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Book review – Borderland, by Graham Akhurst

October 6, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Title: Borderland

Author: Graham Akhurst

Publisher: UWA Publishing, October 2023; RRP: $22.99

The hidden Chosen One trope is as old at least as Arthur, especially in the Young Adult realm, but Graham Akhurst gives it fresh poignancy in his debut novel by using the frame of the Stolen Generations and colonial displacement. In fact, the non-fantastical elements of Borderland are where the tale strikes deepest, the horror elements familiar and the narrative trajectory treading a well-worn path of discovery, mentorship and challenge.

Our hero is Jono, a First Nations lad raised in Brisbane with no knowledge of his mob or Country, his family’s past either not known or obscured by his loving single mum who is, one suspects, battling her own demons. In an echo of the acclaimed TV series Cleverman, Jono is embroiled in a journey of discovery that reveals far more than he could ever have expected about the world and his place in it.

The story opens with Jono feeling like the odd one out, he and his long-time friend, Jenny, graduating as the two Indigenous kids on a scholarship at a prestigious high school. That the discrimination comes not only from classmates either ignorant or jealous but also other blackfellas, who brand him a ‘coconut’, is telling. Hell, even magpies give him a rough time, even out of nesting season.

Aside from his mother, Jenny – attractive, talented and secure in her cultural identity – is Jono’s rock. It is at her instigation that Jono joins an arts academy, where the story picks up the pace. It is here that the pair find themselves on a flight to western Queensland to shoot a ‘documentary’ extolling the virtues of the mining industry to the traditional custodians whose land sits above rich seams of gas ripe for the fracking.

Akhurst looks back at life in Nudgee and forward to his next writing project

@ behind the stripes, 2021

For the boy from Brisbane, the tension of mining interests, economic drivers and preservation of Country is an intriguing backdrop to the simple fact that he is making serious money for the first time in his life – money that can help his mother. This mirrors the argument of trying to better the lot of traditional owners by allowing exploitation of Country, a contemporary conflict that gives the story added social weight. Further illustrating the clash, Akhurst appears to draw upon a decade-old, contentious accusation of methane released by coal seam gas operations setting the Condamine River alight in one of the book’s more evocative scenes.

It is out west that Akhurst finds his most vivid descriptions of landscape in a tale simply told, as befits its young first-person narrator who wields slang, not metaphors. And it is out west where truths are uncovered that will irrevocably change the lives of Jenny and Jono. There is the matter, for example, of Jono’s growing attraction to his confident, mature friend. And there’s the question about that dog-headed monster that’s been haunting him of late, the visions growing in potency despite the medication he has been prescribed. And what about that enigmatic ringer so at ease in the dust and haze of the west, and tales of Dreamtime spirits that may not be as quiescent as believed?

These spirits and other totemic and symbolic meanings are the creation of Akhurst, a Kokomini writer and academic who grew up in Meanjin (Brisbane). In a note, Akhurst, who includes a Fulbright scholarship among his accomplishments, reveals extensive consultation with First Nations people in relation to this story, but he makes the point that he carefully invented settings and cultural elements to avoid appropriation.

This incorporation of beliefs, however fictionalised, and Jono’s growing understanding of their meaning and their relationship to him, are key elements of this coming-of-age yarn that sets the scene for further volumes.

At story’s end, Jenny and Jono both have quests awaiting them that provide further opportunity for social exploration as well as good old-fashioned adventure. As such, Borderland is a solid start, both for our heroes’ journey and Akhurst’s fiction career.

Reviewed by: Jason Nahrung

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

Advanced reading copy provided by the publisher

Book review – The Fast 800 Keto Recipe Book, by Dr Clare Bailey

September 29, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Title: The Fast 800 Keto Recipe Book (Australian and New Zealand edition)

Author: Dr Clare Bailey with Kathryn Bruton

Publisher: Hachette Australia, 2022; RRP $39.99

Why choose to review a cookbook? Those who cook will not be asking that question and since you have started reading this then you already know. Some cookbooks are like another pair of hands in the kitchen, some not. It’s good to know in advance.

I chose this book to review because I wanted to know more about the keto diet. I am not reviewing the diet itself as I am not a medical professional. When I judge cookbooks for purchase I consider whether they contain something I want to know, and how easy they are to work with as a longtime but unqualified cook in an average to small home kitchen.

