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BOOKS
INDEX: Code Name Helene + The 2020 Dictionary + The Great Escape from Woodlands Nursing Home + The Living Sea of Waking Dreams + A Promised Land + The Grandest Bookshop in the World + The Myth is Murder + Play it Again, Sam + Heartache & Birdsong + A Theatre for Dreamers + Cold War Cookbook + The Umbrian Supper Club + Atomic Salvation
The White Mouse
Hannah Davies
Hannah Davies
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ARIEL LAWHON'S latest novel, Code Name Hélène, is not for the faint hearted.
Set in the midst of the Second World War, this enthralling work of historical fiction tells the tale of the fierce Madame Andre, the intelligent Lucienne Carlier, the resourceful Hélène and The White Mouse, an unidentified agent listed as number one on the Nazi’s most wanted list. The story is made all the more compelling when you learn that Madame Andre, Lucienne Carlier, Hélène, and The White Mouse are all code names for the same woman: Nancy Wake. The novel begins in 1944, as Nancy prepares to parachute from a plane into France, where she will aid the French resistance. Immediately, her strong and unapologetic character comes to light: “I’m not here to make friends, so I don’t care that every man on this plane is looking at me as though I don’t belong. Besides, I’m hungover. And I think I might throw up…” Once on the ground and united with her fellow agents, the story flashes back eight years. It’s the year 1936 and as the shadow of inevitable war looms over France, Nancy is navigating the worlds of friendship and love while trying to gain respect as a female journalist. Through these frequent time jumps, Lawhon carefully elucidates the details of Nancy’s remarkable life, resulting in an electrifying tale of danger, extraordinary courage and enduring love. At times, the story is so incredible that it seems more fiction than fact. Did she really kill a Nazi with her bare hands? How could she have possibly evaded capture so many times, and with so much style? A quick Google search reveals that Lawhon has done her research. Most characters in the novel can be traced back to real people and the action is heavily based on true events. In the author’s note, Lawhon lays out exactly where she altered the timeline and changed or added any characters. For that reason, we are left with a highly accurate depiction of Nancy that is openly, yet subtly laced with the fine details and exaggerations that make historical fiction so compelling. |
Nancy Wake. Photo: Wikipedia
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What’s more, the novel is filled with beautiful literary descriptions that bring the story to life. As Nancy sits in the Pont Royal Hotel, you can almost taste the bubbles of her French 75 dancing on your tongue and characters are embellished so fine that their countenance springs from the page. However, these descriptions also extend into the horrors of war. The novel contains realistic and explicit accounts that may disturb some readers. Harrowing scenes of torture are vividly drawn and the immense heartache that stems from loss and grief is palpable. This novel is an immersive experience, to know if it is best for you, consider your limits and tread with caution.
 Ariel Lawhon. Photo: (c)Kristee Mays Photography
While Code Name Hélène is set in the backdrop of the Second World War and Nancy’s exploits as a spy fuel the narrative, readers will find pertinent themes that are prevalent in our modern society. The strong feminist
undertones make it a novel fit for anyone who can appreciate a fierce woman navigating a man’s world. Henri Tardivat, the leader of her unit while she was in France, said "she is the most feminine woman I know, until the fighting starts. Then she is like five men." Lawhon has done well to highlight the woman warrior that Nancy was. Throughout the novel, she profanes with flair and stands toe-toe-toe with her male counterparts, however she is also an expert charmer who never enters battle without a fresh application of Victory Red lipstick. If, by now, you are itching to know more about Nancy Wake, I’m sure the inclination to Google her name is strong. I urge you not to. Instead, go in search of Code Name Hélène. Allow Lawhon to walk you through the facts and history of Nancy Wake with the literary flair that does justice to her story. |
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Code Name Helene, Ariel Lawhon. Simon & Schuster. $32.99rrp
Lounge Chaiser
Dominic Knight
Dominic Knight
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FROM the bestselling author of Strayapedia comes the definitive dictionary of the worst year since 536AD.
2020 sucked, however it’s been a year of togetherness and community spirit — though mostly trauma. But as we limp towards 2021, it's time to look back at it all, and laugh. Because at least we all suffered through this year together. Dominic Knight's The 2020 Dictionary is a fun record of all we learned in the year the world went to sh*t, helpfully collected in alphabetical order, with jokes where appropriate, as well as in some places where they probably aren’t. This is a book to keep and show your grandchildren, so they’ll believe your outlandish stories. Dom Knight is one of the founders of The Chaser, and as a collaborator on nearly all of the team’s projects, including The Chaser’s War On Everything, CNNNN, The Hamster Wheel and too many election shows, he managed to only get arrested that one time. He's also presented serious programmes on ABC Radio, frivolous ones on Triple M and, currently, the Chaser Report podcast. Dom’s books include The Strayan Dictionary, Strayapedia and Trumpedia |
With a little help from his publisher, Allen & Unwin, we managed to get a copy of some questions and answers thrown to and from the author.
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What on earth possessed you to write a book about this year? Haven't we suffered enough?
