Holy Feasting: Food in the Secular Writings of Marion Halligan

Abstract

This is a paper about food. About food and spirituality. Food and contemporary Australian spirituality. The idea for the paper came when I was reading a relatively early collection of short stories, entitled The Living Hothouse, by the Australian author Marion Halligan. I was already aware of the sensual delights that Halligan finds in buying and preparing food, eating food and writing about food, but what came through to me on this occasion were glowing images of food, fruit particularly, vivid as pieces in a stained glass window.