My approach is based on awareness that all cooks will vary hugely on the specifics but, generally,  we all tend to want roughly the same thing concerning cookbooks: recipes and how we find and put them to use.

Because many cooks, including me, google recipes too, I need to get that out of the way. Googling is great for finding recipes from simple to complex, and also exploring such things as substitutes or what to do with a sausage, half a cabbage and a packet of chips in twenty minutes. But my phone screen cuts out too quickly and laptops do not belong on kitchen benches. Neither cope with sticky fingers or inevitable spills. Keeping successful recipes found on Google is a whole new task in itself, often requiring a print out which must then itself be kept somewhere since it’s more user friendly in non-digital form. 

‘A ketogenic (or ‘keto’) diet is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet.

read more at health direct

I wanted to know more about the keto diet itself as the little I knew sounded healthy, and I wanted simple recipes that used most of what I already have in my home kitchen, with a few interesting new ones and hopefully new ways of cooking food I already like.

After that, what matters is how easy the book is to use. Though important, this is always secondary. Cookbooks have a distinct role and even a battered op shop cookbook minus its cover is going to be the right one if it contains new ways of cooking mince or the recipe for a Black Forest cake that we are searching for. Some cookbooks are things of beauty but useless in our kitchens if they are not a catalyst for joy on a plate.

For this work – the basic requirement was that the keto diet be clearly and simply explained, by writers I could trust. 

Both Dr Michael Mosley, who wrote both the forward to this volume and Fast 800 Keto, to which this is a companion volume, and his wife, Dr Clare Bailey, are trained and practising medical scientists. Dr Mosley is the scientific and PR backbone of the pair, and Dr Bailey also an enthusiastic cook. She, along with recipe writer, developer and food stylist Kathryn Bruton, are responsible for the recipes.

Both doctors are passionate about the diet and the work does involve a lot of information spruiking its benefits, though that is to be expected. This is offset by a section ‘Exclusions and Cautions’, which lists conditions for which the diet would not be suitable, and also advising anyone considering the diet to always consult their doctor first about pre-existing conditions. There is also helpful advice for a flexible approach allowing for different levels of commitment.

This information is set out clearly at the beginning before the recipe pages so encouraging a fully informed approach before the cooking starts.

The rest of the book contains the recipes themselves interspersed with information listing protein content and calories as these are basic to the keto diet.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QjI8iHVUe5o%3Fsi%3Dj0KEbJO4AE2PmzMK

Dr Mosley talks about his Fast 800 keto book

@ the BBC

I just wanted to know if the recipes looked good, at this stage having read enough to decide not to follow the diet. Not because I didn’t agree with it but because I don’t like regimented eating. But I did like the recipes and I do like healthy food.

What remains then for potential users is how easy it is to use the physical book in the kitchen environment.

First, how well is the information ordered and laid out? I found the index and contents easy to read, and thorough. The Contents are in bold, and not fussy, separating the book into eight main groups from breakfast through to treats, followed by others under headings like ‘counting carbs’, ‘no fuss dressings’, ‘protein alternatives’.

The index is by ingredient, individual recipes, and recipe groups, for example pancakes, dressings, etc, which makes it particularly useful for searching for recipes according to different needs.                                                                                                                         

Secondly, can it sit upright or lie open on a flat surface at the relevant page? Many can’t and this unfortunately is no exception. This is always a pain when having to check details mid recipe, or find the next step.

Thirdly, is there space for notes? And yes, there is. This is necessary for comments around or near the recipe once attempted. There doesn’t need to be an allocated space. Things like emergency substitutes for missing ingredients, suggestions for changing things around, or just ‘Yum!’

This book is roughly 19cm by 24cm with a bright cover, so easy to find on a cluttered bench. The pages are shiny and a little stiff, so able to cope well with fingerprints, etc. The illustrations are attractive, simple shots of the dish with nothing around it to distract, nice to look at, and useful so we get an idea of what the end result should look like.

I would recommend it to anyone curious about the keto diet, or who likes reading about food generally. A strength is that most of the recipes are really simple and inviting, using easily found ingredients, and also that it is written in a concise, no-fuss style suited to a busy cooking environment. 