We definitely have suffered enough – but in an increasingly fragmented world, this year of lockdowns and isolation was something we experienced together, and it brought us closer together in every sense except physically. We were like prisoners in adjacent cells – and like prisoners, we came up with some really bizarre ways of passing the time until our eventual release in the far-off future. Like what? Well, baking, for one. People went nuts about baking fresh bread, and then other people tried to one-up them by baking sourdough. Which was a bit strange – in just about every jurisdiction around the world, you could still buy food, so fresh bread was one of the few things you could pretty well guarantee everywhere. It would have been much more productive if we'd all spent time learning how to produce our own artisanal toilet paper rather than figuring out how to spend hours laboriously producing something that every supermarket sells for $1.50. But I guess steaming hot bread looks better on Instagram than handmade bog roll. We spent a lot of time on Instagram this year, didn't we? Yes – lots of people started holding concerts and hosting their own chat shows on the 'gram, so much so that I had to turn off live broadcast notifications so I didn't have to keep watching friends drinking while talking about how all they were doing all day was drinking. I already knew that, because it was all I was doing, too. |
Dominic Knight
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What was the strangest way of killing time in 2020?
Dyeing things was right up there, whether it was our own hair, our pets, or tie-dying t-shirts. And some masochistic people watched every single Dan Andrews press conference, for more than 100 days in a row. But the oddest of all was the Pillow Dress Challenge, where people took photos of themselves with a pillow in front of their bodies, held in place by a belt – and otherwise naked. A stupid idea, you ask? Well, yes – but more than 30,000 people shared a photo of themselves wearing nothing but a pillow and a belt, including Halle Berry and Anne Hathaway. This year, even Academy Award winners were bored.
What else did we get up to?
Well, we protested against systemic racism, with as-yet uncertain results; we closely followed the US election, with as-yet uncertain results, and we really hoped for a Covid vaccine, with as-yet uncertain results. So there was a lot of waiting, really.
Did any good things happen in 2020?
No.
Really? Not even Zoom virtual backgrounds?
Especially not Zoom virtual backgrounds. The only thing more depressing than attending a meeting in your bedroom is pretending you're on a stunning tropical beach, while really just attending a meeting in your bedroom.
Was it really that bad?
In Australia, we transitioned from bushfires, through floods and cyclones, to Covid-19. Also, Powderfinger reunited. It's been a rough year.
Dyeing things was right up there, whether it was our own hair, our pets, or tie-dying t-shirts. And some masochistic people watched every single Dan Andrews press conference, for more than 100 days in a row. But the oddest of all was the Pillow Dress Challenge, where people took photos of themselves with a pillow in front of their bodies, held in place by a belt – and otherwise naked. A stupid idea, you ask? Well, yes – but more than 30,000 people shared a photo of themselves wearing nothing but a pillow and a belt, including Halle Berry and Anne Hathaway. This year, even Academy Award winners were bored.
What else did we get up to?
Well, we protested against systemic racism, with as-yet uncertain results; we closely followed the US election, with as-yet uncertain results, and we really hoped for a Covid vaccine, with as-yet uncertain results. So there was a lot of waiting, really.
Did any good things happen in 2020?
No.
Really? Not even Zoom virtual backgrounds?
Especially not Zoom virtual backgrounds. The only thing more depressing than attending a meeting in your bedroom is pretending you're on a stunning tropical beach, while really just attending a meeting in your bedroom.
Was it really that bad?
In Australia, we transitioned from bushfires, through floods and cyclones, to Covid-19. Also, Powderfinger reunited. It's been a rough year.
Worst year ever?
We can't even claim that. In 536, much of the planet was plunged into constant darkness for 18 months by a volcanic eruption, and millions died of starvation. In 2020, we just have to stay at home a lot. It's the comfiest form of mass suffering in history.
Did any funny things happen in 2020, at least?
Oh sure. A video showed that lots of things that didn't look like cake were in fact cake, we invented terms like 'FaceWine' and 'quarantini', and Kanye West ran for president. Although all those things are pretty depressing, come to think of it. But then, wasn't everything this year?
We can't even claim that. In 536, much of the planet was plunged into constant darkness for 18 months by a volcanic eruption, and millions died of starvation. In 2020, we just have to stay at home a lot. It's the comfiest form of mass suffering in history.
Did any funny things happen in 2020, at least?
Oh sure. A video showed that lots of things that didn't look like cake were in fact cake, we invented terms like 'FaceWine' and 'quarantini', and Kanye West ran for president. Although all those things are pretty depressing, come to think of it. But then, wasn't everything this year?
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Yes. So why did you want to write a book about this year again?
Well, I figured that on Christmas morning, all over Australia, families would want to unwrap an amusing book about 2020 and look back at all the bizarre things that happened, and laugh. I see now that this was a terrible misjudgement, but then wasn't everything this year? Thanks for participating in this interview, Dominic. At least we've had this brief moment of human connection in an isolated and desolate year. No, we haven't. Your publicist asked you to write these interview questions for yourself so other publications could just copy and paste them. You're as alone as ever. Oh yeah. This is awkward, isn't it? Yes. But very 2020. |
Photo: Jenna Hamra
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The 2020 Dictionary by Dominic Knight. Allen & Unwin. RRP$29.99
The Great Escape ...
