Hating Alison Ashley is a 1984 Australian novel (Puffin Books, London and Melbourne, ISBN 0-14-031672-8) by science fiction and children's author Robin Klein. Written as a pre-teen comedy, the book has a strong moral undercurrent about the pursuit of happiness and perfection, the pressures of growing up and the power of friendship. It portrays the agonies of school-girl rivalries, constant embarrassment by family, and painful and often brutally funny awkwardness and insecurity. One of Klein's most popular pre-teen novels, it has since become a standard English text for school students across Australia.
The book was nominated for 8 Australian literature awards and won the Young Australian Best Book Award (YABBA) in 1967 and the Kids Own Australian Literature Award (KOALA) in 1987.
It has since become a play, adapted by Richard Tulloch and directed by Nici Wood, and a film, Hating Alison Ashley directed by Geoff Bennett with Delta Goodrem in the title role.
Famous quotes containing the words hating and/or alison:
“You must labour to acquire that great and uncommon talent of hating with good breeding, and loving with prudence; to make no quarrel irreconcilable by silly and unnecessary indications of anger; and no friendship dangerous, in care it breaks, by a wanton, indiscreet, and unreserved confidence.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Well, I suppose we’ve got to have architects, too. But if I wanted to build a nice, cozy, unpretentious insane asylum, he’d be the man for it.”
—Peter Ruric, and Edgar G. Ulmer. Edgar G. Ulmer. Peter Alison (David Manners)