Don't Take Your Love to Town, by Ruby Langford Ginibi

Ruby Langford Ginibi's classic memoir is a no holds barred story of pain, joy and survival

As part of its new series of First Nations Classics, University of Queensland Press is re-publishing Ruby Langford Ginibi's acclaimed memoir Don't Take Your Love to Town (1988).

Langford Ginibi, a Bundjalong woman, was born in 1934 and raised in the small New South Wales town of Bonalbo. Her mother left the family when she was six, to marry another man. By age 16 Ruby was pregnant and she would go on to have nine children by several fathers. These relationships started out good, but would eventually turn sour, ending in either neglect or abuse. Langford Ginibi, in wiser old age, would swear off men, hence the book's title. Tragically, three of her children died, causing her years of grief – and a drinking problem that she finally kicked.

It's hard to understate how extraordinary a memoir this is. Langford Ginibi, viewed as a character on the page, is a mix of Chaucer's Wife of Bath and Brecht's Mother Courage, a woman of irrepressible life force and a tough survivor. She is a workhorse providing for her brood, living rough in outback tents and killing her own food. She brawls and drinks, would give you the shirt off her back if asked and raises a glass to life despite its endless hardships, especially for First Nations people.

At 400 pages long, there is never a dull moment in Don't Take Your Love to Town, as it chronicles a life lived to the fullest. Despite the vein of pain and suffering that runs through the book, Langford Ginibi is also very funny. She has an ironic turn of phrase and delightfully blunt sense of humour that gives her story heart and humanity.

An incredible memoir, an incredible life lived. Indeed, a classic.

Don't Take Your Love to Town, by Ruby Langford Ginibi. Published by Queensland University Press. $19.99

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