Cheryl Arkle
Cheryl Arkle
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AT nearly ninety, retired nature writer Hattie Bloom prefers the company of birds to people, but when a fall lands her in a nursing home she struggles to cope with the loss of independence and privacy. From the confines of her ‘room with a view’ of the carpark, she dreams of escape.
Fellow ‘inmate’, the gregarious, would-be comedian Walter Clements also plans on returning home as soon as he is fit and able to take charge of his mobility scooter. When Hattie and Walter officially meet at The Night Owls, a clandestine club run by Sister Bronwyn and her dog, Queenie, they seem at odds. But when Sister Bronwyn is dismissed over her unconventional approach to aged care, they must join forces – and very slowly an unlikely, unexpected friendship begins to grow. Joanna Nell followed-up her bestselling The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village, with the equally wonderful The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker, a poignant ode to love and the memories that make a well-lived life. As a result, she has carved out a very unusual – but utterly delightful – niche in fiction for herself, weaving stories about elderly characters. But these are not just novels for elderly readers. Quite the contrary – these are wonderful, inspiring novels for all ages. In fact, younger readers will not only enjoy these tales but perhaps take away from them a new view of ageing. Joanna, a practising GP, says on her website that she’s an ‘advocate for positive ageing’. |
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Joanna Nell
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Full of wisdom and warmth, The Great Escape from Woodlands Nursing Home is a gorgeously poignant, hilarious story that shows it is never too late to laugh – or to love. The characters are an absolute celebration of life. I adored feisty, reclusive Hattie Bloom, who ends up in the nursing home after breaking a hip while trying to save a tree for some resident owls. And Walter, who misses his wife and whose friend Walter is dying. But all the characters are superbly crafted, with compelling arcs.
Joanna’s novels are refreshing to read as she now settles into this very important niche in fiction. As always, she weaves together themes of aging, death, friendship, the loss of independence and more, however she keeps all of these themes fresh, bringing new ideas and scenarios from her past novels. Sharp dialogue, wit and heart-warming emotion make The Great Escape from Woodlands Nursing Home the perfect weekend read. I can’t recommend this enough. I enjoyed it immensely. |
The Great Escape from Woodlands Nursing Home, Joanna Neil. Hachette Australia. $RRP32.99
Reproduced with kind permission of
BETTER READING
Reproduced with kind permission of
BETTER READING
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A literary masterpiece
Cheryl Arkle
Cheryl Arkle
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There is so much beauty in this world, Francie said, as if astonished by a discovery that had taken an entire life to be revealed. And yet we never see it until it is too late.
IN a world of perennial fire and growing extinctions, Anna’s aged mother, Francie, is dying – if her three children would just allow it. Condemned by their pity to living, subjected to increasingly desperate medical interventions, she escapes through her hospital window into visions of horror and delight. When Anna’s finger vanishes and a few months later her knee disappears, Anna too feels the pull of the window. She begins to see that all around her others are similarly vanishing, but no one else notices. All Anna can do is keep her mother alive. But the window keeps opening wider, taking Anna and the reader ever deeper into a strangely beautiful story about hope and love and orange-bellied parrots. In my line of work, I read a lot of books – some good and some great. But every so often a book comes across my desk that eclipses the rest. The Living Sea of Waking Dreams is one such book. From the Booker Prize winning author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North comes The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, an ember storm of a novel that is Richard Flanagan at his most astonishing, moving and best. |
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Set in a Hobart plagued with constant bush fires, rising temperatures and ashes raining from above, Flanagan’s latest novel is a not-so-subtle response to climate change and the horrific 2019/2020 bushfire season that devastated first Tasmania, and then Australia’s east coast. It was like living with a chronically sick smoker,” Flanagan writes in spare yet luminous prose, “except the smoker was the world and everyone was trapped in its fouled and collapsing lungs”.
The most fascinating part of the novel, I felt, was the way Flanagan blended elements of magical realism into the plot: Anna slowly begins to disappear – first her finger, then her knee – yet nobody notices, let alone cares, just as nobody notices the list of extinct species, which grows by the day. It’s a startling metaphor for climate change, and a powerful elegy to our natural world, which, like Anna’s limbs, is vanishing right before our eyes. Yet all this ecological devastation occurs in the background of the novel, as The Living Sea of Waking Dreams is, at its heart, an incredibly human story about a dying mother and her children. The characters stand front and centre here, and Flanagan goes to great lengths to articulate the familial rifts and sibling rivalry, as well as interrogate society’s undignified treatment of the sick and dying. Perceptive, thought-provoking and utterly exquisite, The Living Sea of Waking Dreams is a powerful lament to our treatment of nature, and an urgent cry for change. It is yet another literary masterpiece from the very talented Richard Flanagan. |
Click to listen to the podcast with Richard Flanagan
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The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, Richard Flanagan. Knopf Australia. $RRP32.99
Reproduced with kind permission of
BETTER READING
Reproduced with kind permission of
BETTER READING
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Di Morrissey's 27th novel just published
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DI MORRISSEY AM is one of the most successful and prolific authors Australia has ever produced, publishing 27 bestselling novels. She trained as a journalist, working in newspapers, magazines, television, film, theatre and advertising around the world. Her fascination with different countries, their cultural, political and environmental issues, has been the catalyst for her novels, which are all inspired by a particular landscape. In 2017, in recognition of her achievements, Di was inducted into the Australian Book Industry Awards Hall of Fame with the prestigious Lloyd O'Neil Award. In 2019, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia.
