National Treasure Magda Szubanski To Publish New Memoir Later This Year

Beloved icon Magda Szubanski has announced the release of her second memoir, set to be published in September this year.

Titled I Can’t Tell You But I Will, the memoir will tell the story of Szubanski’s role as one of the most iconic faces of the push for marriage equality, while also caring for her mother, Margaret, who died during the peak of the campaign in 2017.

“2017 was the year I finally grew up. My mother was dying and I was catapulted into the forefront of a bitter cultural and political battle: the same-sex marriage survey,” Szubanski said in a statement.

“I Can’t Tell You But I Will is the true tale of how I came to understand the unseen powers that shape our world, and learned how to stand up to them while staying true to your soul and to the people you speak for.

“Most of all, though, it is a eulogy for my beloved mother, Margaret: like my Celtic ancestors, I am ‘keening’ her life, singing of the terrible beauty of caring for someone you love as they die.

“This is the story of how I went from comedian to campaigner, from daughter to orphan, and from naïve idealist to pragmatic warrior.”

It’s Szubanski’s second memoir, with her first, 2016’s Reckoning, exploring her relationship with her father and his role as a Polish Resistance fighter in WWII, winning her that year’s Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year.

Firmly cemented as an Australian legend

The new title comes only weeks after Szubanski announced her remission from cancer, stage four Mantle Cell Lymphoma, the diagnosis of which she shared publicly in May last year.

Despite taking a step back from the spotlight while undergoing treatment, Szubanski has remained on everyone’s minds, highlighting just how important she is, not only to the queer community, but as an eternally beloved Australian icon.

In August, she was inducted into the Logie Awards Hall Of Fame, appearing in an emotional prerecorded video to accept the honour.

Then last month, Mardi Gras brought a little Magda to Oxford Street with their community float named ECSTATICA about Magda” in  honour of her “legacy of heart, humour and courage”. The float celebrated six fan favourite characters she’s played throughout her career: Chenille, Lynette Flannel, Gina Minehart, Michelle, Lynne Postlethwaite and, of course, the ever-iconic Sharon Strzelecki.

In her remission announcement video, Szubanski thanked everyone for the support she’d received since her diagnosis, saying it was “just like a tsunami coming at me.”

“I swear to God, it helped me not only emotionally, I think it really helped me physically, too. I felt so loved up and cared for, so eternal gratitude.

“Also eternal gratitude to my medical team. We have the most incredible medical people in this country. We’re so lucky. And there’s not a day goes by that I don’t give profound thanks to the medical community, those beautiful people, and also to the common sense of the Australian people that we see how practical and compassionate it is to have a really good medical system.”