Reviewed by: Rhonda Cotsell

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

Review copy provided by the publisher

  • I am a qualified librarian, and have completed a PG in Professional Writing. I read widely, nonstop, and have all my life. My librarian self thinks about who would like to read this book. My writer self clarifies my response, tries to identify where a book succeeds, and where it fails. As a writer I also explore different sorts of writing in order to write better and to fully explore the power of the written word in all our lives.

Book review — I Have Some Questions for You, by Rebecca Makkai

September 22, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Title: I Have Some Questions For You

Author: Rebecca Makkai

Publisher: Hachette Australia, 2023; RRP $32.99

I Have Some Questions For You is the latest novel from the author of The Great Believer, winner of the Carnegie Medal and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. Makkai has also written for children, and her work has appeared in a number of best reading lists and prominent literary journals.

Bodie Kane has returned to the remote and exclusive Granby boarding school in New Hampshire where she had been enrolled as a sad and lonely child by a wealthy, well-meaning family to complete her final four years of schooling. And also to rescue both her and her deeply depressed mother from years unable to provide for her daughter’s most basic needs.

Now 23 years later and no longer the unpopular, overweight and sulky emo of the past, a sophisticated and successful Bodie has returned to Granby to teach a two-week course on podcasting to a group of film students. But one of her students has chosen the murder of Thalia Keith, Bodie’s bright and popular roommate in Bodie’s final year at the school, as her subject. The murder having never left the public eye due to opinions widely split on whether the right person had been convicted.

The story shifts from the past to present as memories surface in the older Bodie’s mind and through reconnecting with others still at the school. It is also viewed through the lens of her role as teacher to her students, and by connections made in the general arena of social networking, which is itself a constant throughout as the murder is slowly and painfully unpicked.

Rebecca Makkai lives on campus where she went to high school, but the similarities with her novel don’t extend to murder

makkai talks about ‘I have some questions for you‘ with time magazine

There is a wide and varied cast of characters, each bringing their own memories and their own issues both past and present to the search for truth. The most tragic is Omar Wilson, the pool boy accused of the murder, whose story – unusually for a murder mystery such as this – we follow through Bodie’s searching from his conviction and entry into the prison system to the experiences he endures that follow. 

As Bodie’s thoughts move back and forward from the past to the present she also breaks away to address a mysterious other known only as Mr Bloch, speaking to that person as if they were actually present, referring to past incidents in which they played a part in her student years and the life of her murdered roommate. This pops up suddenly throughout, oddly jarring moments in reading where suddenly the reader is deep inside Bodie’s head as if standing before a closed door. This is an interesting strategy and is extremely effective, weaving amongst all the other characters involved.

The question at the heart of it all, however, is not just whether Omar was the real killer, but how he came to be convicted, and what role racism and protecting the reputation of the school played.

As the plot unfolds, brief, factual references listing incidents where racial and sexual power imbalances played a role in investigations and convictions emerge. These reveal those less-desirable organised underpinnings of society manifesting in legal decisions and actions where men who have abused, raped and murdered young girls and women are able to escape prosecution on petty points. All occurring in professional arenas of the law and politics as well as the domestic places on the streets and in homes.

Significant holes slowly emerge as Bodie, her students and others probe the past – particularly how Thalia’s absence in the close-knit community was not noticed until days later, how key people were not interviewed, why the unnecessary delay in cordoning off the crime scene leading to its being compromised, and wildly conflicting stories were not followed up, and more. The investigation slowly emerging as too riddled with incompetence for it to be accidental.

Makkai talks about how to write a boarding school, harassment and murder

@ boston.com

There are a number of other suspects and, while interrogating the past, issues of gender inequality, bullying of the girls, and power imbalances in the past bubble to the surface through her memories. This is shown through a slow unpacking of Bodie’s everyday life in the school as a moody and sullen student, where small ugly acts of humiliation are a daily occurrence but treated as normal, and where there is a layer of inappropriate behaviour by a teacher that goes undetected for decades.  In this hothouse environment where privileged, testosterone-driven young males combine with adolescent rebellion and insecurities, an increasing sense of explosive tension builds, creating a sense that anything can happen, and this carries across every page without let-up.