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Baracking for the right President
Photo: History in HD
OVERNIGHT, Former President Barack Obama delivered a blistering attack on Donald Trump's first four years in office, both on substance and on a personal level.
Obama's speech attacked Trump's tax policy and handling of the coronavirus pandemic -- and personal barbs, jabbing at shrinking ratings for the President's speeches and town halls. The former President wasted no time getting into Trump, opening his remarks by mocking him for telling an audience in Pennsylvania that he wouldn't have visited the area if not for the coronavirus hurting his political fortunes!
THE presidential memoirs of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, will be published in two volumes in late November.
The first volume, titled A Promised Land, will be issued simultaneously in 25 languages.
A publication date for the second, and concluding, volume of the memoirs has not yet been set and will be announced at a later date. Details about President Obama’s book tour will be announced later this autumn.
Obama's speech attacked Trump's tax policy and handling of the coronavirus pandemic -- and personal barbs, jabbing at shrinking ratings for the President's speeches and town halls. The former President wasted no time getting into Trump, opening his remarks by mocking him for telling an audience in Pennsylvania that he wouldn't have visited the area if not for the coronavirus hurting his political fortunes!
THE presidential memoirs of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, will be published in two volumes in late November.
The first volume, titled A Promised Land, will be issued simultaneously in 25 languages.
A publication date for the second, and concluding, volume of the memoirs has not yet been set and will be announced at a later date. Details about President Obama’s book tour will be announced later this autumn.
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In his own words, Barack Obama tells in A Promised Land the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency - a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
Providing a stirring, deeply personal account of history in the making, Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office. Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden. |
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A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective - the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organiser tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,” and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.
Said President Obama, “There’s no feeling like finishing a book, and I’m proud of this one. I’ve spent the last few years reflecting on my presidency, and in A Promised Land I’ve tried to provide an honest accounting of my presidential campaign and my time in office: the key events and people who shaped it; my take on what I got right and the mistakes I made; and the political, economic, and cultural forces that my team and I had to confront then - and that as a nation we are grappling with still. In the book, I’ve also tried to give readers a sense of the personal journey that Michelle and I went through during those years, with all the incredible highs and lows. And finally, at a time when America is going through such enormous upheaval, the book offers some of my broader thoughts on how we can heal the divisions in our country going forward and make our democracy work for everybody - a task that won’t depend on any single president, but on all of us as engaged citizens. Along with being a fun and informative read, I hope more than anything that the book inspires young people across the country - and around the globe - to take up the baton, lift up their voices, and play their part in remaking the world for the better.”
The English-language print edition will be 768 pages long and include two 16-page photographic inserts.
Said President Obama, “There’s no feeling like finishing a book, and I’m proud of this one. I’ve spent the last few years reflecting on my presidency, and in A Promised Land I’ve tried to provide an honest accounting of my presidential campaign and my time in office: the key events and people who shaped it; my take on what I got right and the mistakes I made; and the political, economic, and cultural forces that my team and I had to confront then - and that as a nation we are grappling with still. In the book, I’ve also tried to give readers a sense of the personal journey that Michelle and I went through during those years, with all the incredible highs and lows. And finally, at a time when America is going through such enormous upheaval, the book offers some of my broader thoughts on how we can heal the divisions in our country going forward and make our democracy work for everybody - a task that won’t depend on any single president, but on all of us as engaged citizens. Along with being a fun and informative read, I hope more than anything that the book inspires young people across the country - and around the globe - to take up the baton, lift up their voices, and play their part in remaking the world for the better.”
The English-language print edition will be 768 pages long and include two 16-page photographic inserts.
A Promised Land: Barack Obama (Volume 1)
Published: November 18, 2020
Viking Books. RRP: $65 HB
Order advance copies here
Published: November 18, 2020
Viking Books. RRP: $65 HB
Order advance copies here
The Grandest
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AUTHOR Amelia Mellor has crafted a fine piece of social history as well as a riveting adventure story for readers 10+. The “hero” The Grandest Bookshop in the World is a bookshop. Coles Book Arcade was a famous institution, with locations in both Sydney and Melbourne. The Melbourne store was the grandest of them all, known throughout the world and a real destination for book lovers everywhere. It boasted a tea salon, real monkeys, talking parrots, various automata (an early form of robotics), a string quartet and various other diversions to support the astonishing three storeys of bookshelves, said to contain over two million books.
