Ducks on the Pond is the unflinching personal story of a woman who challenged the world she was given. Anne Summers grew up in a post-war Australia where Catholic schoolgirls learned their only options were to be a mum or a nun - or to end up on the shelf. In this startlingly frank account, she tells the story of a suburban childhood marred by her father's rejection, which forced her to strike out on her own at an early age. It was to be a long journey through unfamiliar cities and a succession of low-paid typically female jobs for this gawky, unconfident convent girl before she emerged as a founding member of the Women's Liberation Movement, an award-winning journalist and ultimately a key adviser to prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. Anne Summers writes as someone who has never accepted other people's plans for her life, and tells with wit and wry humour a story of success and fulfilment achieved against considerable odds.
