“What if Elizabeth Macarthur – wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in the earliest days of Sydney – had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? And what if novelist Kate Grenville, had miraculously found and published it? That’s the starting point for A Room Made of Leaves, a playful dance of possibilities between […]

The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge  is for bloggers who wish to participate by publishing a blog post every day in April except for Sundays. Each blog post will focus on a letter of the alphabet. For example April 1 will be A, April 2 will be B and on it goes. By […]

The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge  is for bloggers who wish to participate by publishing a blog post every day in April except for Sundays. Each blog post will focus on a letter of the alphabet. For example April 1 will be A, April 2 will be B and on it goes. By […]

Summary In 1788, a young gentlewoman raised in the vicarage of an English village married a handsome, haughty and penniless army officer. In any Jane Austen novel that would be the end of the story, but for the real-life woman who would play an integral part in establishing Australia’s wool industry, it was just the […]

Title:  1788 The Brutal Truth of the First Fleet             The biggest single overseas migration the world had ever seen Author: David Hill Publisher:  William Heinemann Date of Publication: 2008 Genre: Australian History Number of Pages:  400, indexed with a chronology, bibliography and research notes. Photos and charts ;included. Summary Hill starts at the beginning, […]

Summary This novel, set in 1949, introduces a new character, Archer, a WW11 veteran who has recently been released from prison, where he served time for a crime he didn’t commit. On his release, he encounters many obstacles that make it difficult to honour his parole conditions. His good intentions to stay out of trouble […]

The Shadow of the Wind – The Cemetary of Forgotten Books #1 Summary Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when […]

Belle Gibson‘s Cancer Con “Belle Gibson convinced the world she had healed herself from terminal brain cancer with a healthy diet.  She built a global business based upon her claims.  There was just one problem.  She’d never had cancer” – from back cover Belle Gibson made herself into an Instagram sensation as a wellness hero, […]

After his father’s death, young William is cast upon the charity of an unknown great-uncle, John McIvor. The old man was brought up, expecting to marry the heiress to Kuran Station—a grand estate in the Australian Outback—only to be disappointed by his rejection and the selling off of the land. He has devoted his life […]

The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is for bloggers who wish to participate by publishing a blog post every day in April except for Sundays. Each blog post will focus on a letter of the alphabet. For example April 1 will be A, April 2 will be B and on it goes. By the end […]

The BLOGGING APRIL A-Z has now finished. I decided to take a few days to think about this year’s challenge, before publishing my reflections post. As usual, I loved the challenge, even though it does make for a busy month. This year was my sixth year participating, but not all were on this blog.. Including […]

The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge  is for bloggers who wish to participate by publishing a blog post every day in April except for Sundays. Each blog post will focus on a letter of the alphabet. For example April 1 will be A, April 2 will be B and on it goes. By […]

The BLOGGING APRIL A-Z has now finished. I decided to take a few days to think about this year’s challenge, before publishing my reflections post. As usual, I loved the challenge, even though it does make for a busy month. This year was my sixth year participating, but not all were on this blog.. Including […]

I started to salivate immediately, on opening this beautifully presented book, which is packed with recipes for the most delectable sweets imaginable. The author has taken classic Australian icons such as the Pavlova and given them a modern and humorous twist, making them even more drool inducing. There are also international recipes featured, that have […]