We invite you to join us in celebrating Manuka Pool’s 95th anniversary with a special event featuring best-selling author Grantlee Kieza. Grantlee will share insights into his biographical novel Annette Kellerman: Australian Mermaid, followed by a screening of the film Neptune’s Daughter, featuring Annette herself courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive. This special event is kindly supported by Friends of Manuka Pool, East Hotel and Living Arts Canberra.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
From the moment she was born in 1886, Annette Kellerman was a force of nature. After a diagnosis of rickets as a young girl she took up swimming, and her extraordinary tenacity and bravery made her an Australian champion, beating boys, breaking records, and astonishing huge crowds by diving from great heights.
At eighteen, Annette had her sights set on swimming the English Channel and challenging endurance records in the Thames, and late in the Seine, Boston Harbour and the Danube - and famously scandalized the public with her one-piece swimming costume, which changed fashion forever and drew legions of women into the water, allowing them to swim freely.
Thrilling audiences on both sides of the Atlantic with her breathtaking vaudeville act, beauty and athleticism, she became famous as 'The Perfect Woman', and Hollywood swiftly embraced her. By 1914 she was a silent film superstar and sex symbol thanks for her risque costumes - and sometimes no costume at all.
Annette's appetite for excitement and thrills was legendary - once flinging herself into a pool of live crocodiles for one film and jumping from the wings of a biplane for another. But she also had a shrewd business mind, lecturing and publishing books about fitness and designing her clothing range, all to help women become healthier, stronger and more beautiful.
Kellerman was one of the highest-paid entertainers of her time and a world-wide celebrity, but despite her fame she saw her promotion of health, fitness and independence for women as her greatest achievement, and her influence and spirit changed the lives of millions.
ABOUT GRANTLEE KIEZA:
Grantlee Kieza OAM is an award-winning journalist and the highly acclaimed, bestselling author of more than twenty biographies. Kieza held senior editorial positions at The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and The Courier-Mail for many years and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his writing. He is a Walkley Award finalist, a 2025 ABIA shortlisted author for Biography of the Year, a 2025 Indie Award shortlisted author for Non-fiction, the No. 1 history author in Australia in 2024, and the author of national bestsellers Mr and Mrs Gould, Sister Viv, Flinders, The Remarkable Mrs Reibey, Hudson Fysh, Lawson, Banks, Macquarie, Banjo, Mrs Kelly, Monash and Bert Hinkler.
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