Category: book review (Page 1 of 11)

Book review — The Secret Year of Zara Holt, by Kimberley Freeman

Title: The Secret Year of Zara Holt

Author: Kimberley Freeman

Publisher: Hachette, 2025; RRP: $32.99

Reviewed by: Jason Nahrung

I haven’t kept up with Kimberley Freeman’s work since her debut, Duet – this is her eighth, falling into the publishing category of ‘women’s fiction’. Which is to say, stories about women making their own way in the world with a good dose of relationship struggle to boot. While Duet was a ripper read, my tastes swing more towards speculative and climate fiction, the former being the oeuvre of Freeman’s alter ego, Kim Wilkins. Wilkins, a powerhouse in the Australian writing scene, is also an accomplished academic based in Brisbane, and one can imagine the fun she had researching the subject matter for Zara Holt (drawing on Zara’s memoir as a key source). There must have been some interesting choices about what to keep, what to leave, what to imagine, what to leave unsaid, given that Dame Zara Bate DBE died in 1989 but has family still, on top of the rich life she led.

Which is the reason this book caught my attention: something of a departure from previous outings, in being an imagined story of real people. Zara Dickins’ second husband, Harold Holt, is perhaps best known for embracing ‘all the way with LBJ’ – which surfaces here – and his death by drowning just shy of two years into his prime ministership, his body never recovered, the enduring mystery of which infuses this novel and inspires its title. But what about Zara?

A quick read of a couple of biographies reveals an accomplished businesswoman and creative talent, an exemplary partner to a government minister and prime minister, and wife who suffered through the serial cheating of her renowned husband.

Freeman centres her fictionalised tale on the Harry-Zara axis, an enduring if turbulent love affair that stretched from first meeting as teenagers to tragic end, with all the travails between. The history is told primarily in the first person, a retrospective with flaws and all. For instance, the attraction with Harry endures through Zara’s first marriage, to English soldier James Fell, with Zara adapting to the role of a colonial wife in India. Then comes the aftermath of her marriage’s explosive end, leaving her essentially a single mother raising three sons.

Learn more about the life of Zara Holt

@ Nightlight, on the ABC

But The Secret Year… is more than a love story. Unfolding between 1927 and 1968, the novel has room to explore the challenges faced by Zara and her best friend, Betty, as they establish their own fashion business as single women (and resurrecting it later), how they navigate the social mores of the times, and how Zara steps out of Harry’s shadow. A highlight is a speech given at a ladies’ charity function in which, after providing encouragement for women to make their own way, she invites the attendees to come chat, but ‘please don’t call me Mrs Holt. I’m Zara.’

Adding dimension to the star pair’s fire-and-ice relationship is a well-drawn supporting cast of family and friends, and the period settings – life in Melbourne, Canberra and India, the various overseas and interstate locations – which offer sufficient details to not only give a feeling for time and place but add to the characters’ stories. Celebrity moments both dull and exhilarating, jet lag, inspiring local fashions, all frame the environment in which the Holts were moving.

As the tragedy of Cheviot Beach looms closer, Freeman picks up the pace, skipping across highlight events. Meeting US President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Birdie; attending the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II; hosting the Johnsons amid the tumult of the Vietnam War … touchstones revealing the Holts’ relationship, Zara’s handling of her husband’s career and infidelities, and the impact on her own life and career.

And then, there’s Harry’s disappearance while swimming, one of his flames a witness. The aftermath provides a poignant imagining of Zara’s response, one we won’t reveal here, sufficient to say it captures the heart of the story beautifully.

The strength of The Secret Year… is the ring of honesty in its depictions of these lives writ large yet grounded in very human challenges, a slice of history most assuredly all dressed up with somewhere to go.

