The Water Doctor’s Daughters – Book Launch March 23

Have just spent a wonderful  but busy few days in Great  Malvern and Worcester finalizing arrangements for the launch of the Water Doctor’s Daughters on March 23rd. It’s to be held at 2.00pm  in the spacious  Morgan Bar at Malvern’s  historic Foley Arms Hotel.  I will be

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A QUANDRY FOR QUEEN VICTORIA

A QUANDRY FOR  QUEEN VICTORIA

In my non-fiction  book, The Water Doctor’s Daughters,  Queen Victoria is an important figure. BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT- QUEEN VICTORIA AND HER FRENCH DRESSER Early in  1842,  Victoria employed a well educated young Frenchwoman as one of her wardrobe mistresses.  Célestine Doudet  was  born in Rouen  on June 

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FERRIES; THE OLD LADIES OF SYDNEY HARBOUR

FERRIES; THE OLD LADIES OF SYDNEY HARBOUR

Each Australia Day, commuter ferries  race down Sydney Harbour,  decorated  with bunting and loaded to the gunnels with cheering supporters. They remind me of well dressed matrons  competing in the  hundred metre dash at school sports days. In 1984 the exertion proved too much for the aging

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Blackheath Rhododendron Festival

Blackheath Rhododendron  Festival

Hello from  Editor Des Oh dear, I had to put on my little  rain hat and gumboots for the Rhodo Festival…and it was their big Diamond Jubilee one too, just like the Queen of England is celebrating.   I seem to remember it  has rained on most

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Tribute to the Twin Towers

Tribute to the Twin Towers

So many of us  feel  an emotional  connection to  the terrible events of September 11, even if we were not personally involved.  I am no exception, as the following story demonstrates. In  January, 2001 my husband Rob and I flew to New York (one of my favourite

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Willow Court Morgue

Willow Court Morgue

In light of my  recent blog  about my work-in-progress, A Butterfly On His Shoulder, the timing of a media report from Tasmania  (October 22)  is truly bizarre.  It seems  the morgue, part of the historic Willow Court complex  at the New Norfolk  asylum where Arthur spent most

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The Next Big Thing!

 A WORK IN PROGRESS – GHOSTS OF GALLIPOLI A fellow author   invited me to share some information about my current work-in-progress in an author ‘interview’ called The Next Big Thing!  You may expect me to talk about The Water Doctor’s Daughters, or All Along the River; Tales

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Ulverstone Library; Some Childhood Memories

Ulverstone Library; Some Childhood Memories

I have always loved reading…. and libraries, even though I  (like  every other child I knew)  was terrified of Miss Andrews,  elderly  custodian of the Lady Clark Children’s Library in my  Tasmanian home town of Ulverstone.  The Library was one of many established in memory of Lady

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The Water Doctor’s Daughters

The Water Doctor's Daughters

THE WATER DOCTOR’S DAUGHTERS IS COMPLETE! After all  my angst,  the index to The Water Doctor’s  Daughters was completed without  Rob  filing for  divorce on the grounds that I was too irritable  and unreasonable to live with.  Mind you, neither of us  will  be taking up indexing

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