Reviewed by Antonella Townsend Caroline Hirons’s Skin Care is a classic example of how ‘you-can’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover’ – startling bright yellow, title in a large bold type with the inside cover decorated in a garish army camouflage pattern. Readers might wonder if it might be a quasi-medical journal published by a far right organization. However, after battling
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Bond Springs Station, north of Alice Springs, was first settled in the 1870s by a Mr Willoughby and Mr Youl, after a daunting twelve-month wagon trek through central Australia. Australia’s Cattle King, Sydney Kidman, became the property owner in 1910, from whom Grant Heaslip purchased it in 1964. The original houses,
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Finding Eadie is the third historical novel by Caroline Beecham. This author provides a well-researched backdrop for her stories. In this case, it is World War Two in London and focusses on how many of those left behind struggled to carry on their normal lives. This is not a story about
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This novel is another interesting read from the pen of Kerry McGinnis. Using her vast experience of the outback, she has opened up this part of Australia to her readers. Kerry McGinnis is the oldest sister in a family who run a vast station out near Lawn Hill, in North-west Queensland
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Sex as a consolation and substitute for fame, and a young woman behaving with the confidence and lack of commitment of the male, is the driving force of Jena Li – a brilliant child prodigy who once played her Stradivarius violin to international audiences. Being a young, now 23, beautiful Asian,
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Enid, born in Australia’s Hunter Valley, one of seven children, became one of the most famous hostesses of the early twentieth century. At her luxurious villa – La Fiorentina – on the French Riviera, an eclectic guest list graced its fabulous grounds. Architects, movie stars, artists and politicians, aristocrats and businessmen,
Reviewed by Ian Lipke It was with a great deal of anticipation that I sat down to read Christopher Pyne’s book. Here was the consummate politician, the Leader of Government Business in the House of Representatives, a man with twenty-five years of experiencing the political realm, the hothouse that is the Lower Chamber. The book
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Tony Park’s novels are well known to most readers of general fiction. His books are usually fast moving narratives that tell an exciting story and introduce characters as efficiently as some of the highly visible, top line writers. His Scent of Fear and Ghosts of the Past were exciting and worthwhile.
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Erica McAlpine expends considerable energy on defining what she means by a mistake in poetry. At first glance, mistakes are just mistakes – somebody has written something and got it wrong. McAlpine’s example of turkeys in England (in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1) when there were no such birds in the
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend In her latest novel, Better Luck Next Time, Kate Hilton introduces readers to a cast of angst-ridden characters; a chaotic mix that includes: a famous feminist icon, five capable professional women,husbands and fathers, two unattached wise men, an angry teenage boy, and, crashing through the sound barrier, four-year-old twin sisters. Manipulating
Reviewed by Clare Brook Whereas the Covid-19 toilet paper debacle has been well publicized, the rush to buy vegetable seedlings is virtually unknown, perhaps because gardeners are calm and well mannered. Nevertheless, it is clear that this virus has brought the realization that a little bit of self-sufficiency is prudent, so the publication of Paul
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The catastrophic bushfires at the beginning of this year dominated the news and usurped the television. Normal programmes vanished and were replaced by roaring flames, some forty metres high, a devastated charred landscape and homes reduced to rubble. Amongst this horror were heart-rending glimpses of injured animals. A kangaroo turning the
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The earlier chapters of On a Barbarous Coast might strike the reader to be an imagined survival story set near what is now Cooktown. The exploits of the crew of Cook’s Endeavour are graphically related. It is, in fact, much much more. In order to conclude as it does, the authors
Reviewed by Ian Lipke It seems incongruous that a book on such a timid concept as democracy has become one of the most exciting, serious books I’ve read. When Stasavage asks where democracy originated, he provides answers that are not what readers expect. When he examines the nature of democracy, he delves into a very
Reviewed by E.B. Heath … Mum came down from the tallest greengage tree … “This whole thing is not at all as I’d thought” … Life is precisely that which she and others were prodigiously killing – the moment itself. Should an award ever exist for the category ‘Lightness of Touch when Writing about Brutality’