Mr E.W. Cole was the proprietor: a visionary, family man, and a fierce opponent of the White Australia Policy. He specifically designed the Tea Salon to combat racism against Chinese and Indian people. He was also a publisher of books and pamphlets, many of which are held in various museums today. His most famous book, Coles Funniest Picture Book has been reprinted many times and is still available today. Coles Funniest Picture Book was part of my childhood, so I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting elements such as the riddles. Reading Coles Funniest Picture Book is like a trip into the past for me at two levels – firstly back to my own childhood reading from my grandmother’s library, and secondly a trip back in time to the social mores of the time it was published. I dived into Amelia Mellor’s fiction book with great enthusiasm and I was not disappointed. The main character, Pearl Cole, is the daughter of Mr E.W. Cole and she lives in a flat above the bookstore with her family. They are a large and boisterous family, and the children are encouraged to be curious and inquiring. A strange man appears in the store and Pearl begins to investigate the business he is undertaking with her father. This leads Pearl and her brother Valentine (Valley) on a fast-paced race against the stranger, The Obscurosmith. He has the magical power to wipe memories, plus his magic is draining the bookstore of its life. Only Pearl and Valley can save the family, their home and their beloved bookstore from a sad fate. They must play the Obscurosmith’s game, solving riddles within specific time frames, and beat him at his own game. |
All of the action takes place within the bookstore, and much of it is based on the real rooms and attractions, architecture and design of the Melbourne store. The children enlist the support of other family members and store team members, the pace is driven by the clock, and the riddles become more difficult to solve, as well as more physically punishing. Memories start to fade as the children reach the critical point of the game. Will they make it through to the end of the game?
Amelia Mellor has created a magical world within a bookstore, set in the late 19th century. Her writing is quite cinematic and will appeal to today’s readers. Fans of movies such as Jumanji will revel in the imaginative exploits and time-trip.
This book has been beautifully packaged with a hardcover, gold embossing and rainbow coloured endpapers. It is like a little bit of 19th-century craftsmanship and a gorgeous gift for any reader, of any age.
Amelia Mellor has created a magical world within a bookstore, set in the late 19th century. Her writing is quite cinematic and will appeal to today’s readers. Fans of movies such as Jumanji will revel in the imaginative exploits and time-trip.
This book has been beautifully packaged with a hardcover, gold embossing and rainbow coloured endpapers. It is like a little bit of 19th-century craftsmanship and a gorgeous gift for any reader, of any age.
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Amelia Mellor began her writing career as her secondary school’s resident playwright in Year 11. As part of her creative writing course at the University of Melbourne, she completed a thesis on the reinvention of the Industrial Revolution in children’s fantasy literature. In 2018, she won the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust’s Ian Wilson Memorial Fellowship for The Grandest Bookshop in the World. Her other writing credits include a 2018 ASA Award Mentorship and a finalist place in the 2016 Grace Marion Wilson Emerging Writers’ Contest. When she isn’t writing, Amelia enjoys hiking, gardening and drawing. She is an English teacher in regional Victoria.
The Grandest Bookshop in the World
by Amelia Mellor. Affirm Press. RRP $19.99 (HB) Reproduced with kind permission of Better Reading magazine |
Adventure Island
Phil Kafcaloudes
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QUITE accidentally I touched greatness today.
I was reaching for one of John Steinbeck's novels in my bookcase when I saw an old novel I must’ve read ten years ago. It was called The Myth is Murder. It was a mystery set in Greece. The author was Shane Martin. After a while I remember that Shane Martin was a pseudonym for the Australian author George Johnston, the author of My Brother Jack. Johnston and his wife Charmian Clift have been in the news quite a bit recently with the publication of a book and articles about their years on the Greek island Hydra. They and their children Shane, Martin (hence the pseudonym) and Jason had become something of a star circle on that island. A very young Leonard Cohen had stayed with them and other artists of all kinds also came to stay. Affairs were had, the Johnston marriage strained and there was sickness and quite some mental anguish. Eventually what started as an idyllic adventure became a nightmare of dashed hopes, so much so that Charmian punctured the Greek island fantasy with a book ironically titled Peel Me a Lotus. |
The Johnstons returned to Australia in the early 1960s, Johnston to a literary success with his Jack trilogy, and Charmian with her own novels and her very successful newspaper columns. It ended sadly with Charmian suiciding and George dying of a pulmonary disease shortly afterwards.
But this copy of Johnston’s novel says nothing of that. When it was published in 1959 George and Charmian were hopeful and young enough to believe they and their children had a future of promise and joy. You can sense it from the dedication in my copy of the book, a dedication that is playful and carefree.
The bad times were yet to come, but this inscription lives on with the joy Johnston must’ve put into it more than sixty years ago.
But this copy of Johnston’s novel says nothing of that. When it was published in 1959 George and Charmian were hopeful and young enough to believe they and their children had a future of promise and joy. You can sense it from the dedication in my copy of the book, a dedication that is playful and carefree.
The bad times were yet to come, but this inscription lives on with the joy Johnston must’ve put into it more than sixty years ago.
Play it again, Sam
Alan Davidson
THE heart-warming Australian story, Penguin Bloom, is the miraculous tale of a baby magpie that helped save a young mother and her family. It is a homegrown international bestseller soon to be a major Hollywood movie, starring Naomi Watts, Jackie Weaver and Andrew Lincoln. Sam's personal message at the end of that book resonated powerfully with readers where, pulling no punches, she writes about what it is really like to face life in a wheelchair.
In Sam Bloom: Heartache and Birdsong, Sam tells her own story for the first time. How a shy but determined Australian girl became a nurse and travelled across Africa. How she fell in love with a like-minded free spirit, raised three boys and they built a life together on Sydney's Northern Beaches. And then, in a single horrific moment, how everything changed. Sam's journey back from the edge of death and the depths of despair is so much more than an account of overcoming adversity.
