About the Book
About the Book
An Eventful Life is a soft back book of 304 pages. Each of the five Olympic riders has a section dedicated to their story consisting of 32 pages of text and 16 pages of colour photographs. The section featuring young rider Emma Scott consists of 16 pages of text and 8 pages of colour photographs. The book also contains a chapter providing a background to the sport of Eventing and a record of Australian achievements in eventing at the Olympic Games and the World Equestrian Games to 2009.
The book was written by Alison Duthie and published by Palmer Higgs Publishing.
The Publisher
An Eventful Life is the concept of Debbie Higgs and a project of Palmer Higgs Publishing.
Whilst working on a book about top performers in business, it occurred to Debbie, an equestrian enthusiast, that it would be interesting to create a book about top performers in the sport of eventing. A friend has also commented that she would like to read more about the lives of Australian riders, rather than the usual “how to ride a horse” books. Bearing this in mind, the concept of the book was created and equestrian journalist, Alison Duthie was commissioned to interview the riders and write the book.
As there were plenty of Australian Olympic eventing medallists to choose from (a lucky country indeed!), the decision was made to feature five riders – Sonja Johnson, Megan Jones, Shane Rose, Wendy Schaeffer and Stuart Tinney – based on the premise that they lived in Australia, were Olympic medallists and still competing at a high level. A sixth rider just starting out on the path of National selection, talented young rider Emma Scott, was included as a contrast with these seasoned campaigners.
Despite the fact that all of the riders have hectic schedules, they were enthusiastic about the project and willingly agreed to subject themselves, their partners and their family (especially mums and dads) to seemingly endless questions and scrutiny! Old photos were unearthed, ambitions were outlined and memories – both happy and sad – were brought to the surface as the stories unfolded.
Being English, Debbie is luckily totally oblivious to the Australian ‘tall poppy syndrome’ and she is delighted that this book celebrates the talent, perseverance and skill of these amazing Australian eventing riders.
The Writer
Alison Duthie was born and grew up in the UK where she evented with (what she describes as) occasional success to Two Star level while working for the international eventing rider Ian Stark (MBE). Alison was Ian’s groom in 1988 when he came first and second at Badminton with his great horses – Sir Wattie and Glenburnie – and also won a silver medal on Sir Wattie at the Seoul Olympics.
During the next few years Alison worked for many other top event riders at European and World Championships. She was a team groom at several British Young Rider Championships during the era of Pippa Funnell, Tina Cook and Willian Fox-Pitt and she went on to become William’s head girl.
After meeting her Australian husband, Peter Gillis, who was eventing in the UK, Alison moved to Australia in 1996 where she continued to work in the horse industry with her husband. At this time Alison decided to combine her knowledge of horses with her journalistic skills and became the Australian correspondent for the UK magazine ‘Eventing’. She is now also the editor of ‘The Eventer’ magazine – the official magazine of Eventing New South Wales – which has grown to be a popular publication and is the only magazine in Australia dedicated to eventing.
Alison has also written for Horse and Hound and UK Riding magazine, is the writer of Stuart Tinney’s book “Making the Time’ and co-authored “The Groom’s Handbook” with Emma D’arcy.
Alison lives at Penrose in the beautiful Southern Highlands of NSW with her husband and her two young sons, Thomas and David.
