Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The seductive charm of Provence, a beautifully crumbling old house, a group of strangers coming together for two weeks and there to discover hidden talents or realise a method in producing a best-selling book…… it is a scenario straight from many a struggling writer’s dream. Kat Hale has written a novel
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The deep connection to the natural world is beautifully and movingly realised in Inga Simpson’s collection of different stories which are linked by the passion they contain. In the longer eponymously titled one, the uncompromising nature of a relationship is a reflection of a wider view of the world. The two
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke With the title of this book, Life Drawing, sharing the cover with the back view of a naked woman, one might assume that this book is about that aspect of art. However, this debut novel by Emily Lighezzolo is at heart a love story. Set in Brisbane with the main characters
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Pakistan has not been renowned for its modern literature, which could bring its vibrant culture teeming with a kaleidoscope of stories to an appreciative international readership. For example, A Suitable Boy together with many others brought the colourful humour of Indian life, to millions. They were highly praised and often won
Reviewed by Colleen McLennan The author, Kathy Lette, has had a long literary career. She has written twenty books which have been translated into nineteen languages, and has worked in television as a presenter, written a book which was made into a film and TV mini-series as well as writing columns for newspapers and magazines.
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke It was lovely to return to Settlers Bridge and hear more about the residents I had encountered before in Léonie Kelsall’s books. I had read about Lachlan and Hamish MacKenzie and how Lachlan had met his partner schoolteacher Charity. Hamish is also prominent in the stories of others in and around
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend The Furphy Literary Award was established in 1992. It became a national competition for the first time in 2020 with the topic: Australian life in all its diversity. Out of this year’s seven hundred and fifty entrants, fifteen short stories judged to be the best of the best are presented here.
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Lexi Villiers was enjoying her medical residency in Hobart and hanging out with close friends when she was whisked away by private helicopter and flown back to England. Lexi was Princess Alexandrina, the spare to the British throne. She was filled with dread as, even as she “flew closer to London,
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Most people when setting out on a writing career are told to write about what they know and this is certainly true for Di Morrissey AM especially in her latest book, The Endless Sky. Having had her own morning TV show and appeared in several episodes of the CBS TV series
Reviewed by Rod McLary William J Byrne proves to be a natural story-teller as he weaves the real-life experiences of his extended family with the history and circumstances of the Indigenous people. As a child, he was immersed in the tales told by his aunties and uncles and his father. And what this has brought
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Sally Hepworth, in Mad Mabel, has launched a very sympathetic and likeable character in the person of 81year old Elsie Fitzpatrick, once the infamous young murderer, mad Mabel. The eye-watering success of the Thursday Murder Club series, which is set in an aged care facility, proved that characters’ ages would not
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Once again Fiona McArthur has her readers visiting the town of Lightning Ridge. This was also the setting for her book, The Opal Miner’s Daughter, number two in her Aussie Outback Medical Romance Series. Her latest book, The Lightning Ridge Ladies, is the fourteenth book in that series. As is her
Reviewed by Rod McLary In his Afterword [p127] to this novella, Colm Tóibín explains that A Long Winter was written twenty years ago and first appeared as a story in his collection Mothers and Sons published in 2006. The stories in the collection explore the nature of relationships between and mothers and their sons –
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Suzanne Do is not as well-known as her husband, Anh, but her book The Golden Sister promises much. The Do family live on the coast south of Sydney. The Golden Sister is a fast-paced mystery set in a small fictional NSW coastal town, exploring complex and dysfunctional family dynamics and the
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Giants do live in our world. A quick search of any encyclopedia will reveal the existence of people nine feet tall. If you consider a nearly 9-foot-tall human a giant, then yes, they certainly do. Robert Wadlow, the tallest person on record, grew to 8 feet, 11 inches (2.72 meters) before