Tension is finely held throughout. The plot is skilfully constructed given its complexity. Past and present are clearly delineated so I did not get lost on where and when, with all tightly held together, telling a coherent story despite also being riddled with convincing false leads. Part of this is cleverly achieved by the chapters being of widely varying lengths, from one which contains a single question, like a thought suddenly breaking focus, to short and introspective, and longer.

For both those simply wanting a satisfying murder mystery, and those liking some poetry or literary smarts in their murder, this literary mystery will please.

It is beautifully written and though the theme could be said to be an old one, I was hooked from beginning to the satisfyingly unexpected end.

Reviewed by: Rhonda Cotsell

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

Review copy provided by the publisher

Book review — The Witching Tide, by Margaret Meyer

September 15, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Author: Margaret Meyer

Title: The Witching Tide

Publisher: Moa Press/Hachette, 2023; RRP: $32.99

Margaret Meyer has a wealth of experience, having been born in Canada, grown up in New Zealand where she began her working life, and subsequently working and studying in the UK. She was a journalist and fiction editor in New Zealand, and, in the UK, publishing director for the Museum of London before being appointed Director of Literature with the British Council. She then trained as a mental health therapist and worked in a variety of settings including schools, prisons and addiction recovery centres, as well as her own private practice. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia before writing The Witching Tide, and now lives in Norwich.

Her location provides the inspiration for this novel. During the middle years of the 17th century, a witch hunt took place in East Anglia in which at least 100 innocent women were executed. In Britain few witch trials took place in the Middle Ages, however, the majority occurred in the 1600s, reaching a peak during the 1640s of the English Civil War and the Puritan era of the 1650s. Records indicate that about 500 people, more than 90 per cent of them women, were condemned to hang as witches or were burned at the stake (if convicted of another crime at the same time) during this period. One hundred people from one small area constitutes a significant proportion of the population at the time. The women who were targeted were often old, with a bad reputation amongst their neighbours, or who had particular skills with herbs and other healing techniques.

Martha Hallybread, the protagonist of this story, is neither particularly old, being in her 40s, nor with a poor reputation; she is the ex-nurse of her master, Kit Crozier, and now works as a sort of housekeeper for Kit and his wife, Agnes, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child – the first had died at birth. Martha is also the local midwife and is known for the healing qualities of her ‘physick garden’. She has always been mute, communicating by a system of hand signals and gestures, well known to those around her but more difficult for strangers to interpret. Kit is a merchant, and a kind man who treats his servants as family, especially Martha, as it was she who essentially raised him.

Margaret Meyer on the idea that became The Witch Tide, getting an agent and the thrill of a bidding war

@ the Spinoff

The book opens with one of the young servants, Prissy, being taken by a gang of men working for the witch hunters. This begins a time of great upheaval in both the household and the town of Cleftwater. People turn on one another, interpreting illnesses and hardships as evidence of witchcraft amongst some of the local women. At Kit’s bidding, Martha becomes one of the assistants to the witch hunters, seeking marks of the devil on her fellow villagers in order to try to save Prissy.

And Martha has a secret – a collection of items left to her by her mother, amongst them a wax doll, called a poppet. When Martha realises the danger that is looming, she retrieves this poppet from the box of her mother’s items and ponders over whether she should use it, and if so, how. Ancient beliefs, predating the Christianity of the time, seem to inform Martha’s understanding of the power of the items bequeathed by her mother.

Margaret Meyer talks about witch trials and the lessons perhaps not learnt

@ saturday morning on rNZ

Over the course of about two weeks, we see the whole town become consumed with the witch hunt and how this has an impact on everyone from the priest and the judge, to the poorest of the townsfolk, and especially on the Crozier household and their friends. The weather becomes an additional character when persistent rain causes flooding, adding to the misery of the accused women.

There are gritty and disturbing descriptions of the place the women are imprisoned, as well as the other torments they are subjected to in the effort to determine whether or not they are witches. As was the situation at the time, even the most benign events are twisted to provide ‘proof’ of cavorting with the devil or his imps, or of intent to harm neighbours. Martha’s inability to utter spoken words also works against her, allowing inaccurate interpretations of her signing and gestures.