In Sam Bloom: Heartache and Birdsong, Sam tells her own story for the first time. How a shy but determined Australian girl became a nurse and travelled across Africa. How she fell in love with a like-minded free spirit, raised three boys and they built a life together on Sydney's Northern Beaches. And then, in a single horrific moment, how everything changed. Sam's journey back from the edge of death and the depths of despair is so much more than an account of overcoming adversity.
Sam's captivating true story, written by close friend, New York Times bestselling author Bradley Trevor Greive, and featuring extraordinary photographs taken by Sam's husband, Cameron Bloom, is humbling, heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure. A triumph of raw emotion and incredible beauty.
This is a heavy book (!) weighing in at nearly a kilogram,. But it’s worth it as the heavyweight paper is used to perfection with a book full of magnificent photos. A must read and, also, a great gift.
This is a heavy book (!) weighing in at nearly a kilogram,. But it’s worth it as the heavyweight paper is used to perfection with a book full of magnificent photos. A must read and, also, a great gift.
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Sam Bloom is a surfer, adventure traveller, neurosurgical nurse and mother of three boys. She was paralysed in an accident in Thailand in 2013. She has since won two Oceania KL1 paracanoe championships, and is the Australian and World Adaptive surfing champion. She works with numerous spinal cord injury charities around the world and is a highly sought-after public speaker.
Cameron Bloom began his career as a surf photographer at the age of 15. Since then his editorial and travel images have featured in numerous international publications including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and The New York Times. Cam is also the award-winning cinematographer of Surrender and is a BBC Earth Ambassador. Bradley Trevor Greive AM was born in Tasmania and became a global publishing sensation after the release of The Blue Day Book in 2000. The former paratrooper has since sold more than 30 million books in 115 countries. BTG is also a television presenter for wildlife programs on Animal Planet and Netflix, and leads frontline conservation efforts on every continent. In 2014 he was awarded the Order of Australia for his service to literature and wildlife conservation and, in 2016, he was formally adopted by the Deisheetaan clan of Alaska’s Native American Tlingit people. BTG lives in America with his wife, Amy, and daughter, Genevieve. |
Sam Bloom: Heartache & Birdsong by Samantha Bloom, Cameron Bloom and Bradley Trevor Greive
An ABC Book pubished by Harper Collins RRP$32.99
An ABC Book pubished by Harper Collins RRP$32.99
A Theatre for Dreamers
Phil Kafcaloudes
That is a great name for a novel, the smash hit novel for 2020.
The premise of the novel also offers plenty of depth for a writer. It is set in an artists’ colony that developed on the Greek island Hydra in 1960. This informal colony was based around two Australian writers, the husband and wife Charmian Clift (Peel Me a Lotus) and George Johnston (My Brother Jack) who had been living on the island for some time, trying to find some kind of nirvana.
They were joined by European writers and artists, and also the then-unknown Leonard Cohen. Despite this meeting of artistic minds, all was not happy in the little group, with Charmian increasingly depressed, and reportedly reaching beyond her marriage to find solace.
One account I read said that her flirting with a young actor (who was on the island to shoot a film) so angered the young man’s director that the director warned her off by cruelly saying: “You should realise that you are no longer young and no longer beautiful”. Things were no happier for her husband George and although their three children appeared to be having a joyful time (a friend of mine once met them on a Hydra beach appearing to be relishing life), they did not grow into old age. Neither did their parents: Charmian suicided in Sydney only a few years later, and Johnston died soon after from a lung disease.
But in 1960 these artists mixed and gained succour from each other, as other artists did around the same time in Greenwich Village, Soho, Montmartre and Heidelberg in Melbourne.
Into this scenario author Polly Samson novelises Clift, Johnston and Cohen into a story involving a fictitious 18 year old girl, Erica, who comes to the island and interacts with the group. It is fiction. The novelist has Clift and Johnston doing things they never did in aid of weaving a coming-of-age story that is also a social commentary about how the times were changing as younger people started to seek liberty from post-war austerities that were as much attitudinal as physical. Hydra presents a world where people were seeking freedom and joy after a joyless 1950s.
My question is (and this was a theme of my PhD), was this novelisation the right thing to do? Historical fiction generally places invented people into historical scenarios, as Tolstoy did in War and Peace. Others include real characters as side players, while some go and invent the actions of major players (I would include here the TV series The Crown, which makes up the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip including inventing dialogue, arguments, emotions and motivations).
The premise of the novel also offers plenty of depth for a writer. It is set in an artists’ colony that developed on the Greek island Hydra in 1960. This informal colony was based around two Australian writers, the husband and wife Charmian Clift (Peel Me a Lotus) and George Johnston (My Brother Jack) who had been living on the island for some time, trying to find some kind of nirvana.
They were joined by European writers and artists, and also the then-unknown Leonard Cohen. Despite this meeting of artistic minds, all was not happy in the little group, with Charmian increasingly depressed, and reportedly reaching beyond her marriage to find solace.
