It’s the birthday of Elizabeth Jolley (1923-2007), a British-born author who late in life became one of Australia’s most celebrated fiction writers, and whose step-daughter, Susan Swingler, eventually wrote a memoir exposing the elaborate web of lies that Jolley and her husband perpetrated about their family.

Jolley was born Monica Elizabeth Knight in Birmingham, England, to parents who were strong pacifists and who sent her to Quaker boarding school at age 11. (So, Quaker boarding school is  a thing.) During World War II, while training to be a nurse, Jolley met Leonard Jolley at a hospital. She became friends with Leonard and his wife Joyce and eventually began an affair with Leonard. Jolley and Joyce ended up pregnant by Leonard at the same time, and Jolley moved in with them, lying to Joyce about who the father of her baby was. Several years later, Leonard left Joyce, married Jolley—here’s where it gets confusing—and made Joyce promise never to tell his family about his divorce and remarriage. So when Leonard, Jolley, and their daughter Sarah moved to Perth, Australia, in 1959, Jolley wrote fake letters to Leonard’s father as if she were Joyce and Joyce’s daughter, Susan.

(Get it? A fiction writer? And she’s writing fiction?)

Jolley and Leonard went on to have two more children and were married until his death in 1994. All this time, Jolley was also writing, well, more fiction, but the kind you try to get published, and getting rejection slips, and finally in her mid-50s, she published her first book, The Five Acre Virgin and Other Stories (1976). Her first novel, Palomino, was published in 1980, followed by many more novels and short story collections, including Miss Peabody’s Inheritance (1983) and Mr. Scobie’s Riddle (1983). Her writing was often called “Australian Gothic” for its eccentric, dark humor and deeply dysfunctional characters. She ultimately won many literary awards and in 1997 was named an Australian Living Treasure, which is awarded by popular vote to those who have “made outstanding contributions to Australian society in any field of human endeavor.”

Swingler grew up and learned for the first time that her father and his second wife (Jolley) had lied to his family about her and her mother; she discovered relatives she hadn’t known existed. She untangled the mess and published her memoir, The House of Fiction, in 2012. In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Swingler discusses her difficult journey to the truth with a surprising lack of bitterness and with generous words toward Jolley as a writer.

Jolley died in Perth at the age of 83 after suffering from dementia.

Have a far better Monday than you hope or imagine and stay scrupulously honest to the data.