“This is the read for Australia now…it crackles with urgency. Honestly. I was left with a startling clarity after reading Black and Blue. This should be taught in schools, alongside the rest of our history.”
Rick Morton, author of My Year of Living Vulnerably
“Every now and then, a story comes along that astonishes with its degree of truth, trauma, and resilience. Veronica Gorrie’s memoir, Black and Blue, is one such, chronicling a life of inconceivable pain, abuse, and discrimination … Her book should be mandatory reading material for all emerging and current cops … Women who have historically been silenced: now more than ever, we need to be reading their stories.”
Jessie Tu, Sydney Morning Herald
“The power of storytelling is to share the lives of people who change the world. Ronnie Gorrie’s journey as an Aboriginal woman shows the different levels of power in our country and is as radical as it is moving. A loving, affecting, and honest account of her life. Reading Ronnie’s words is like hearing the yarn of a friend.”
Nakkiah Lui
“Gorrie’s distinctly Indigenous storytelling makes us feel like we are sitting with her by the fire in the backyard listening to the resounding immediacy of her words. Her warmth and love and care for her readers is felt throughout the book … [Black and Blue] is especially crucial at this moment in time. It challenges us to think about power and society, and the possibility of changing the world we live in.”
2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Judges’ Comments
“Black and Blue is a work of epic storytelling, a memoir authored by Gunai/Kurnai woman Veronica Gorrie. This is a book that must contend on every page with structural racism and the violent legacies of colonialism, from the account of Gorrie’s childhood to her experiences working in the Queensland police and raising a family as a single mum. It’s the memoir of a survivor, a resilient woman. If Black and Blue is a grim indictment of institutional racism, Gorrie’s highly distinctive voice ensures that it is also surprisingly funny and candid.”
Judges' comments from the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards' Douglas Stuart Prize for Non-Fiction
“Gorrie’s account of her time in the police force includes details of police misconduct that are rarely written about by former insiders…Rather than providing a systemic analysis, Gorrie tells her story as raw, unfiltered recollection.”
Fernanda Dahlstrom, Kill Your Darlings
“A memoir full of heart, humor and fire, from an author who’s always had a keen sense of justice.”
Happy Magazine
“[Veronica Gorrie] details the enduring impacts of racism and intergenerational trauma on her family and life with wisdom, warmth and wit.”
Marie Claire
“[Black and Blue is] a beautiful, painful memoir about Gorrie’s life growing up and working in a racist police force – before coming to believe in prison abolition. Gorrie is forthright and funny, and always tries to care for her reader, even when writing about brutal subjects like police brutality, settler-colonial violence and family trauma. It’s a huge-hearted, no-bullshit book.”
Millie Baylis, Readings
“[Veronica Gorrie] speaks about the institutionalized racism and sexism … from the perspective of an Aboriginal woman … [i]t's like you're having a yarn with her.”
Alice Skye, singer-songwriter, The Sun-Herald
‘‘Black and Blue is the extraordinary kind of memoir that has you laughing and then, in the next paragraph, feeling like all the wind has been taken out of you with shock. Veronica Gorrie tells her story of growing up as a Gunai/Kurnai woman in Australia, and then going on to be a police officer in Brisbane where she witnessed and was the target of personal and structural racism. Her voice is so clear and sharp it feels at times like she is talking directly to you and she has a unique gift of threading a story with small details and sideways routes that add to the odd charm of the book. It is a story of great resilience but also of great love, in her family and also in her community.”
Bridie Jabour, The Guardian, 25 Best Australian Books of 2021
“With a mischievous sense of humor and innate gift for storytelling, Gorrie gives a deep insight into her own traumatic experiences as a survivor of abuse, racism and sexism — issues she continues to fight against today.”
Jedda Costa, ABC News
