Join us on Tuesday September 1st to celebrate Gillian Wills beautiful memoir, Elvis and Me, with special performance of Elvis Presley songs by Brad McCaw, formerly of The Ten Tenors.

What begins as an impulsive horse purchase becomes a profound journey of reinvention in Elvis and Me, the deeply moving new memoir by acclaimed musician, educator and arts writer Gillian Wills.

Elvis was supposed to be a quiet beginner’s horse. Instead, he arrived underweight, emotionally damaged, saddle-phobic and dangerously unpredictable. Gillian, a former Dean of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts and one of Australia’s most respected classical music voices, had never owned a horse before.

As an empty nester navigating major personal and professional change, she found herself drawn to the difficult ex-racehorse in ways she could not fully explain.

“I was supposed to help Elvis, but instead he led me on an unexpected trail of self-discovery,” says Wills. “I learned to like myself. I realised I didn’t have to prove to the world I was worthy.”

Set against the backdrop of semi-rural Queensland, Elvis and Me traces Gillian’s immersion into theunfamiliar and often unforgiving equestrian world, where both horse and owner are dismissed asunlikely candidates for success. With the help of a gifted horse whisperer using sychologically gentle training methods, Gillian begins rehabilitating Elvis, and, in many ways, herself.

The memoir explores themes of emotional healing, second chances, animal exploitation, female reinvention and the pursuit of long-neglected passions later in life. It also offers a rare perspective on the parallels between music and horsemanship, rhythm, trust, restraint and emotional connection becoming central to both Gillian’s artistic and personal transformation.