CHILDHOOD TRAUMA The movie Raintree County (1957), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift had a profound effect on me. I think it was the first ‘grown-up’ movie I ever saw. My mother was besotted with Liz Taylor, especially by her violet eyes. We lived in rural Tasmania
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Sixty years ago I was a wide eyed, sharp eared kid growing up on Tasmania’s North West Coast. One weekend my mother and I visited her brother’s family in a nearby town. Over afternoon tea my aunt described an incident that had taken place a few days
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A ROYAL REPLICA Early last century John Norton, firebrand editor of Sydney’s Truth newspaper, described Queen Victoria rather unkindly as; ‘..the podgy figured, sulky faced little German woman whose ugly statue at the top of King Street sagaciously keeps one eye on the Mint while with
Read more →Here is a guest blog from my friend, neighbour and fellow writer, Virginia. THE TUG OF A TERRIFIC TITLE by Virginia King The Great Gatsby has become a household name, especially after Baz Luhrmann’s recent movie version of the classic. It’s the published title of F Scott
Read more →An author’s fascination for a subject does not end once the book in question has been published. My great hope was that the release of The Water Doctor’s Daughters would produce new information. There were undocumented periods in the lives of the chief protagonists that I
Read more →It’s an extraordinary thing having two very different books published in one year, and it would be quite impossible for me to choose my favourite. My first, The Water Doctor’s Daughters, has a special place in my heart due to its content. I became so emotionally involved
Read more →ALL ALONG THE RIVER: TALES FROM THE THAMES was released on July 31 by London publisher Robert Hale. Rob and I celebrated with lunch at the Show Boat, moored by the river at the Harleyford estate just outside Marlow. It was owning a lodge in this glorious
Read more →THE GENESIS OF THE LAUNCH I hadn’t considered a separate launch for The Water Doctor’s Daughters in Australia, but a few months ago a generous offer came from Sydney’s Ashfield Library to do a book signing. It was to be part of their very popular ‘Authors
Read more →THE SOOTHING LINIMENT THAT COULD LEAD TO DEATH There is a chapter in my true crime book The Water Doctor’s Daughters titled; AS EASY AS ABC. The letters are a reference to a popular 19th century rubbing liniment made from three powerful, but potentially fatal compounds;
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WHAT IS A SCONE? According to the Bloomsbury Dictionary of Word Origins, scone derives from the Dutch schoonbrood – schoon meaning bright, white or beautiful and brood meaning bread, hence; ‘fine white bread’. The name made its way into Scottish English and did not become widespread in
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