Category Archives: Uncategorized

A mother, father and daughter living in an inner-urban house in a state of perpetual renovation. A visiting grandmother. And a little mini-lop rabbit. These are the protagonists of The Burrow, a short novel set in Melbourne during the final … Continue reading →

Off the blocks and running in the 2025 Reading Stakes. I’ve finished 3 books so far this year – all fiction, and one of them was even a recent, Australian, literary fiction title. A good start, since I struggled with … Continue reading →

While waiting for Kate Constable’s annual reading roundup, I thought I’d attempt my own. My record-keeping is not great, but with the help of this blog, the history on my library account, book group lists and a look at my … Continue reading →

Nearly the end of the year and the start of the next. I love the gap between Christmas and New Year; the week drifts by with no particular plan except to finish the leftovers and relax. Our son and his … Continue reading →

In museums, libraries and the landscape, a memory remains of a wilderness of unquiet graves, riddling marshes and storm-beaten cliffs. The stories to come and the commentaries that follow them were inspired by these memories, found in cultural artefacts whose … Continue reading →

I started reading The Children of Green Knowe by L M Boston for a Substack read-along (first I’ve ever done; will I do a knit-along next?), and immediately entered another world. It’s like being transported into a beautiful old-fashioned snow … Continue reading →

The idea that children’s writing is a lower form – a  brain-injured version of writing for adults, as (writer Martin Amis) Amis caricatured it – is as persistent as it is misguided. Children’s literature isn’t a defective and frivolous sidebar … Continue reading →

One of the gifts of growing older has been birds. My parents used to sit by the big window in this house, sometimes with binoculars or an old pair of opera glasses, and watch the birds in the garden. I … Continue reading →

Sometimes even murder stories or favourite children’s books don’t do the trick, and such a time is now. I have been avoiding any news about the US elections (or the war in the Middle East – and poor Ukrainians, they’re … Continue reading →

I’m going through a very frustrating phase in my reading life. It’s very unsettling; I can’t seem to find the ‘Goldilocks’ book, the one that’s just right. My library bag is full of returns that I’ve glanced into and skimmed … Continue reading →