Iris

Who is Iris Webber?

A thief, a fighter, a wife, a lover.

A scammer, a schemer, a friend.

A musician, a worker, a big-hearted fool.

A woman who has prevailed against the toughest gangsters of the day, defying police time and again, yet is now trapped in a prison cell.

Guilty or innocent?

Rollicking through the underbelly of 1930s sly-grog Sydney, Iris is a dazzling literary achievement from one of Australia's finest writers. Based on actual events and set in an era of cataclysmic change, Iris is a fierce, fascinating historical fiction based on a woman who couldn't be held back.

Praise for Iris

'The story of Iris had to be told, and Fiona Kelly McGregor had produced the roughest but most invaluable diamond.' - Tony Birch

'There's a magical conjuring up here, a dream-building of people, place and things. Iris is to me not just a great urban novel, but maybe the best Australian city novel ever.' - Peter Doyle

'Visceral and immediate and relevant. It's a stunner.' - Hannah Kent

'A vivid, arresting voice ... Utterly gripping. Love it.' - Lucy Treloar

'A brawling, picaresque book by one of our foremost cartographers of settler Sydney.' - Declan Fry, The Sydney Morning Herald

'Vivid and panoramic.' - The Times / The Conversation

'Intimate and exuberant.' - Gemma Nisbet, The West Australian

'Exceptional ... This book had me in its clutches for an unusually long time. I didn't want to let it - or Iris - go.' - Alison Huber, Readings Bookshop

'An exhilarating squeezebox of a novel.' - Felicity Plunkett, The Australian Book Review