One account I read said that her flirting with a young actor (who was on the island to shoot a film) so angered the young man’s director that the director warned her off by cruelly saying: “You should realise that you are no longer young and no longer beautiful”. Things were no happier for her husband George and although their three children appeared to be having a joyful time (a friend of mine once met them on a Hydra beach appearing to be relishing life), they did not grow into old age. Neither did their parents: Charmian suicided in Sydney only a few years later, and Johnston died soon after from a lung disease.
But in 1960 these artists mixed and gained succour from each other, as other artists did around the same time in Greenwich Village, Soho, Montmartre and Heidelberg in Melbourne.
Into this scenario author Polly Samson novelises Clift, Johnston and Cohen into a story involving a fictitious 18 year old girl, Erica, who comes to the island and interacts with the group. It is fiction. The novelist has Clift and Johnston doing things they never did in aid of weaving a coming-of-age story that is also a social commentary about how the times were changing as younger people started to seek liberty from post-war austerities that were as much attitudinal as physical. Hydra presents a world where people were seeking freedom and joy after a joyless 1950s.
My question is (and this was a theme of my PhD), was this novelisation the right thing to do? Historical fiction generally places invented people into historical scenarios, as Tolstoy did in War and Peace. Others include real characters as side players, while some go and invent the actions of major players (I would include here the TV series The Crown, which makes up the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip including inventing dialogue, arguments, emotions and motivations).
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But in A Theatre for Dreamers it could be argued that Polly Samson has gone even further, turning Clift, Johnston and Cohen into her own literary puppets.
As I argue in my thesis, so long as the author makes it clear that this is fiction ... a novel ... then this is probably just a matter of judgment for the reader. If Samson was writing about my mother and father then I might find it a little weird. Then again, I wrote a novel about my grandmother, who was a spy in Greece in WWII. I also had her doing things that she probably didn’t do. My family didn’t object to me painting her as a Nazi killing saboteur who dated a German officer to get information. However, like Samson I made it clear that my book was a novel, but that didn’t stop people at writers’ festivals asking me what was true in the novel. When an elderly man told me he was in the same street as my grandmother on the day she was released from prison, I didn’t have the heart to tell him I had invented that scene. This man had believed the scene was true and put himself in it. That’s the risk of doing what I ... and Samson ... have done in our writing. |
Avlaki Beach, Hydra
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A Theatre for Dreamers, Polly Samson. Bloomsbury. $29.99
Coded sauerkraut
Celia Rees
Germany, 1946
A reluctant spy is born…
An ordinary woman. A book of recipes. The perfect cover for spying…
World War II has just ended, and Britain has established the Control Commission for Germany, which oversees their zone of occupation. The Control Commission hires British civilians to work in Germany, rebuild the shattered nation and prosecute war crimes. Somewhat aimless, bored with her job as a provincial schoolteacher, and unwilling to live with her overbearing mother any longer, thirtysomething Edith Graham applies for a job with the Commission - but she is also recruited by her cousin, Leo, who is in the Secret Service. To them, Edith is perfect spy material …single, ordinary-looking, with a college degree in German. Leo went to Oxford with one of their most hunted war criminals, Count Kurt von Stavenow, who Edith remembers all too well from before the war. They have their own history, and Leo wants her to find him.
Intrigued by the challenge, Edith heads to Germany armed with a convincing cover story: she’s an unassuming Education Officer sent to help resurrect German schools. To send information back to her Secret Service handlers in London, Edith has crafted the perfect alter ego, cookbook author Stella Snelling, who writes a popular magazine cookery column.
Secretly, she is sending coding messages back to the UK, hidden inside innocuous recipes sent to a friend – after all, who would expect notes on sauerkraut or Sunday breakfasts to contain the clues that would crack a criminal underground network?
Billett Sunday Breakfast
Cornflakes or Shredded Wheat
Sausages, bacon, fried potatoes
Scambled eggs
Toast & Jam
Tea
But occupied Germany is awash with other spies, collaborators, and opportunists, and as she’s pulled into their world, Edith soon discovers that no one is what they seem to be. And the closer she gets to the truth, the muddier the line becomes between good and evil. In a dangerous world of shifting loyalties, when the enemy wears the face of a friend, who do you trust?
This is a striking historical novel about an ordinary young British woman sent to uncover a network of spies and war criminals in post-war Germany that will appeal to fans of The Huntress and Transcription. Celia Rees is a fantastic storyteller and wonderful writer – this really shines. All the characters are compelling, but especially resourceful, likable Edith.
Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook is a standout in an already strong sub-genre of historical fiction. With a unique, compelling premise, it is a beautifully crafted novel about daring, betrayal, and female friendship. From its gorgeous front cover, to the gripping final pages, this wonderful novel will have you. hooked.
A reluctant spy is born…
An ordinary woman. A book of recipes. The perfect cover for spying…
World War II has just ended, and Britain has established the Control Commission for Germany, which oversees their zone of occupation. The Control Commission hires British civilians to work in Germany, rebuild the shattered nation and prosecute war crimes. Somewhat aimless, bored with her job as a provincial schoolteacher, and unwilling to live with her overbearing mother any longer, thirtysomething Edith Graham applies for a job with the Commission - but she is also recruited by her cousin, Leo, who is in the Secret Service. To them, Edith is perfect spy material …single, ordinary-looking, with a college degree in German. Leo went to Oxford with one of their most hunted war criminals, Count Kurt von Stavenow, who Edith remembers all too well from before the war. They have their own history, and Leo wants her to find him.