Martha, unlike some of the other characters, ultimately survives the ordeals enacted by the witch hunters, but it is not clear exactly how this happens. It is also difficult to determine how much Martha believes in the power of the poppet and whether she is really at ease with its use. This could just reflect the confusion of the time and be a deliberate device used by the author. However, it means that the Martha character remains enigmatic in relation to her inner thoughts and reasoning. What is not enigmatic, however, is the horror of the events and the unjust ways in which women were treated during that disturbing time.

Reviewed by: Elisabeth Bridson

Ballarat Writers Inc. Review Group

Review copy provided by publisher

Book review — Murnane, by Emmett Stinson

September 8, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Title: Contemporary Australian Writers – Murnane

Author: Emmett Stinson

Publisher: The Miegunyah Press/MUP, 2023; RRP: $30

Emmett Stinson is a lecturer in Literary Cultures and Head of English at the University of Tasmania. A man of words, a literary academic, and a skilled professional with several career milestones, awards, and publications to his credit. 

Melbourne-born Gerald Murnane is regarded as a serious author of literary fiction, “highbrow material”, some suggest experimental, though in literary circles it is material that warrants deep and meaningful discussion.

Stinson gives us a solid and professional introduction to Murnane and his writing. Making it an excellent companion for anyone deciding to read the works of Murnane. Stinson’s book is informative, written in a way that makes it accessible to a broad range of readers.  There are frequent references to other literary critics and comparisons to other notable works and authors.  The proviso is, one needs to have read widely or at least be motivated to read more; there is a bibliography included.

Murnane is clearly an interesting character, eccentric, and prolific. His writing is…well, in Stinson’s words, “Murnane’s writing hybridises fiction, essay and memoir in ways that anticipate contemporary autofiction.” Stinson’s unpacking of Murnane’s themes and style is a worthwhile guide to Murnane’s works.

It seems Murnane finds literary criticism unsatisfactory, in some ways distasteful.  His relationship to the literary academic world of Stinson could be described as challenging and is sufficiently interesting for Stinson to incorporate this aspect of Murnane into his book. Including an amusing anecdote of Murnane serving behind the bar at the Goroke Golf Club during a literary conference held at the club to discuss the works of Gerald Murnane.  

Emmett Stinson delves into the writing of Gerald Murnane in this extract

@ the guardian

The book begins with an introductory chapter on Murnane the author. I found this to be the most interesting part of the book, giving context and life to an author and their work. I was immediately intrigued and went out to find copies of Murnane’s work; I had not previously heard of Murnane.

There are separate chapters dealing with four of Murnane’s major “late fictions”. These chapters are followed by a conclusion discussing Murnane’s style. The last chapter looks at the late recognition of Murnane’s writing by the literary world, at least the Australian part of the world, noting the attitudes of various critics, and providing insights from an interview with Murnane.

Stinson admits to being a Murnane devotee. However, I felt he was objective in portraying Murnane’s work.  This book is one for the anyone interested in writing as a creative form of expression.

Reviewed by: Frank Thompson

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

Review copy provided by the publisher

Book review – The Housekeepers, by Alex Hay

September 1, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Title: The Housekeepers

Author: Alex Hay

Publisher: Headline/Hachette, 2023; RRP: $32.99

Alex Hay has been writing as long as he can remember.  He studied History at the University of York, and wrote his dissertation on female power at royal courts, combing the archives for every scrap of drama and skulduggery he could find, and this knowledge is evident in this, his debut novel, that won the Caledonia Novel Award 2022.

Mayfair, 1906, a Park Lane mansion and a recently dismissed housekeeper combine for an audacious heist orchestrated by a talented and criminally connected group of women.  Never underestimate those below stairs. 

A combination of Ocean’s Eleven and Upstairs, Downstairs, this is an engaging novel with a well-developed plot and characters.  The heist is not just a matter of monetary gain or simple revenge for some of the characters.  As dark and long-held secrets emerge, the stakes become higher and higher. 

Alex Hay talks about The Housekeepers

@ the bookstorm podcast

The plan is to strip the mansion of all its goods on the night the former employer holds the ball of the season.  Seven women; two former housekeepers, a seamstress, a black-market queen, an actress and the amazing duo of Jane 1 & 2 all have skills to offer, scores to settle and everything to gain. 