>> Jason Nahrung is a Ballarat-based writer and editor. www.jasonnahrung.com

Review copy provided by the publisher

Book review – Vanish, by Shelley Burr

Title: Vanish
Author: Shelley Burr
Publisher: Hachette, 2025; RRP: $34.99
Review by: Marian Chivers, May, 2025

The author: Shelley Burr grew up on Newcastle’s beaches, her grandparents’ property in Glenrowan and on the road between the two. She is also studying sustainable agriculture and working to establish a small permaculture farm. Her debut novel Wake won the prestigious UK Crime Writers’ Association’s Debut Dagger Award (for unpublished novelists) in 2019. When published in 2023, it was a Top Five bestseller winning Australian crime fiction awards. Her second novel, Ripper, went straight to Number One on the Australian Fiction Bestseller list and was shortlisted for two Australian crime fiction awards. Vanish is Burr’s third book in the Lane Holland series and can be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel.

The book: Lane Holland’s crime-solving career ended the day he went to prison. As his parole hearing approaches, he faces the grim reality that an ex-con can never work as a private investigator. Yet one unsolved case continues to haunt him: the disappearance of Matilda Carver two decades ago.

Lost souls are drawn to the Karpathy farm near Albury Wodonga in the hope of a new life. Some stay. Some leave. Some are never heard from again. Through a series of fortuitous events, Lane is able to get work release at the Karpathy farm, enabling him to investigate Matilda’s last known location. Is the farm a cult, commune or something else? Did those who vanished choose to disappear or did they meet some fatal end? Lane’s time at the farm begins with flood and ends with bushfire; the Australian countryside featuring as another worthy character.

Shelley Burr on the inspiration for Ripper (aka Murder Town)

@ Authors on the Air, Global Radio Network

Vanish is a solid example of Australian noir with enough red herrings and plot twists to keep the reader guessing. Burr’s writing is clean and the story demands the turning of the page to find out what happens next.

I have read all three of Burr’s books and each story can be read alone. The thread of Lane Holland’s tale provides a strong link between them all if read in order. A surprise return of a character from one of the previous novels helps to provide a satisfying ending while providing a hint of future possibilities for Lane’s investigative skills.

Marian Chivers has a lifelong interest in reading and writing with her work and study involving books from children’s literature to post graduate studies.

Review copy provided by the publisher

Book review – Swept Away, by Beth O’Leary

Title: Swept Away

Author: Beth O’Leary

Publisher: Quercus/Hachette, April 2025; RRP: $32.99

Review: Marian Chivers

Author bio: Beth O’Leary is a bestselling author whose novels have been translated into over thirty languages. The Flat Share, her debut novel, sold over a million copies and is now a major TV series. Her subsequent novels The Switch, The Road Trip, The No-Show and The Wake-Up Call were all instant bestsellers. Beth writes in the Hampshire countryside and if she’s not at her desk, she can be found curled up somewhere with a book, a cup of tea and several woolly jumpers (whatever the weather).

Review: Lexi is looking for no-strings-attached fun with a stranger. She deserves one night for herself, doesn’t she? Zeke is looking for love. But for one night with a woman like Lexi, he’ll break his rules…

After meeting and connecting at the pub, they end up stumbling to the marina for a passionate night on a houseboat named The Merry Dormouse. The next morning, hungover and shaken by an amazing night together, Lexi is ready for him to leave. There’s just one problem…the houseboat they stayed on has been swept out to the North Sea.

This is a wonderful plot for a forced-proximity romance and the story is told by a master storyteller. It is narrated by the two main characters in the first person. Their name is given at the beginning of the chapter so that the reader doesn’t get confused. The fact that Lexi is 31 and Zeke is 23 makes it different to many romances but the relationship is believable — unlike some of the plot points concerning the boat, time, and the behaviour of the North Sea which may require some disbelief to be suspended. However, the developing relationship between Lexi and Zeke is beautifully done and they enjoy a happy ending after some dramatic situations that test themselves and their growing relationship.

Beth O’Leary talks Swept Away

@ TWO WOMEN CHATTING

I’ve read another of O’Leary’s books (The No-Show) and she excels at creating characters that the reader cares about and a story that keeps you wondering what happens next. O’Leary’s style is warm and amusing, if not downright funny. She knows how to tug at the heart strings, too. If you need a story that keeps you turning the pages and leaves you feeling happier with the world, then O’Leary is an author to add to your reading list.

Marian Chivers has a lifelong interest in reading and writing with her work and study involving books from children’s literature to post graduate studies. She has also spent many years with an active involvement in romance writers’ associations.

