Margaret Ann Spence was a young girl growing up in Melbourne during the 1950s.

Living in a house with her overbearing Grandmother, her journalist Aunt and progressive but quiet mother, she was observed the way Australia was slowly but steadily changing with the arrival of migrants from Southern Europe.

She even knew the local members of the Communist Party.

Margaret's memoir, Cold War in a Hot Kitchen, explores the changes that took place in Australia in during this time, and Margaret joined Suzanne Hill on Nightlife to reflect on her memories.

People ask me: “How do you choose what to put in and what to leave out in a memoir?” I say, it will come to you. Memories will surface, some will stick, and maybe you will find a theme here. Patterns that lead to meaning. Something I want to say that is larger than my own experience. Because we all live in history.

Research for the memoir Cold War in a Hot Kitchen led me to larger questions about the role of women in our society and to emotional truths rather than just putting down a history of a family.