ceremony – an event that led to Maurice’s excommunication from the Catholic Church. Maurice and Marcia remedied this situation a year later by marrying again, this time in a Catholic ceremony. After some years together, however, Marcia moved away to live apart from Maurice.They still saw each other when Maurice visited her, yet so intermittent was their contact that many thought of him as a bach- elor. Marcia’s establishment of her own household was a highly unconventional arrangement for the time, and it speaks volumes for Marcia’s strength of character. But although they could not live together, neither could they be apart.Their love endured throughout Maurice’s struggles to establish his vineyard, and then the hardships of the Great Depression.Together, they shared the sorrow of a miscarriage, and the joy of the birth of Simone, their daughter, in 1928. And when Maurice died in 1956, Marcia was at his side. Maurice’s recognition as a legendary winemaker was established in time, and today he is revered as a pioneer of the Australian winemaking industry. So many things about this story are intriguing. Maurice’s Paris-acquired sophistication, and his abiding love for the considerably younger Marcia. Their determination, in that unforgiving era, to over- come objections to their differences in religious faith. The extraordinary and brave decision Marcia made in cover story a vine When publisher HARLEQUIN ENTERPRISES came across the intriguing story of the romance between legendary Australian winemaker Maurice O’Shea and a young Sydney woman, Marcia Fuller, editor PENNY MARTIN just knew they had to publish it. The result is a beautiful new book, The Vintner’s Letters, out next month. But how to categorise it? Simone, daughter of Maurice and Marcia Peter McAra, author The Vintner’s Letters will be available in bookshops on 1 October 2007
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