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Tag: historical fiction

Book review – The Pull of the Moon, by Pip Smith

October 10, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Title: The Pull of the Moon

Author: Pip Smith

Publisher: UWA Publishing, 2025; RRP: $26.99

Review by: Rhonda Cotsell

THE AUTHOR

Pip Smith won SMH Best Young Novelist of 2018. Her 2017 debut novel, Half Wild, was shortlisted for the Voss Literary Prize and longlisted for the Australian Book Industry award for Best Debut Fiction. This is her second novel.

THE BOOK

When we recall, or watch footage of the tragedy at Christmas Island, December 2010, and the horrifying images on our screens, what fades into the background are the Christmas Islander people and the island itself. All we see is a boat lurching helplessly through enormous waves, and anonymous, desperate people half concealed by spray clinging to its sides for dear life. Like toys. We don’t see the Islanders, but they were there. 

The Pull of the Moon tells the whole story, bringing the natural world and human face of Christmas Island to focus from the first pages without lessening the tragedy. It simultaneously sets a richly detailed background of the daily life of a fictional family in Tehran, representing those on that boat, before the decision to leave. The reasons for leaving are touched on briefly, but painfully, and memorably. What dominates, however, is how precious and rich that life and home were to each family member, shown through the eyes of a young son who loves his life just as it is and does not want to leave it.

The backgrounds of both Islanders and the family headed their way unfold deceptively slowly towards those terrible moments where the boat is floundering helplessly towards the rocky island edge. The story does not judge, analyse or preach but merely shows, weaving a story of people – refugee and Islander – set within a detailed picture of life on Christmas Island itself extending after the tragedy.

 The pages are filled with Christmas Island wildlife, with startling images of the resident red crabs spawning like a brilliant red river taking over the island, the elusive pipistrelle bats, the sea turtles, snakes, the giant yellow centipedes with their venomous bites, and the huge and ungainly Christmas Island frigate bird. The rich luxury of a tropical rain forest filled with orchids, ferns and vines, with its tropical monsoonal climate and deep soils, is described so vividly I could almost smell it – and feel that ever-present threat of extinction shared with wildlife globally. 

Islanders reflect on how the disaster changed their lives

@ THE GUARDIAN

The central focus, however, is the people. Those in the horrendously inadequate craft whose occupants had been tricked by a family member into believing was going to be one that could take them safely and in comfort to a life free of the dangers and restrictions they had left, and the Islanders safe in their everyday lives. The pages are filled with the small details of school and work,  references to the local phosphorous factory and the refugee camp that looms in the background with its heavy, wired fences. And within this, sensitive and believable portraits of Christmas Islander inhabitants like the environmental activist mother who sympathises with the refugees, her diving instructor husband who worries about their impact, their relationship breaking up and their daughter, Coralie, dealing with an unsettled home life. Life for all continuing as it does but, even though we know what is coming, shattered abruptly by what both Islanders and those on the boat experienced and did on that day, and what was endured in the days and weeks following.

There is also a slightly magical fantasy element to the narrative. Local gossip speaks of the ghosts that lurk in the forest that surrounds the town, something that captures and unhinges the minds of many even before the event, but especially Coralie, through whose eyes the events are described – a sensitive preteen whose parents are fighting, whose mother suddenly leaves, and who needs a happy ending for the boy in the boat whose eyes meet hers as she runs with the other Islanders frantically throwing life jackets and whatever else they think might help towards the sinking boat.

The story was unsettling to read, being aware that this happened on our watch, in our familiar home, the imperfect and difficult country we occasionally grumble about, one however we can survive and grow within despite an imperfect history and a Prime Minister who spoke of parents throwing children off boats and the too many who believed him.

I think its an important work, and I hope it is read by many.

Review copy provided by the publisher

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

May 30, 2025 / / 2 Comments

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 — The Tawny Sash, by A.J. Lyndon

July 7, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Title: The Tawny Sash, War Without an Enemy, Book Two

Author: A.J. Lyndon

Publisher: Tretower Publishing, 30 May 2023

The Tawny Sash is A.J. Lyndon’s second book in a series called War Without an Enemy. The first book, The Welsh Linnet, was published in 2017. The review copy was provided by the author, a member of Ballarat Writers.

