Sally Murphy is an author, poet, speaker and educator based in the South West of Western Australia. Sally has published more than 40 books, and we’re thrilled to be chatting to Sally about her verse novel: The Riding Gallery, illustrated by Martina Heiduczek.
From the publisher:
In Melbourne’s St Kilda, as World War 1 begins, Anton (a German immigrant) fulfils his dream of creating the most beautiful steam-driven “riding gallery” – a merry-go-round – in the world. Evelyn, who has just moved to the city, befriends a local boy, but the war, and anti-German sentiment, soon takes its toll on the children, Anton, their families, and the riding gallery itself.
This is your sixth verse novel, and you also write prose novels. When you sat down to write this story, how did you come to choose to write it as a verse novel?
For my previous verse novels, they were always going to be in that form – that is, they came to me as stories in verse. This one was a little different. I stumbled across the piece of history (a merry go round tracing back to World War 1) and when I researched its origins and saw the story behind it, I thought it might make a historical picture book. I wrote it that way, but feedback from publishers was that it didn’t work – there needed to be more story to really make clear why things happened around that merry-go-round. It took me a while, but I finally realised they were right – and that I needed characters other than Anton, the ride’s owner. That is when I realised multiple voices, in verse, would be the ideal format. Verse novels allow for those multiple viewpoints, and the depth of emotion a story like this one needed.
The Riding Gallery is historical fiction. How did the story find you?
The story found me in Canberra one very cold July, when I was there for a month courtesy of the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust. I walked every day, and often walked past the merry-go-round that is located in the city centre. I got curious about that merry-go-round, read an interpretive sign, and had to know more. It was a hard story to piece together, but the more I learnt the more I knew it needed to be told.
Could you tell us a bit about the newspaper poems included in book?
The story takes place against the backdrop of World War 1, and I wanted to be sure to include some of the major war events, even though the story is set on the home front, in St Kilda. Most of what people knew about the war was dependant on the reporting in the papers, so it seemed a good way to know what was reported was to look at the papers of the day. The poems that resulted are all found poems – that is, they each use only words from a single news report from 1915.
Have you been able to ride on the merry-go-round (the riding gallery) from the book yourself?
I have indeed ridden it – along with my publisher, Clare Hallifax. But I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t remember the name of the horse – I was pretty overwhelmed by actually riding on Anton’s ride.
Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next?
I always have multiple projects on the go, at different stages of completion. I’ve recently sent the manuscript for a war-themed picture book to my publisher – I think that will be out in 2026. And I am trying to edit another historical verse novel, set in WA in World War II. I’ve also got other projects waiting (im)patiently for me to get back to them.
The Riding Gallery is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.
AWESOME EXTRAS
Read some sample pages in The Riding Gallery
Check out the names of the animals on the riding gallery at ‘Libraries ACT’.
See some photos of the riding gallery at the National Carousel Association website
Find out more about Sally Murphy and her books