Review copy provided by the publisher

Book review – The Writing Class, by Esther Campion

Title: The Writing Class
Author: Esther Campion
Publisher: Hachette Australia, 2024; RRP: $32.99
Review: Rhonda Cotsell, Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

The Writing Class is a work that succeeds at what its title suggests. It is predominantly light reading but with moving and believable depths. This is possibly because, as a retired librarian, I am convinced of the power of the written word and the act of writing to, if not transform lives, then at least make life significantly easier or less difficult to negotiate. So I was interested in how the author would approach it. Also, as someone with a Ballarat and Creswick writing group history, I was pretty much in just from reading its title.

Irish Australian author Esther Campion has a background which includes a deep respect for the author Maeve Binchy, membership of a Tasmanian writing group, and degrees from the University College Cork and the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She also worked in adult education and has studied environmental science and zoology. The author has written three other novels and currently lives in Tasmania with family, her beloved chocolate labrador (or in her words, ‘labradorable’), a smoochy cat and several elderly horses.

The Writing Class covers writing from form filling to creative and autobiographical. Within that framework is an exploration of human relationships set within a range of familiar and current issues. Vivian, the class leader to be, is herself struggling to deal with a major life shock: after having accompanied her husband to Tasmania, she is abandoned by him. Her story is where The Writing Class begins, alone and humiliated and preparing reluctantly for an interview with a friend who is also the manager of the local library and who has received funding to establish a writing class.

Esther Campion interviewed about The Writing Class

@ Living Arts Canberra

Vivian has a significant teaching and writing background and it is through her eyes the narrative unfolds, but this soon changes as we are slowly introduced to the people her friend has cajoled or strongly encouraged into joining the class. Among these are people dealing with domestic violence, adult illiteracy, Long COVID, some for whom English is their second language, single parenthood, ageing and, scattered throughout, severe loss of confidence. Outside the writing class sessions, some also face forced labour, sexuality issues, and parenthood trials.

This book covers a lot of ground, creating convincing and engaging characters and managing to interweave all issues within the writing group setting in a matter-of-fact style, neither dramatising nor understating the emotional journeys of each of its characters. It fits the genre of popular literature, and kept me engaged. Particularly because the problems each character dealt with are familiar and current, ones we read about in the news, law reports or case studies.

Vivian is nervous about returning to teaching and not sure she is up to what the manager wants, and her anxiety, and how she organises each class, also plays an important role in the narrative. This is not done in a dry and instructional tone but through Vivian’s calculated strategies to develop students’ confidence as the class moves forward. We see the thinking beforehand, the application and the results. Since part of the task involves the completion of an anthology by the end of the course, a central part of her approach is also the building of a team, despite its being a motley group of people of different ages and histories who have never met before. Friendships form, initial negative reactions – fearful or distracted – are overcome between the walls of the classroom. This the author does expertly, in such a way as to make the reader feel part of the class itself.

I did have one quibble and that is towards the end where Vivian thinks, in relation to the group:

If the last few months had taught her anything, it was that life was better when you said yes.

Given the severity and complexity of the issues each individual member, including Vivian, brought to the class and had to deal with outside it, I found this a bit of a pink and fluffy simplification of what makes life better – overlaying what had been quite moving and informative, and cheapening it.

It also bypasses the fact that positive outcomes were inextricably linked to the high level of support and access to other resources of those within the group, and not just the fact that they said ‘yes’ to the new experience of being in a writing group.

I can hear howls of disapproval re the above as the book does not pretend to be a serious sociological analysis. However, every reader of a particular work is going to have a different response to it and, as one of its readers, I felt suddenly let down and not a little disappointed.

So, a mixed review. I definitely enjoyed it in the lead up to the conclusion, and could not put it down, wanting to know what would happen next with Vivian, how she ran the class, and what would unfold in the lives of her writing class members. It was an easy read and the author’s background in adult education was apparent in the sections where she designed the sessions, particularly where the intention was to create cohesion in the class to make the final step of completing an anthology. Most of all I enjoyed the class as individuals, each with their own particular personalities, life experiences, and approaches. The author created people here that I felt an emotional response to.

