Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’ve just finished a couple of Siri Hustvedt books; a novel and a collection of essays. I’ve had Sorrows of an American for ages, but never read it. And within a few minutes, I was so absorbed that I knocked … Continue reading →

I had a break in writing recently and took to making art pages in one 0f those cheap black spiral bound visual diaries. Here are a few.

It seems that often my random reading continues a kind of conversation in my head. After writing my last post, on Tim Parks’ book, I’ve been thinking about thinking. The problem of too much thinking. Thinking when I’d rather not. … Continue reading →

Tim Parks’ Where I’m Reading From is a collection of articles originally written for the New York Review of Books between 2010 and 2014. The introduction starts with a fusillade of questions. It’s time to rethink everything. Everything. What it … Continue reading →

I read Nina Riggs’ The Bright Hour over an afternoon and evening; I literally couldn’t put it down. It wasn’t because of suspense; there was no ‘how will this story turn out’; there was never any doubt about the ending. … Continue reading →

Just finished Sally Abbott’s Closing Down. I was at a dinner party here in Castlemaine a couple of years ago when I met Sally for the first time. She was still finishing the book, with chapters flying to and fro … Continue reading →

Continuing the stationery theme from my last post… End of financial year always has me scrabbling around for receipts and invoices. In general, they’re properly filed away but occasionally not. That’s when I go looking, and in looking find all … Continue reading →

That’s my son, Lachie, at the top of the photograph, holding this big cardboard key and looking bewildered. It was taken 14 years ago, when he was in Grade 1. What 6-year-old even knows the meaning of ‘organisation’? Not my … Continue reading →

To be released in December (a Christmas gift for brave girls) is Vasilisa the Wise, with stories retold by Kate Forsyth and illustrated by Lorena Carrington, published by Serenity Press. It includes my second-favourite fairy tale (the first is Beauty … Continue reading →