Well written, well researched and set against a background of new technology, social change, suffragettes, and political conflict.  A fun read with depth and insights into the glamorous world of the newly and the established rich and those who serve them. 

Reviewed by: Marian Chivers, August, 2023

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

Review copy provided by the publisher

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

Book review — Southern Aurora, by Mark Brandi

August 18, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Title: Southern Aurora

Author: Mark Brandi

Publisher: Hachette, June 2023; RRP: $32.99

Southern Aurora is Mark Brandi’s fourth novel. Initially Mark published Wimmera, which won the British Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award and the Best Debut at the 2018 Australian Indie Book Awards. The Rip, his second novel, was published in 2019. His third novel, The Others, was short listed in 2022 for Best Fiction in The Ned Kelly Awards. Mark worked in the justice system prior to his writing career. From Italy originally, the author was raised in rural Victoria before moving to Melbourne.

In Southern Aurora, Jimmy is a kid living on the wrong side of the tracks in Mittigunda, a fictional small country town on the Southern Aurora’s line halfway between Melbourne and Sydney. Jimmy has a younger brother, Sam – he’s different, goes to a special school and Jimmy looks out for him. His older brother, Mick, is in jail, soon to be released. His mum’s boyfriend, Charlie, is an angry man causing Jimmy to weave his existence between watching for signs of something about to go wrong and making sure his mother and brother are okay if it does. He lives in a constant state of hyper vigilance. He attends school but doesn’t much care for it; he’s a bit of a loner except for his friend, Danny.

Mark Brandi talks about Southern Aurora

@ the canberra times

Jimmy’s mum has a drinking problem, which leaves her vulnerable and exposes her and her boys to the harmful and dangerous influence of her boyfriend. Charlie comes and goes and so does any normality in their lives. Jimmy and his mum wait in false hope that when Mick returns from jail, somehow life will improve.

A billycart event planned by his school entices Jimmy and Sam to resurrect Mick’s old billycart, The Firefox, from the shed. A series of events take place around the billycart and Jimmy’s honesty is compromised. His inner thoughts are always churning.

From the first page of Southern Aurora, the story grips hard. It bites at the imagination and delivers the reader to the very spot.

There’s hardly any shade at our school, just one big pepper corn tree that makes your hand sticky if you touch the leaves. Most of the yard is boiling hot asphalt.

Mark Brandi brings the voice of Jimmy to the page in a manner that very few writers manage. His acutely accurate descriptions and spare text bring alive Jimmy’s difficult and often tortuous attempts for something to go right for him. This story touches the very heart of what it is to be underprivileged and without power. There are, however, some very poignant and tender moments.

This story remains in the consciousness long after the end of the book.  A story of family, ongoing life struggles and kids who are left to navigate the tough circumstances that adults get caught up in. This book is impossible to put down.

Reviewed by: Heather Whitford Roche

Ballarat Writers Book Review Group, June 2023

Review copy provided by the publisher

Book review — The Gargoyle, by Zana Fraillon, illustrated by Ross Morgan

August 4, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Title: The Gargoyle

Author: Zana Fraillon

Illustrator: Ross Morgan

Publisher: Hachette Australia/Lothian Children’s Books, 2023; RRP: $24.99

“There’s a gargoyle on the train.”

This is a beautifully written and illustrated story about an ancient gargoyle ending up on a train as his home has been demolished to make way for a new development. He is even thrown off the train by the ticket inspector and given a fine, leaving his suitcase behind for a child to open.

“A small spout of rusted water drips from his mouth and splats on the ground like rain.”  This is the gargoyle’s purpose, architecturally, as a waterspout designed to drain water from the parapet gutter. The water collected is channelled to the mouth of the statue, where it is shot out and directed away from the structure’s wall and foundation.  But there are new ways of collecting and directing water and gargoyles are no longer needed. 

The Gargoyle evokes the past, the rush of civilisation and its forgetfulness in its haste to the next new thing to treasure the old moments (shown in the opening of the gargoyle’s suitcase) and to make time for the natural world.  The Gargoyle speaks to conservation and extinction as the boy wistfully ponders if he will ever see the gargoyle again. 