Potential readers? It fits the genre of general fiction, i.e., one that does not fit into a specific genre like romance or thriller; suitable for young and older adults. Those who like Australian settings would like it, and also those who like an easy and entertaining read which includes a believable background with relevant, current issues and recognisable characters.

Review copy provided by the publisher

Book review — Don’t Let the Forest In, by CG Drews

Title: Don’t Let the Forest In
Author: CG Drews
Publisher: Hodder/Hachette, 2024; RRP $19.99
Review: Marian Chivers, January, 2025

CG Drews (no pronouns given) is the author of two previous novels, A Thousand Perfect Notes and The Boy Who Steals Houses. CG’s work has been translated into five languages and was nominated for the 2020 CILIP Carnegie Medal and won the 2020 CBCA Honour Award. According to the writer’s bio, CG lives in Australia, never sleeps and is forever buried under a pile of unread books.

The cover boasts that “not every fairy tale has a happy ending” and Don’t Let the Forest In fulfills the promise.

The story begins with Andrew reflecting that, “No one would want a heart like his. But he’d still cut it out and given it away.”

Andrew and his twin sister, Dove, are Australian and attend an American New England boarding school for the wealthy. Andrew writes twisted fairy tales for Thomas, “the boy with the hair like autumn leaves”. Thomas loves to draw Andrew’s monsters, but on their return to boarding school after the holidays, the police arrive to questions Thomas, as his parents have disappeared and Andrew notices he has blood on his sleeve.

Thomas is reluctant to talk about his family and Dove won’t talk to Andrew, who is slowly starving himself. In a bid to discover what is going on, Andrew follows Thomas into the forest and catches him fighting a monster from one of Andrew’s stories. Thomas’s drawings have come to life.

To protect the school’s inhabitants, the boys battle the creatures every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so do the monsters, and Andrew fears the only way to stop them might be to destroy their creator.

This tale will haunt you long after you finish it. There are twists in the plot that I can’t reveal here as it would spoil the story, but it is full of twisted fairy tales and monsters that will destroy your sleep. Along with the external threats there is a lot of internal angst and soul searching that should appeal to those who like their stories to leave them feeling uncomfortable and apprehensive.

As the author says in the acknowledgements at the end: “If you’ve turned the last page and are now frowning at the wall, then everything is as it should be.”

Marian Chivers has a lifelong interest in reading and writing with her work and study involving books from children’s literature to post graduate studies.

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group
Review copy provided by the publisher

Book review – White Noise, by Raelke Grimmer

Title: White Noise
Author: Raelke Grimmer
Publisher: UWA Publishing, Australia, 2024; RRP: $26.99

White Noise is the debut of Dr Raelke Grimmer, Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at Charles Darwin University. She teaches creative writing and linguistics. White Noise was inspired by her own life.

The story is told using the voice of Emma, known as Em, who is autistic and who lives with her doctor father in Darwin.

The book opens with the grief of both father and daughter after the death of Emma’s mother three and a half years previously. Both are still struggling to come to terms with their loss and the transition into life without her.

That Emma is autistic is not stated directly, alluded to only in the blurb. The earliest reference I found was 17 pages in and then only referred to in a brief aside after a friend’s mother regrets she has forgotten Emma’s food sensitivities, putting dressing on her salad.

‘I forget all the time,’ Dad offers.
‘You do not,’ I counter. It’s true. Since my diagnosis, I don’t think he’s once forgotten to accommodate my preferences.

Although the father and daughter’s grief is an important theme in White Noise, I found the portrayal of Emma’s day-to-day autistic life particularly engrossing.

The main people in Emma’s life are her father, her best friend Summer, an assortment of other teenage friends, and Elliot, with whom she shares a budding attraction. Both Emma and the neurotypical Elliot sharing the usual ups and downs of first love as he learns this side of the girl he falls for.

Emma and her father share a warm and mutually supportive relationship. Her father’s raw grief taking the form of recurrent nightmares where he shouts loudly in his sleep and is unable to calm down until Em goes to comfort him. In return, her father is always there when on occasion Em shuts down or suffers meltdowns when overwhelmed. Always available yet simultaneously leaving her space to live her life on her own terms.

