Author Archives: susan

A week or so before Christmas, my local Opportunity Shop closed for the holidays. Not only were all clothes only $1 an item, but there were other magnificent bargains to be had as well. Magnificent? Bargains? I guess it depends … Continue reading →

As the old joke says, “Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.” My trip to Chelsea was a rather melancholy pilgrimage. My old house is gone, almost every house I knew in the street is gone, the playground and bluestone … Continue reading →

PLAINNESS The garden’s grillework gate opens with the ease of a page in a well-thumbed book, and, once inside, our eyes have no need to dwell on objects already fixed and exact in memory. Here habits and minds and the … Continue reading →

A few weeks ago, I tried to go home again. To my childhood home, in the bayside suburb of Chelsea. I thought that I was prepared for the changes wrought in 35 years (it’s that long since I’ve been there) … Continue reading →

I think that old things, in general, are time machines. Especially if you can handle them, pick them up. Things that have been used by successive generations down the years are especially powerful. Heirlooms, we call them, but they don’t … Continue reading →

Because I write mainly children’s fiction, I think a lot about the child’s view of history. How to give children a sense of the past. Not facts, not dates, but feeling, a sense that the people who lived in this … Continue reading →

  I grew up in Chelsea, one of Melbourne’s bayside suburbs. Our back gate opened onto the beach and I spent a lot of time there, beachcombing. I learned early to look down. Looking down and finding things to pick … Continue reading →

We’ve had exquisite birdsong – liquid, melodious, varied –   around our place for the past two or three weeks because a pair of Grey Shrike-Thrushes have taken up residence in our street. They swoop between gardens, but are especially … Continue reading →

We were at Southern Cross station after dinner in town, so with a bit of time to spare we went in to the WHSmith bookshop there. Lots of best-sellers on the shelves, but I’ve got enough to read at the … Continue reading →

This was another score from The Book Grocer. Also $6.00. Like Holloway, it’s a hard cover,  high quality publication from an English imprint (Weidenfeld and Nicholson) – and also right up my alley. While the sub-title does give the reader … Continue reading →