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interview: Kay Leiper Kay is the former President of the Lane Cove Historical Society. She has enjoyed a varied life that has seen her work in TV, become a scriptwriter, then later specialise in ancient history and literature as an academic - all the while raising her daughter. You may well see her at the Carisbrook House open days where her love of history comes to life.
Tell us about your background… I grew up in a typical middle-class Sydney family. The house was the usual suburban Californian bungalow with a dining room that was hardly ever used and a ‘lounge room’ that sported a Westminster clock on the mantel and loose covers on the sofas in summer that were a riot of red roses on an ivory background. We ate in the breakfast room where a coke-burning ‘Cosy’ fire kept us warm in the winter. Growing up, did you have a fascination with history and literature? Every child loves being read to at bedtime. My father used to read from a collection called the Twins Series by Lucy Fitch Perkins. Right through the 1950s most of my books were adventure stories. I remember reading about Christopher Columbus and sailing ships and long voyages. First job out of school?
You were a working Mum in the early 1980s. How did you make it work? In 1985, when my daughter was around 12 months old, I started working from home, writing the promo scripts that used to go over the credits of TV programmes. As soon as she was put down for her morning nap, I would dash to my IBM typewriter and check out what scripts were required to go to air the next day. There were usually about 20 scripts to be written – 15 or 20 seconds of cliche-ridden assonance, alliteration, and absolute rubbish about how exciting next Tuesday at 8.30pm might be. The more I did it, the quicker I got. At one point I did a stint full-time back at my old job, something that required putting baby into a day childcare centre. This brought the wrath down from both my motherin-law and my mother. How could I do such a terrible thing to my child! How times have changed.
I was a Secretary’s secretary. Typing, shorthand, short dresses and long tresses - think Dusty Springfield, Twiggy or Audrey Hepburn. Countless millions of us all over the world, all wishing we could be as thin, pretty or talented as those three.
The next time I worked was in a university television centre in New Zealand. Three, sometimes four days a week with a very lovely nanny at home, vacuuming the carpets and miraculously getting the child to pick up all the Lego. Those were the days.
You worked in TV. How did that come about?
You embarked on a Bachelor of Arts and a PhD later in life…
It started as a temporary job working for Rowan Ayers, who was first brought to Australia to be executive producer of the 1976 Montreal Olympics coverage on Channel Nine. Kerry Packer always went for the best, and this icon of the BBC was the most competent and calm boss of the chaos that was Australia’s first 24-hour coverage of anything. Rowan taught me that panicking is no solution. Within 12 months I was working in the Promotions Department before becoming a Director’s Assistant. It was a good all-round training in scriptwriting, editing, and production. 12 TVO
Yes, I began a BA in New Zealand and finished it at the University of New England in the mid-90s. I began the PhD in the mid-2000s. There is nothing like being a ‘mature-aged student’. I was at a lost, loose-end being a housewife in New Zealand and a visiting friend suggested that I should do some study. Another friend had once shamed me because I did not know who Oedipus was. Friends are dangerous, are they not? The two thoughts coalesced, and I thought I would