Emma and her best friend Summer enjoy the usual activities and experiences of teenage life in a comfortable, white, middle-class setting. They share the same circle of friends and, since both sets of parents were also friends, Emma and Summer are more like sisters, having known each other for most of their lives.

Her relationship with Summer goes through a difficult patch when Emma wins a sports scholarship that Summer had dearly wanted, exacerbated by the fact that Summer is also having problems at home. Her parents have three other children aged between one and five, the care of which too often falls on her despite the fact that, at 16, she needs space to live her own life. In one scene, a hurt and exasperated Summer cries that Emma’s autism means that the attention must always be on caring for her and not so much her friend who has difficulties of her own. I found this reference to how the demands of Em’s (perfectly justifiable) needs can sometimes require more from neurotypical friends than they have to give refreshingly real, with both girls’ needs recognised.

Initially I had a problem with the almost too good to be true depiction of Em’s life. She and her friends are all physically attractive and popular. The families are warm and supportive. Her friends like her as she is, and are willing to put their own lives on hold to assist when she struggles to cope. Professionals in her life such as her teachers and medical staff are all uniformly pleasant and helpful. But this is not a given in real life. Given the highly sensitive and vulnerable inner autistic world as depicted, the danger that could be done to a child or teenager where the family was uncaring and unsupportive and resources limited became increasingly apparent as I read.

While thinking about this, however, I came across an article where the author herself questions her right to write an article about female autism and how it is depicted on TV – voicing a concern whether writing the female autistic self may need a voice other than her own. She writes:

I wrote this piece with hesitation. I only ever wanted my diagnosis to be for myself to know myself. I’m not sure this this conversation needs another voice like mine: female, yes, and     autistic, yes, but also white, neurotypical passing, privileged.

However, she then goes on to credit her own diagnosis and understanding of herself to the autistic content creators of two TV shows she watched constantly, sharing her own experience to illustrate how it made it possible to get to that point herself. Any voice that can do that can be a voice in the wilderness, regardless of where or who it came from.

I owe my own voice and understanding of myself to Cromer and Hayden’s eloquence in  sharing so much of themselves as they brought Matilda and Quinni to the screen. Not to  mention the countless other content creators writers, activists and artists who provided information and solace on my diagnostic road in their infallible commitment to breaking down autistic stereotypes with unreserved honesty. Without these voices in popular culture, I would still be searching for this piece of my identity. [my bold] Until the stereotypical representations of autism shift to reflect the entirety of the spectrum, there will never be enough voices. 

My only other concern, was that the depictions of Darwin lacked any indigenous Australian cultural presence or character despite the richly detailed descriptions of the Northern Territory landscape. It left a strange disconnect, as if it were a warm and tropical place anywhere.

There is an acknowledgement of country and reference to the traditional owners at the start but omitting them from the story itself, the ‘popular culture’ element, diluted its impact on the imagination, especially while simultaneously celebrating Darwin lavishly.

White Noise fits the genre of Young Adult novel, and suits readers from teenager and upwards. It would be helpful for those who might find something of themselves in Emma’s experiences as an autistic main character. I also think it might also be of value to neurotypical parents, friends, colleagues and acquaintances who may recognise themselves and others.

It is also a poignant sharing of grief and the time it takes to heal.

Reviewed by: Rhonda Cotsell

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

Review copy provided by the publisher

Book review — Frankie, by Graham Norton

Title: Frankie
Author: Graham Norton
Publisher: Coronet/Hachette, 2024; RRP $32.99

This is the third novel by Graham Norton I have read. Graham’s writing is easy to read. I find his character portrayals readily come to life. His stories benefit from his comedic eye for character observation. That ability to cut to the literal core, the touches of irony, and the truth we all know is there, but find hard to admit to.

The story opens with Damian meeting Frankie for the first time. Damian is a professional carer, Frankie is an elderly woman confined to her apartment. She is Damian’s latest caring assignment. The reader is also introduced to Nor, the third key character. Nor is short for Norah and is the lifelong friend of Frankie. It is Nor who has made the arrangements for a carer to be engaged.