Intrigued by the challenge, Edith heads to Germany armed with a convincing cover story: she’s an unassuming Education Officer sent to help resurrect German schools. To send information back to her Secret Service handlers in London, Edith has crafted the perfect alter ego, cookbook author Stella Snelling, who writes a popular magazine cookery column.
Secretly, she is sending coding messages back to the UK, hidden inside innocuous recipes sent to a friend – after all, who would expect notes on sauerkraut or Sunday breakfasts to contain the clues that would crack a criminal underground network?
Billett Sunday Breakfast
Cornflakes or Shredded Wheat
Sausages, bacon, fried potatoes
Scambled eggs
Toast & Jam
Tea
But occupied Germany is awash with other spies, collaborators, and opportunists, and as she’s pulled into their world, Edith soon discovers that no one is what they seem to be. And the closer she gets to the truth, the muddier the line becomes between good and evil. In a dangerous world of shifting loyalties, when the enemy wears the face of a friend, who do you trust?
This is a striking historical novel about an ordinary young British woman sent to uncover a network of spies and war criminals in post-war Germany that will appeal to fans of The Huntress and Transcription. Celia Rees is a fantastic storyteller and wonderful writer – this really shines. All the characters are compelling, but especially resourceful, likable Edith.
Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook is a standout in an already strong sub-genre of historical fiction. With a unique, compelling premise, it is a beautifully crafted novel about daring, betrayal, and female friendship. From its gorgeous front cover, to the gripping final pages, this wonderful novel will have you. hooked.
Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook
by Celia Rees. HarperCollins. $29.99 (PB)
Reproduced with kind permission of Better Reading magazine
by Celia Rees. HarperCollins. $29.99 (PB)
Reproduced with kind permission of Better Reading magazine
Delicious
Di Morrissey
Di Morrissey
THIS is a delicious “word of mouth” book!
I was told about it in mouth watering detail from my friend Joan who is a super cook.
… “new wine, new oil, all those chestnuts, fat porcini smelling of loam and the ages, figs dripping honey, the leaves on the vines yellow as saffron…”
This is the story of a small group of Umbrian women who gather each week in an old stone house in the hills above Orvieto to cook, eat and drink. And equally important, to talk and laugh.
During these meals the women share memories and stories of their lives and families and these form the fundamental truths of this delightful book.
Woven through their stories are the rudimentary recipes written as you tell a good friend how you made a particular dish ... ingredients tossed together like the laughter and love of old friends.
So it’s not a traditional cook book ... but you want to rush to make some of the homely wonderful dishes they shared at the supper club.
Marlena has written cookbooks, is a journalist, author and chef. She and her husband Fernando moved from Venice, then Tuscany and now live in Orvieto in the Umbrian hills of Italy.
The Umbrian Supper Club takes you there, and takes you back to memories of meals and family…as only cooking and sharing food can.
t’s earthy, real, and simply delectable.
I was told about it in mouth watering detail from my friend Joan who is a super cook.
… “new wine, new oil, all those chestnuts, fat porcini smelling of loam and the ages, figs dripping honey, the leaves on the vines yellow as saffron…”
This is the story of a small group of Umbrian women who gather each week in an old stone house in the hills above Orvieto to cook, eat and drink. And equally important, to talk and laugh.
During these meals the women share memories and stories of their lives and families and these form the fundamental truths of this delightful book.
Woven through their stories are the rudimentary recipes written as you tell a good friend how you made a particular dish ... ingredients tossed together like the laughter and love of old friends.
So it’s not a traditional cook book ... but you want to rush to make some of the homely wonderful dishes they shared at the supper club.
Marlena has written cookbooks, is a journalist, author and chef. She and her husband Fernando moved from Venice, then Tuscany and now live in Orvieto in the Umbrian hills of Italy.
The Umbrian Supper Club takes you there, and takes you back to memories of meals and family…as only cooking and sharing food can.
t’s earthy, real, and simply delectable.
The Umbrian Supper Club: Marlena de Blasi, Allen & Unwin. $24.99 RRP
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DI MORRISSEY AM is one of the most successful and prolific authors Australia has ever produced publishing 28 bestselling novels.
She trained as a journalist, working in newspapers, magazines, television, film, theatre and advertising around the world. Her fascination with different countries, their cultural, political and environmental issues, has been the catalyst for her novels, which are all inspired by a particular landscape. Di is a tireless and passionate advocate and activist for many causes. She is an avid supporter of Greenpeace, speaking out on issues of national and international importance. She established The Golden Land Education Foundation in Myanmar (Burma), and is an Ambassador for Australia’s Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children. Di also publishes and edits a free community newspaper, The Manning Community News. In 2017, in recognition of her achievements, Di was inducted into the Australian Book Industry Awards Hall of Fame with the prestigious Lloyd O’Neil Award. In 2019, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia. Her next book is Before the Storm to be published in October. To find out more, visit www.dimorrissey.com and www.facebook/DiMorrissey. You can follow Di at @di_morrissey on Twitter and @dimorrisseyauthor on Instagram. |
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