Ross Morgan’s illustrations provide the visual imagery that Zana Fraillon’s words evoke.  The language is simple and haunting.  The boy hears the gargoyle sigh: “An echoey, achy, hollow sort of sigh, like the wind when it gusts down lanes and through tunnels and in and out of the big drains that stretch under the city.” The visuals are dark and grey, making the memories in the suitcase even brighter.

The story would be suitable for a middle primary grade reading level but can be read to preschoolers and could be used with older grades to generate discussions on conservation, aging and legacies.

Want more gargoyles? Here’s a round-up of some of the world’s most intriguing

@ the vintage news

The Gargoyle is a great example of the best of children’s literature’s ability to communicate at both child and adult level. Do yourself a favour: find a quiet corner, read it and absorb its gentle message and then go and share it with some little people to shape a brighter future.

Zana Fraillon is a Melbourne-based, multi-award-winning author of books for children and young adults. A teacher, Fraillon is from a family of writers and began writing fun picture books with her son. A friend encouraged her to submit these to a publisher and her writing career was launched.

Ross Morgan is an award-winning fine artist and illustrator. His background as an exhibition artist, portrait painter and surrealist have given him a unique approach to illustrating books. He loves searching for quiet little moments that are filled with magic.

Reviewed by: Marian Chivers, June 2023

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

Review copy provided by the publisher

Pamela Miller Prize 2023 Winning Story

July 27, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The Artist

by Nicole Kelly

Her hands are assured and confident. A skilled professional. 

“An artist for the modern world—truly exceptional” – The Age 

His skin is soft and doughy in her hands. He is a monster of a man, but his bulk seems less imposing now he lays prostrate on the studio floor, leaking into every corner of her tiny room. This is the place where she feels capable—not scared and cowering.  

The stark white of his nakedness catches the golden glow of the moonlight from outside, which streams through the window, lighting her work.  

 “What Mallard can do with a piece of lino is astounding. Her cuts are sharp and clean; the resulting pieces have both imagination and darkness. – The Art Review 

The small scalpel resting in her hand is her favourite, handle smooth from use. She uses the familiar blade to create the distinct, intricate patterns in hard linoleum squares. Swift, sure cuts to make thick, intersecting lines.  

“Mallard’s designs are sharp, witty and astute. Just when you think you know her work, she turns it, and you, on your head.” – H. Golding (Reviewer) 

Her artist’s mind opens her to the exquisite beauty around her. A dawn sky greeting her after a night of frenetic creation. The same shades of pink and purple which he patterned across the tops of her arms when she said she would leave.  

He had stolen her voice. Left her to only speak through her work. So now he is her canvas. 

“Mallard is an expert in making us feel. Feel something. Feel anything. Feel everything.” – National Gallery 

She reaches her hands deep into his chest cavity. The space she has opened in her husband, expecting to find only emptiness. She cradles the lump of muscle which had once drummed the rhythm of life in his chest. Each beat of his heart marking time, as his fists slammed into her in a syncopated tempo.  

‘There is both fragility and strength in Mallard’s pieces. When you see the strength of her lines contrasting with the whimsical nature of her prints.’ – Art Links Magazine 

They were the inverse of each other. Her and him. She had loved his strength and he her fragility. Until her own strength emerged, growing more potent with every success. His fear drove him to hold on tighter. Until his hands became a noose around her neck.  

 “In her hands, everything is art.” – Art Monthly 

She dips her finger in the sticky liquid, thick as honey. Scrawls her initials across the bare wall above where he lay. She smiles. No matter their reviews, the world will be sure that she is the artist. 

Book review — The Girl in the Green Dress, by Jeni Haynes and Dr George Blair-West

July 21, 2023 / / 1 Comment

Title: The Girl in the Green Dress

Authors: Jeni Haynes and Dr George Blair-West, with Alley Pascoe

Publisher: Hachette Australia, 2022; RRP: $32.99

The Girl in the Green Dress is the story of Dr Jennifer ‘Jeni’ Haynes, who lives with multiple personality disorder (MPD), a subgroup of dissociative identity disorder (DID) — a psychological state where the mind separates into multiple selves.

Developing MPD was how she protected herself from a horrifying childhood of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her father.  At six months of age, her sense of self divided and she became Symphony, the girl in the green dress, her new core personality creating multiple other personalities through the years that followed, each giving specific strengths to Jeni to prevent her from being destroyed by her father’s abuse.