The core of the book is Frankie’s life story. It is told via a series of reminiscences she shares with Damian during long wakeful nights. Norton presents the tales of Frankie’s life as individual chapters. The interplay between Damian and Frankie introduces each chapter.

Damian is gay and probably the most balanced character in the book, despite being young. Norton uses the relationship between Damian and Frankie to tie the story together. The book opens with Damian and closes with him. The way Damian engages with Frankie is a positive perspective on the relationship between the young and the old.

Graham Norton talks Frankie

with Lorraine

I suspect Norton enjoys exploring various relationship combinations and people that might be considered outside the social norm, whatever that is. There are several peripheral characters who are lesbian. This would appear to be important to the story given the consequences of Frankie’s involvement with this group. There is a senior member of the clergy who has a ‘virgin and whore complex’, and Frankie’s aunt and uncle are teetotal repressive religious puritans.

And what of Frankie? Heterosexual certainly. But, in my mind she symbolises tolerance, trust and hapless naivety. In a way she represents the betrayal of innocence. We see this, for example, in the way she is treated by her aunt and uncle, and with the ending of her marriage.

Frankie stumbles from one unfortunate calamity to another. Things happen to her, or around her: the loss of her parents, the meanness of her aunt and uncle, her ‘arranged’ marriage, the list goes on. It is as if Norton has taken to heart the writing rule of make your protagonist suffer. That is not to say Frankie’s life is all bad: there is adventure, passion, and friendship. But while parents, guardians, lovers and other friends die, betray or desert, Nor is there as the saving angel.

It is clear from early on in the story that Nor is attracted to Frankie. We never really get into the nature of that attraction. Nor’s love for Frankie is unrequited, certainly in any physical sense. Nor is lesbian, though in the little of her story we are given, she does marry.

Frankie’s life is interesting and the telling of it is intriguing for Damian, a young man finding his way in the world. I’m sure many will love this book and find the story enduring and heart-warming.

Reviewed by: Frank Thompson
Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group
Review copy provided by the publisher

Book review — Rock and Tempest, by Patricia Collins

Title: Rock and Tempest: Surviving Cyclone Tracy and Its Aftermath
Author: Patricia Collins
Publisher: Hachette Australia, 2024; RRP $34.99

I chose this book because, like many, the news of Cyclone Tracy hitting Darwin early Christmas Day 1974 left an indelible memory, but I knew little of what followed. Rock and Tempest has been written by someone who was there. So, I looked forward to finding out more.

Despite its title, Rock and Tempest: Surviving Cyclone Tracy and Its Aftermath is mostly about the role played by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), as experienced by Patricia Collins, who was there as a member of RAN’s non-combatant Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS).

In some areas the reportage is like a diary, personal and revealing, but interspersed with recollection couched in the severe and exact language of the military. The shifts between are sometimes abrupt and the military language, dry and reliant, assumed insider knowledge that I occasionally found frustrating. Despite this, Rock and Tempest held me riveted to the end.

We meet the author huddling in a wardrobe, the safest place she could find as all hell breaks loose over and around her. The roaring wind force is so great that rain is horizontal, but when the fire alarms sound she obediently climbs out of the wardrobe to follow the correct procedure of reporting it to the duty quartermaster gunner. Despite the unlikeliness of fire being the main danger. Sprawling and crashing down a corridor, she makes the call, but when returning to the wardrobe, she is knocked off her feet and skids backwards down the hall – grabbing at the louvres that line the walls – propelled by the violent strength of the water cascading in.

At first these sudden shifts from unpleasant experiences to strictly following procedure were disorientating. But it worked, giving a human face to the RAN’s rigorous adherence to process, but also including instances elsewhere reflecting the freer, practical spirit of the human species that created them. Like not handing in unbroken bottles of various alcoholic substances around destroyed homes, instead putting them to use, substituting for the lack of debriefing, in the get-togethers with friends and family after long emotionally and physically exhausting days. The author’s inclusion of details like these act to humanise the factual, report-like information the author provides of her naval colleagues’ activities. Some rules need to be refocussed.

Naval acronyms are used liberally unfortunately, with no glossary to assist readers. There is also much detailed description of daily duties, equipment specifications, rules and procedures sometimes seeming only loosely relevant to Darwin and the cyclone, though very relevant to those whose work revolved around them.

