Well it's been another busy week on-farm. Suddenly the weather conditions are looking ordinary again which goes to show how quickly things change out here. We did have good rain during July with a very welcome 50 mm falling however we've had a freezing winter. At one point we had seven consequtive frosts which is [...]
If you're looking for a non-fiction rural read then Liz Harfull's Women of the Land may be for you. Liz is an award-winning journalist and Churchill Fellow. She grew up on a small farm near Mount Gambier in South Australia, which has been in the family since the early 1860s. Liz trained as a journalist on a [...]
Alison Booth has completed her Jingera trilogy which started with the memorable Stillwater Creek. She joined me to answer Five Quick Questions . Do click on the links to learn more about Alison and her work. 1. A Distant Land is set in 1971 towards the end of Australias involvement in the Vietnam War. Did you choose one [...]
A big welcome to Peter Watt. As someone who dabbles in historical narrative I've been a big fan of Peter's since reading The Cry of the Curlew. If you're a fan of Australian rural literature and partial to an engrossing, authentic story set in the outback, then this is the type of read for you. The Cry [...]
Anything you can play on a veranda, you know, without electricity, dirt music. Winton is so adept at descriptive prose a reader quickly understands that a major character in Dirt Music is the landscape, the sea and desert of Western Australia. If you love narratives of our ancient land, Australia, then this book is hard [...]
What a task I set myself in the reviewing of Atonement, Ian McEwans Booker prize winning novel of 2001 and a work which was listed as one of the top 100 reads of all time by Time Magazine. Atonement is part love story, part war story and also a story about stories. The first half [...]
The Heart of A story: Characters & Conflict. Why are characters so important in writing, because they literally pull the reader through the book. Thats why its so vital to have a compelling main character. When I think of memorable characters Scarlett OHara comes immediately to mind. There is a reason why Gone With The [...]