True Colours Interview Lauren Huxley & Her Family from Tragedy to Triumph

True Colours- Lauren Huxley and Her Family: from Tragedy to Triumph

A powerful and uplifting account of Lauren Huxley and her family's journey, True Colours is the extraordinary story of how an ordinary Australian family found the courage and determination to survive an ordeal few of us could bear.

On the morning of November 9, 2005 the Huxley family had no idea of the horror that was about to change their lives forever. By evening 18 year-old Lauren Huxley was in hospital fighting for her life after being brutally bashed, doused with petrol and left for dead by a total stranger.

Shocking in its extreme violence and senselessness, the crime made headlines around the country. Australians were appalled that a young girl could be attacked so brutally in the apparent safety of her family home in broad daylight. We rallied around the Huxley family with outpourings of public love and support. For Lauren's father, Pat, mother Christine and sister Simone it was like being plunged into hell.

Doctors gave Lauren a five percent chance of survival and considered her injuries to be among the worst they'd ever encountered, so horrific she was barely recognisable. But they did not factor in the exceptional power of the family's bond. Together, the Huxleys started to rebuild their shattered lives and little by little Lauren came back to them.

Lisa Davies is the senior court reporter for The Daily Telegraph in Sydney. She was the first journalist to interview the family at Lauren's hospital bedside just four days after the attack that changed their lives. She has remained close to the family and writes this story with their cooperation.

True Colours
Harper Collins Australia
Author: Lisa Davies
ISBN: 9780732289034
RRP: $32.99

True Colours interview with Lisa Davies

Lisa, why did you decide to write this book?

Lisa Davies: Basically, it was an idea that Christine, Lauren's mother had, she felt she wanted to tell the real story behind what had happened to their family and how they got through it. I have covered courts for the Daily Telegraph for three years before this and I had a natural empathy with the family and got along with them extremely well. I wanted to do their story justice and do it for them and with them. I think it is a story that people are extremely touched by and it is something that could have almost happened to anyone.


What drew you to this story?

Lisa Davies: I think the fact that the family, just are so, they are very normal and they are like so many families around this country. Average families with good values and their children have a good upbringing and a nice upbringing. I think that is something that resonates with me, I mean it also resonates with my history and my background as well. I felt very connected to them and their strength in overcoming what happened to Lauren, it has been very inspiring.

Lisa, does the book tell Lauren's story in chronological order and include her families story?

Lisa Davies: The book is largely their story, the families. Obviously there is three perspectives through the book: there is the families perspective, the perspective of the police in hunting the attacker who did this and there is a fair bit of a story line about the man who attacked Lauren, named Robert Black Farmer, his story and what he did and how he managed to stay away from Police for nearly a month afterwards. There is sort of those three elements running through it, but predominately the story is about how this normal family got ripped apart and how they pulled themselves back together.


How close did you become with this family over the beginning interview and the publishing of the book?

Lisa Davies: We are very close, basically. We had the launch last week for example and people kept saying, there friends and family too saying 'Are we going to keep seeing you?' I said 'You can't get rid of me that easily!' I get on extremely well with both the girls and with their parents, I have spent many an hour out there, a afternoon, an evening in the course of doing this project. Of course they had to relive some of the hardest times, through me, in order to do that and do it justice I had to understand it, and really get in there with them effectively. Because I wasn't there, I did meet them very early on, but I then didn't see them for a couple of years. I really had, I got to know them in the time, that they were going through that. I consider myself, well they joke that I am 'part of the furniture'. I am so thankful to be considered their friend, because they are amazing people.


Do you think that Lauren has come so far because of the support of her family?

Lisa Davies: Absolutely. Look Lauren is an extremely tenacious, determined young woman and she could be described as a quiet achiever. So a lot of what she has done and what she has been able to achieve is through that inbuilt, kind of strength that she does have and her courage. But in saying that, but there were times when she couldn't do things for herself, and she couldn't possibly have got through without them there. Her family, she has inherited those characteristics from them, both Lauren and her older sister, Simone get that from their parents. They are strong, determined and really incredible tenacious in wanting to do the things they want to do.


How is Lauren today?

Lisa Davies: Lauren is great. She is working two days a week, she still has an ongoing battle with what happened. It is very hard for her to connect to the fact that this Lauren is actually her, that this Lauren Huxley that people talk about is actually her. So, she is really good she is trying to get her life back on track whilst building up her hours at work. She still gets very tired, that is one of the side effects of her brain injury. Lauren works five or six hours a day, tow or three days a week, depending. Lauren also drives and shops and hangs out with her friends. She is building up to work full time and travel overseas on her own, hopefully that will come.