Patricia Collins interviewed at the ABC about Cyclone Tracy

In the days that follow the storm, events are leavened by other small, chatty details about the RAN’s domestic, personal and social lives. Though unashamedly self-congratulatory at times, it reads as well-earned pride. People emerge as hardworking, and committed to rescue and protect but still as fleshed-out individuals rather than faceless figures whose only identity is the military force to which they belong.

Disappointingly there is less information about how Darwinian civilians experienced Cyclone Tracy and its aftermath. On reflection, however, that is inevitable. What the author experiences is shaped by her role as a Wran, which would affect how her hours and days were filled after the cyclone had passed, and also what she would recall.

Despite this, civilians are not entirely absent. She writes,

There is no doubt that that local police and medical personnel did a phenomenal job in desperately tragic and chaotic conditions … despite their own losses, they fronted up for duty day after day. Their work was shattering.

Read more about the RAN”s involvement in the events of Cyclone Tracy

Scattered throughout Rock and Tempest are other snapshot-like references to what Darwin civilians endured. Her words and what she notices are stark and dramatic, creating unforgettable images despite their brevity.

Details like an uncertain death total because bodies were dropped off at medical points without details being taken and only those identified being counted, the large number of ‘transients’ camped on Mindil Beach directly in the path of the cyclone’s approach, blood hosed down in a hospital room and running down stairs, divers finding sunken pleasure cruisers by following the sharks, people unable to find shelter cut to pieces by flying sheets of tin.

This against a shared background of RAN and townspeople alike suffering endless searing heat and the overwhelming stench of Christmas Day seafood rotting in freezers and refrigerators. And the deaths of their own.

The author also speaks of the lack of recognition for what both RAN and WRANS personnel suffered, and the suffering that continued afterwards in their lives.

One man, sent to rally the troops, told the author later:

…he had found the staff in a bad way, pointing to one man sitting in a dark corner, whimpering gently. The best efforts … were futile in easing the man’s broken spirit.

and later,

Many people who went through the cyclone reached the limits of their physical and emotional strength sooner or later. Darwin city recovered and went on to grow and thrive. Many people did not.

There is more of this and it is worth reading to get that fuller picture of things that happened outside public view once the initial aftermath was dealt with, while higher-ups up received accolades and medals. Another story in itself. Despite the disenchantment underlying the ending, however, Patricia Collins was rightfully proud in what she and those she worked beside accomplished. She was glad she was there.

Rock and Tempest is one of those rare books that will haunt the reader long after the last page. For me it’s the Wran struggling through flooding waters to report fire alarms to a duty officer because no matter how ridiculous sometimes, an ability to adhere to rules defines that particular type of people who make the difference between success and failure when our worlds break apart.

Reviewed by: Rhonda Cotsell

Ballarat Writers Book Review Group

Review copy provided by the publisher

Book review – My Efficient Electric Home Handbook, by Tim Forcey

Title: My Efficient Electric Home Handbook

Author: Tim Forcey

Publisher: Murdoch Books/Allen & Unwin, 2024;  RRP: $29.99

The Author

Tim Forcey is a home comfort and energy adviser, researcher and author. Tim grew up on a dairy farm before pursuing a career as a chemical engineer working around the globe in fossil fuels but left that industry after realising the climate crisis couldn’t wait for him to effect change from within. Following roles with government, the University of Melbourne, and not-for-profit organisations, Tim now thoroughly enjoys helping people make critical changes in their own homes.

The Book

As the front cover boldly states, this is a handbook for making your home energy efficient and electric. Given the rising energy costs, this title has got to be an attention getter. Indeed, for me, this book was an impulse buy. So, was it worth it?

In the introduction Tim outlines why we should aspire to live in an efficient electric home. Or as Tim says: this handbook shows how to stop burning stuff at home, whether that be fossil fuels such as gas or LPG, or even wood. His premise is that electrical options for heating, cooking and cooling are cheaper and more comfortable. Certainly, since I discovered induction cook tops (some time ago), I will never go back to gas for cooking.

