The recent controversy over Lance Armstrong and the doping scandal throws up the idea that, not just his but all memoir is fiction. When you write a novel the story lines and scenes come into your head as the plot develops. Now I am writing my own memoir about part of my life I note that the same thing is happening and I wonder how much is true memory when it may be my invented memory. 
My novel Cave Hill is based on personal experiences in the Carnarvon Ranges of Central Queensland. Many of the scenes in the novel relate closely to events that I participated in, some up to 40 years earlier than the time of writing. I have always said the Cave Hill is memoir in fiction.
I wonder if my readers can trust their memories of events in their early life. The memoir writer should not be criticized for getting events a little distorted. Sometimes the story develops a life of its own. The reader just needs to be aware that any memoir at best is still likely to have distortions of the truth.
