Obituary: Andrea Stretton
Andrea Stretton - 1952-2007
Say not in grief that she is no more
but say in thankfulness that she was
A death is not the extinguishing of a light,
but the putting out of the lamp
because the dawn has come.
Rabindranath Tagore
Andrea was the face of books and writing in Australia for many years through the SBS Bookshow and the Masterpiece documentary series. She was an advisor to Prime Minister Paul Keating in formulating Creative Nation. She curated two arts festivals for the Sydney Olympics and through them was instrumental in getting off the ground the now annual Sculpture by the Sea.
She was lovely, intelligent, decent, gracious, funny, wise and courageous. Over the years she endured the slings and arrows of not merely outrageous fortune but also pathetic management and jealous arts nonentities (at the ABC). And yet she remained undaunted and always looked for the best, seeking out talent and worthwhile projects for her own gifts.
In 2002 she was honoured by the French government, whose ambassador bestowed on her the order of Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in recognition of her contribution to the arts and French-Australian cultural understanding. She had been recognised by many of us for her extraordinary contribution long before that, however.
She wrote, reviewed and presented events and was one of the best live interviewers of artists and “difficult” subjects one could hope to witness. Her seriousness and dedication to excellence rubbed off on all who came into her orbit.
She was also really good fun, however, and behind her calm exterior and habitual reticence was a sparkling-eyed sprite waiting to come out and play. It is customary to say that her death is a great loss – but it really, really is. It was untimely and sudden: the lung cancer that killed her was diagnosed just two weeks earlier – the first many friends and colleagues knew of her illness was after her death on Friday night, November 16.
Andrea’s circles were diverse and ranged through the stratosphere of arts and letters. Nevertheless, she was modest and almost shy, as happy to be out walking ion Centennial Park with the pooch as under the lights and in the public eye. A gorgeous and vivacious 55, she was amazed and delighted to be a grandmother – to four-year-old Phoenix – and in recent years had found happiness with writer and arts historian Alan Krell.
He, together with her elder brothers Peter and John and their families, her son Jake and his partner Jenny, were with her until the end, which – in life terms – came cruelly, dreadfully, unforgivably too soon.