Tim claims the key drivers for everything electric are money saved, a more comfortable home that is safer and healthier, and tackling the climate emergency. Even if you don’t agree with the last, the first three should be sufficiently motivating.

Part 1 of the book gives the reader an insight into Tim’s journey from son of a dairy farmer in America, through his employment in the petrochemical industry working for BHP in Melbourne, to an energy evangelist. There is also a summary of the evils of climate change, a little bit about Tim’s role as an energy adviser and some comments about the quality of Australian homes.

Tim spends the rest of the book talking about the opportunities for electrifying your home.

Tim Forcey interviewed for Australia’s Biggest Book Club

@ The Australia Institute

Tim’s writing style is clear, simple and easy to read. Much of it is based on Tim’s experience with his Melbourne residence, giving the book a personal feel. Tim also draws upon research and experience associated with the engineering of domestic energy consumption, and Melbourne University research.

There is a modest but adequate set of endnotes, and a good index is included.

I’m sure there would be other experts in this field who might argue with some of Tim’s opinions. A lot of the advice in this book is, I think, obvious, for example, eliminating draughts. However, I found most of the advice to be practical and achievable for the average household.

This is a great read for anyone setting out to tackle their home energy issues. Even if you are some ways down that path, it is still a good checklist.

This was the first time I saw a convincing statement of the benefits of reverse-cycle heat pump technology over ducted gas for home heating.  And considering my recent investment in heat pump technology, it was reassuring to see in My Efficient Electric Home Handbook evidence that my own unscientific observations are correct and therefore made the impulsivity of the book purchase worthwhile.

Reviewed by: Frank Thompson

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

Book review – The Four, by Ellie Keel

Title: The Four

Author: Ellie Keel

Publisher: HQ/Harper Collins, 2024; RRP: $32.99

Ellie Keel lives in London and The Four is her debut novel. Ellie has a background in producing and playwriting and is the founder director of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting which promotes gender equality for writers in the UK and Ireland.

This book is an intensely forthright and compelling read, a story about four teenagers who attend an elite boarding school in England for pre university admission. They are scholarship students, academically bright but subjected to the extreme ramifications of class bias and cruelty. Rose, the narrator, and Marta, her co-scholarship room, both suffered the loss of their mothers, Rose just twelve months earlier. Loyd and Sami also have backgrounds of  disadvantage and are determined to make the opportunity work for them.

The four young people have to quickly adjust to the routines and unspoken rules of an institution that is steeped in tradition, bullying and privilege. They learn who to trust and who to avoid but not until they have been subjected to cruel behaviour.

Listen to an audio preview of The Four

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Prior to their arrival at High Realms, a young woman died on the school premises in circumstances surrounded in silence. The dead girl’s sister, Genevieve, is a prominent and particularly aggressive senior student leader who holds incredible power within the studentship. Then, Genevieve suffers a serious  accident and is hospitalised after an altercation with Marta and what follows becomes a suspenseful and excruciating story of how the four manage to support Marta’s extreme situation. Marta is missing. They are all at risk in many ways and yet they remain secretively loyal to their friend Marta whose mental health is seriously deteriorating.

The author has a writing style that complements the telling of psychological dilemmas and trauma. She cantilevers her work, allowing the reader to understand the inner thoughts of the characters, especially the narrator Rose.

as my father and I approached High Realms in his cab, along the broad drive lined with stately plane trees, I’d felt as though my imagination was being coloured in, to a vividness and a grandeur that exceeded all my expectations … but as soon as we entered the bustling atrium with its dozens of portraits and towering staircase, my excitement had fallen away … I’d looked up and around; I’d seen the hundreds of students who exuded their confidence and beauty even more than their affluence, and I’d felt tiny …

Ellie Keel has created a powerful novel. She goes to the murkiest of situations and doesn’t try to shield the reader’s sensitivities. There are twists and turns when least expected and the suspense is all engaging. The Four is a dark book leaving the reader pondering on the events and almost dismissing them as too bizarre to be true, except the story doesn’t go away; it has relevance and truth in ways that cause a shiver to the spine.

Reviewed by: Heather Whitford Roche

Ballarat Writers Book Review Group, September 2024

Review book provided by the publisher

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