Reviewed by Sue McFadyen Ah suburbia! A fair dinkum place where people look out for each other, a safe and dependable haven to grow up in and spend your life? None of that anymore, according to Stephen Orr in his short story collection Datsunland, where suburban life has a dark side, often more hell than
Reviewed by Mike Clarke This is a slight book (in more ways than one). Tessa Charlotte Rampling OBE, the daughter of a British Olympic gold medallist, is a model and actor famous for her roles in films such as Georgy Girl (1966), The Dammed (1969) and The Night Porter (1974). In 2015 she was
Reviewed by Dr Kathleen Huxley Rodney Syme has been a doctor and surgeon since 1964. Additionally, he is the president of Dying With Dignity Victoria, has a specialist and extensive experience in urology and an in-depth knowledge of, and acquaintance with, people who are experiencing terminal illness and suffering. In this moving account of
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Travellers through tropical rain forest in Australia would give their eye teeth for a book as comprehensive and scholarly as the text by John Kricher, aptly named The New Neotropical Companion . To be a useful companion a book must be sturdily bound, it must have clear and concise information,
Reviewed by Brian Morgan. The essential story in this book makes for engaging reading. It is a composite story of the exploits of a number of Dutch East Indies bomber pilots who escaped Java just as the Japanese were invading in early 1942. I use the word “composite” as a number of them did
Reviewed by Dr Kathleen Huxley As the title of this book implies this oeuvre “offers an account of the female literary tradition of the last two centuries that recognizes and evaluates its engagement with public life”. Throughout the book there is an emergence of recurrent themes that uncover the evident, but often underestimated,
Reviewed by E.B. Heath ‘Her mother had told her how the trees shaped the forest – the karri, among the world’s tallest, and the tingle, with its massive girth, one of the largest. She told her that their bark hid spiders with sixty-five million years of history. ‘There are secrets and legends far
Reviewed by Ian Lipke I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do – Georgia O’Keeffe Katherine Boland shares Georgia O’Keeffe’s quote with her readers and it is transparently obvious why she does so. Hippy Days,
Reviewed by bonne nuit This light-hearted story entrances the reader as she is taken inside the intimate day to day occurrences that occur with marked regularity around Elle Wheaton. Elle is a girl who is most interested in the important things in a girl’s life – shoes, for instance, or friends, or even a career.
Reviewed by Ian Lipke When mankind accepts evil, the good tread with great care that they are not themselves ensnared. Charles Ballantyre almost delayed too long. His daughter’s happiness and the life of a good man hung in the balance. In Scotland 1893 a poacher is shot and killed on the estate of a wealthy
Reviewed by Mike Clarke If anybody could be described as a living encyclopaedia of sport it would be Matthew Syed. A columnist and feature writer for The Times, he has twice won ‘Sports Journalist of the Year’ at The British Press Awards. He is a regular contributor to BBC programmes and a sportsman in
Reviewed by Ian Lipke “Let ‘em drool!” A short sharp rejoinder from a brittle character who plays a large part in Charlie Donlea’s The Girl Who Was Taken. Nicole Cutty, amoral, tough and brash has no concern about nude breasts when young men hover. When she and other high school senior girls disappear from the
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Antigone Kefala is a contemporary Australian poet and prose-writer of Rumanian heritage. Her family moved to Greece but settled in New Zealand after World War II. Having studied French literature at Victoria University Antigone Kefala relocated to Australia in 1960. She has taught English as a second language and worked as a university and
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Sustained beyond reverberation; resonant beyond deafness (from The Disappeared) is an apt appellation to Hazel Smith’s active conscience. She has never been known to dodge the odd bit of controversy and her latest collection of poems follows a well-worn path. If there is one word readers might use to describe