The English Civil War is a term coined to cover a series of wars between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists in England and Wales between 1642 and 1651. The ongoing dispute revolved around the acquisition of the power to rule England, Scotland, and Wales. The ugly battles mainly occurred in Cornwall and Wales, however the Scots marched south to join the Parliamentarians’ cause.

Set in 1644, the story gallops along, describing in colourful detail the battlefield scenes and the complicated lives of characters Will Lucie and Gabriel Vaughan. The families are intertwined. Gabriel Vaughan is married to Will’s sister, Bess Lucie, whose marriage was against the wishes of her father, Sir Henry Lucie. Gabriel and Will end up fighting on opposite sides. Sir Henry seeks both men for different betrayals and is threatening them with court martial. They are both desperate to prove their innocence.

The book is structured well and the location of the story within the chapters is clearly identified at the start, which assists in following the battles and the strategies of the two armies. The settings are of particular interest to readers who know Cornwall and Wales, have familiarity with the region and appreciate the historical significance of some locations.

There is a raft of characters besides the main protagonists, which can be a bit overwhelming at times, but the central focus on Gabriel, Will, Sir Henry and Bess is clear and drives the plot. The battle descriptions are daunting and bloody, but the author has a clever knack of not prolonging the hideous detail before moving the narrative forward.

50 fiction titles set in the Civil War period

@ goodreads

This is not a feminist novel in any aspect but the portrayal of women in the 1600s is, I suspect, accurate. There exists a big opportunity for more reflection on the female characters — the engaging Bess and enigmatic Hephzibah — perhaps in the third book!

A most enjoyable aspect of The Tawny Sash is the wonderful description of the clothes and uniforms, including personal weaponry of the era. The fabulous cover displays a taste of what is to come within the pages. Terminology and the use of language is excellent. Old sayings that have changed over time, such as ‘have a care’, now known as ‘take care’, add authenticity.

A.J. Lyndon clearly is a fine historian and researcher. The amount of detail and knowledge on display within this novel is to be appreciated. A recommended read for people who love war history combined with historical fiction.    

Reviewed by: Heather Whitford Roche

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group, June 2023

Review copy provided by the author

Book review – A Woman Made of Snow, by Elisabeth Giffor

November 25, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Title: A Woman Made of Snow

Author: Elisabeth Gifford

Publisher: Corvus, 2021; RRP: $29.99

After growing up in a vicarage in the English midlands, Elisabeth Gifford achieved academic qualifications in French literature, world religions and creative writing. She has written a series of historical fiction books on subjects as varied as a doctor in a World War II ghetto, and missionaries in China. A Woman Made of Snow is her fifth book.

Marriage towards the end of WWII, quickly followed by the birth of a baby, prevents Caro from following her plans to begin a career in academia like her husband, Alasdair. Having moved from London to Alasdair’s family home in Fife, Scotland, Caro feels stifled by her mother-in-law, Martha. A combination of the discovery of a body on the grounds of Kelly Castle, the family home, and a need to restore and maintain the castle, provides the background to this story. Alasdair’s family history involves a missing relative – there are no records, no photographs and no mention made of Alasdair’s great-grandmother. Could hers be the body that is revealed during a flood? Caro is given the task of reviewing family documents to help support a claim for funds from the National Trust and simultaneously search for information about the missing woman.

The author deftly weaves a narrative between the early years after WWII and the1880s. Research into contact between Scottish whaling ships and the customs and living conditions of the Inuit people they encountered provides an extremely interesting thread and some significant plot twists. These are supported by an exploration of the developments in relationships between different generations in families, both the more recent as well those from the 19th century.

It is interesting to see the character development throughout this novel. Relationships change, some for the better and others not so much, as the story unfolds. Other characters are not what they seem.

This is a really enjoyable book for both its depiction of relationships and its exploration of otherwise little-known information about the contact between Scottish whalers and the Arctic First Nations people.

Reviewed by: Elisabeth Bridson, October 2022

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

Review copy provided by the publisher

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