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‘Dr Huxley’s Bequest’ Shortlisted for Young People’s History Prize
Dr Huxley’s Bequest has been shortlisted for the Young People’s History Prize in the 2018 NSW Premier’s History Awards. The other shortlisted books are The Fighting Stingrays by Simon Mitchell and...
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What I’ve Been Reading: Novels by Women
The Gathering by Anne Enright was an engrossing novel about a dysfunctional Irish Catholic family and specifically, about the terrible consequences of covering up abusive behaviour. It was often...
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‘Front Desk’ by Kelly Yang
“I used to think being successful meant having enough to eat, but now that I was getting free lunch at school, I wondered if I should set my standards higher.” It’s 1993 and ten-year-old Mia Tang has...
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My Favourite Books of 2018
Well, that was a year. A year in which a lot of my favourite reads involved escapism and humour, because the real world was not an especially fun place to be. I read 54 books that were new to me (I...
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‘Lies Sleeping’ by Ben Aaronovitch
I’d been saving this latest installment of the Rivers of London series for the holidays, when I’d have time to enjoy it, and it was worth the wait. Lies Sleeping is the seventh novel about Peter Grant,...
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Five Feminist Books
Happy International Women’s Day! I thought I’d mark the occasion by recommending some feminist books. Social media has its uses and there are lots of interesting feminist blogs and online forums, but...
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‘The Thuggery Affair’ by Antonia Forest
This is the sixth book in Antonia Forest’s series about the Marlow family. I’ve really enjoyed most of them so far, especially the school books, but all I know about this one is that it involves...
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Chapter Three: A Gentleman of the Fancy As they walk back to Patrick’s house, Peter notices they’re being trailed by Jukie. “Don’t look now,” he tells Lawrie, “who immediately did, in all directions”....
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If you’re interested, here are some Hep Cat teenagers in a coffee bar. They are not actually Thugs, though. Chapter Five – A Brush with the Enemy Peter and Lawrie go home to breakfast. Lawrie is...
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Chapter Seven: The Costume for the Part Lawrie and Peter walk home to have “dinner” (wouldn’t the Marlows be posh enough to call it “lunch”?) and the children again fail to inform Rowan, Ann or Mrs...
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Chapter Nine: Character Part While Peter is racing around the countryside being shot at, Lawrie is on the train to Colebridge, dressed as a hot chick but being very Lawrie: “…she liked to have active...
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Chapter Eleven: The Dovecote at Monk’s Culvery Patrick is on his way to Monk’s Culvery, via the secret priest tunnel. Presumably the Culver family were also Catholics in the “penal times”, allied with...
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Chapter Thirteen: The Flyaway Patrick and Jukie race off in the stolen car, heading for Ireland where the Boss Man has a hideout. Patrick feels a “mounting exhilaration at the sheer speed” and is...
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My Favourite Books of 2019
This year, I was in a reading slump and a writing slump (and a general dealing-with-life slump), so I finished reading only 31 new books. I did a lot of comfort reading of old favourites and I spent...
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#AuthorsForFireys
Australia is currently in the middle of a bushfire catastrophe, with horrific destruction of human lives, property and wildlife. Like many Australians, I’ve been watching the news, seeing familiar...
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Funny Business: Conversations with Writers of Comedy
“A joke isn’t a joke if you need to explain it,” says Leonard S. Marcus, who compiled and edited this series of interviews with authors of funny books for children. “Even so, the hidden clockwork of...
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What I Read During My Holidays
Yes, my holidays ended a fortnight ago and I’m only now getting around to blogging about the books I read. Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner was...
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What I’ve Been Reading
Remember how I resolved to spend more time reading books and blogging about them in 2020? Hmm, that’s worked out well, hasn’t it? Other people may have spent lockdown reading War and Peace or the...
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‘False Value’ by Ben Aaronovitch
False Value is the eighth novel in Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series. I’ve enjoyed all the previous novels, but I’m sorry to say that I think that Ben Aaronovitch has now lost the plot. This...
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‘The January Stars’ by Kate Constable
Disclaimer, because this is an Australian book: I’ve never met Kate Constable but we internet-know each other and she is a regular commenter on this blog. However, I wouldn’t write nice things about...
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