Reviewed by Ian Lipke Reading The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (hereafter Grimm’s Tales) for the first time supplies an insight into a hitherto undiscovered world. Brought up from childhood to enjoy Grimm’s Fairy Tales most people gave no thought to the possibility that what they were reading was heavily sanitized.
Reviewed by Ian Lipke This is the story of two friends who grow up on neighbouring properties in the Kimberley region of northern Australia. At age 15 they make a pact that neither will ever screw up their friendship. However at age eighteen, on the offer of places in a university, Tom Forrest kisses Willow
Reviewed by E. B. Heath The Student is a wild read! Iain Ryan has written this adrenalin-fuelled novel in the hard-boiled noir genre. However, there is more to this novel than the rush of testosterone driven, drugs, sex and violence, all of which is portrayed unflinchingly. A nuance of vulnerability associated with a coming-of-age
Reviewed by Norrie Sanders “It was the massacre of 180 Jews that brought me closer to my family” The last few days of the Second World War were congested with events that have become synonymous with human suffering and destruction. Gratuitous violence by retreating German troops, Adolf Hitler’s suicide, liberation of death camps and
Reviewed by E.B. Heath This little book, of ten short narratives, is a refreshing read. The author, Sreedhevi Iyer, writes from the perspective of multiple ethnicities and as such the reader enters into diverse cultural spaces and enjoys a literary holiday. Iyer’s cultural heritage is Indian-Malaysian-Australian; she wrote her PhD at City University Hong Kong
Reviewed by Ian Lipke For older Australians the great rabbit plagues of the first half of the twentieth century are remembered as vividly as if they were just a short time ago. Older readers will recall, as children, watching Uncle Jack sending his team of ferrets down a rabbit hole. They remember the heart
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Alison Weir’s name is irrevocably linked to the time of the Tudors in England. Her latest book, Six Tudor Queens: Anne Boleyn – A King’s Obsession is a major work that becomes Book 2 in a six-part series that traces the lives and deaths of the wives of Henry VIII. Her
Reviewed by E. B. Heath A feral dog streaks across his path, going for a gobbet of offal near the wheel of a cart. . . . Scavenging opportunist, Niccolò thinks, not without a certain admiration. Stick a feathered hat on him and give him a sword and you’ve got half the country. No
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