Authors, publishers and individuals from across Australia donated more than $100,000 of new books to Book Love for Tathra after fire destroyed around homes and damaged many more on March 18, 2018 in the Vimy Ridge, Reedy Swamp and Tathra fires. Esteemed Australian author Jackie French, AM, donated over 200 books to the collection and instigated significant donations from Australian Women’s Weekly and several major Australian publishers.
“Every single book has been given with the most enormous love and joy and incredible admiration for the community of Tathra, who is determined to survive,” Jackie says. “You actually need joy as much as recovery…and this is joy! And this is more important because hopefully in a year, five years or 10 years, something like this is going to be the much more powerful memory than the hard things. You will look back and you will smile because you will remember the things done with friendship, love and community.”
This film was partly funded by a Bega Valley Fire and Resilience Grant.
