DAYDREAMS I was raised on a small dairy farm near Ulverstone, on the north west coast of Tasmania. Many would consider this an idyllic childhood, and in retrospect it was. However, owing to a steady diet of American comic books I eventually longed to be anywhere else
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You know what? Lately my editing hasn’t been going so well, because I missed a few errors in one of my employer Pauline Conolly’s articles. In my defense, she does make a lot of typos. The pay isn’t much good either. Hardly enough to keep a person
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Hello, well bottoms are very funny, aren’t they? Q. WHAT HAS A BOTTOM AT THE TOP? A. MY LEGS! That’s a joke I made up by myself. We have all been talking about our bums lately haven’t we, what with the mysterious shortage of loo paper.
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VISION FOR A NATION By 1815 Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s extensive building programme and his efforts to raise the moral standards of the colony of New South Wales were bearing fruit. Sydney, which had been little more than a squalid penal camp when he arrived, was becoming a
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When I was very young my guardian Pauline Conolly took me to the Sydney Olympics. That’s me on the right in the green and gold. So much classier wearing the bloomin’ flag! 🤑 Since then I have had a go at many different sports. Mind you, I
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A DECIDEDLY FISHY STORY! Back in the 1980s my partner Rob and I owned a little half cabin cruiser called Sixpence. I loved catching blue swimmer crabs in Mosman Bay. We also used to fish for snapper off Sydney Heads, although heavy swells often forced us to
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THOUGHTS ON THE BUNNY RABBIT Rabbits had begun to breed in plague proportions in Tasmania as early as 1827. The Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser reported: ‘…the common rabbit is becoming so numerous throughout the colony, that they are running about on some large estates by the
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HOW THE DRAMA BEGAN Well one day I was sitting in a planter pot talking to Pauline’s little goose when we heard a funny noise. Goose peered down at something, so I did too. Whoops, nearly over-balanced and ended up on my head! And do you
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LITERARY AGENT ANGST In 2011 I completed a narrative non-fiction book on a controversial, 19th century criminal case. The events in The Water Doctor’s Daughters take place in France and England, and as an opening gambit I aim high and email a query letter to one of
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Hello, Editor Des here! Well Pauline was going to do some research at the State Library in Sydney so I went along too. I thought I might start trying to find my ancestors. Just hope I don’t turn out to be related to Paddington or Pooh…especially Paddington.
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