Dr George Blair-West is a psychiatrist specialising in relationship therapy and dissociative trauma work, who worked with Dr Haynes for over twenty years from 1998.

Dr Haynes’ father, Richard Haynes, had what she termed ‘built-in respectability’, protected by his good reputation established by being descended from a noted English family and an expert in the field of electronic engineering.

Failing to get help from the medical profession and determined to find justice for herself, Jeni Haynes spent eighteen years at university, struggling and ultimately succeeding in graduating with a degree in psychology and a Masters in legal studies and criminal justice.

The book begins where she ends her educational journey and enters the courtroom where the truth of what happened to her at the hands of her father would finally be tested in the legal system — not by the health system, blind to what was happening to her and consistently failing to address her condition or her social and home environment.

The narrative structure is an interesting mix of biography and autobiography, with the main character and her psychiatrist writing not only their separate roles of patient and psychiatrist but also of the shifting relationship between them over the years they worked together.

According to what is being relayed, chapters (and sections within chapters) alternate between Dr Blair-West providing information about his meetings with Jeni Haynes and expository material defining psychiatric terms and treatments, and Dr Haynes speaking about her MPD and Dr Haynes as Jeni Haynes recreating her experiences in the voice of one of the multiple personalities she created.

Jeni Haynes in conversation with Ginger Gorman

@ the national library of Australia

The Girl in the Green Dress is a harrowing work and there are warnings to this effect both at the beginning and dotted throughout. Initially I found this intrusive, but as the sheer volume and extent of the abuse was disclosed, I found the warnings helped, certainly preparing me as reader for increasingly distressing information.

When it is Jeni telling her story, and not Dr Jennifer Haynes, her words come from one of many, many different identities, each performing different roles protecting her. A major strength is how the material is presented such that the reader does not get completely lost. Each voice emerges as clearly different in tone and personality. A useful list of them all by name, their place in the hierarchy of protective layers, and the particular function each performs is given at the beginning, providing a useful character-based map to her inner life.

Control of the impact of the material is also held tightly within a framework of chapters and sections where her psychiatrist links what Jeni says to the physical development of the brain from very young and onwards, and to the medical and social environment in which Jeni battles to survive.

Read an excerpt of The Girl in the Green Dress

@ the sMH

Some of the most disturbing material relates to the responses of psychiatrists and psychologists from whom Jeni, now a deeply damaged adult, seeks help. Failing repeatedly to find that help, she decides she must find her own answers, realising her father’s reputation was always going to be a barrier to being believed.

Dr Blair-West also points out that it took a long time before DID was recognised, let alone MPD, which meant few were qualified or accessible to recognise and treat it.

The language of both Dr Haynes and Dr Blair-Smith is aimed at professionals in the world of psychiatry and mental illness, and laymen, moving smoothly between complex concepts explained by Jeni’s doctor and Dr Haynes articulating her experiences through the multiple voices via which we see into Jeni Haynes’ life.

My only concern is that, given the extent of her husband’s extremely violent and manipulative activities throughout, there is scanty information about the inexplicable failure of Jeni’s mother to know what was happening in her own home over all those years. Undiagnosed autism is offered briefly at the start and in a little more detail at the end, but there is little more than that. Though the abuse ceased when Jeni turned eleven, this response extended to decisions she made after Richard Haynes had left the family home, taking his other daughter with him and abusing her also, and encouraging Jeni to maintain contact with him, so keeping her within his psychological reach.

By not addressing this, the image of her mother lacks the depth her position in the family requires.It would have been a significantly stronger work, and kinder to her mother, if how the undiagnosed autism related to her behaviour had been addressed, both specifically in her case and generally how autism could lead to it. Also of use would be when and how it eventually came to be diagnosed, including what prompted that step, using the same openness and insight as shown in describing her daughter’s experience and her father’s behaviour.

In conclusion, however, I was left more with an overall sense that The Girl in the Green Dress is not only a courageous story about how the brain of one vulnerable baby girl changed to protect her from unspeakable abuse and helped her emerge victorious, but also a story that raises awareness of the role our own brains play in protecting us and how they are doing that right now, more than we might ever know. 

Reviewed by: Rhonda Cotsell

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

Review copy supplied by the publisher

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