Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Geometric diagram draft for 'Remember the Tarantella', 1980

Geometric diagram draft for 'Remember the Tarantella', 1980

Pen, pencil and watercolour on machine made paper

MLMSS 7809 / Box 6


Challenged by fellow writer Christina Stead to make an interesting novel devoid of men, Finola Moorhead started planning her novel using a series of diagrams.

Over the eight years she spent creating Tarantella, Moorhead used the Tarot, mathematics, geometry and the responses of women readers born under different astrological signs in shaping the novel. She described the process as ‘creating something that was feminine in aesthetic’.


Australian author Finola Moorhead set out to write a different kind of novel, one that would reflect a how a group of lesbian women were creating a new style of living that encompassed global travel and the establishment of a home community in the Blue Mountains of Australia.

Sydney Writer’s Festival – It’s thinking season


The State Library holds Finola Moorhead’s diagrams, charts and schema relating to the astrological, mathematical and zodiacal systems on which Remember the Tarantella was constructed.