Frank’s Book Reviews

ME AND RORY MACBEATH – By: Richard Beasley

Reviewed: 13th May 2013
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Twelve year old Jake Taylor lives with his single mum, a successful criminal lawyer, in a leafy street in a quiet Adelaide suburb in 1977. Jake’s long, hot summer holidays are spent at the pool, the beach, fishing, and endless cricket matches with his mate, Robbie Duncan. The boys meet a newcomer to Rose Avenue named Rory Macbeath from Glasgow. At first, Rory is an oddity who speaks strangely, cannot bat, bowl, kick a footy or swim. However, he is accepted when he shows that he can fish, make a slingshot and, most importantly, fight.
To the residents of Rose Avenue it soon becomes apparent that all is not well in the Macbeath household and the boys’ carefree days of summer come to an abrupt end when something terrible happens at the end of the street.
Sydney barrister Richard Beasley tells this coming-of age story through the eyes of young Jake Taylor. Beasley’s legal expertise is evident in the gripping court room scenes where Jake watches in awe as his mother defends a client charged with a serious crime.
Me and Rory Macbeath is an entertaining and sometimes moving story of growing up told by a superb story teller.

HEARTLAND – By: Cathryn Hein

Reviewed: 30th April 2013
Publisher: Michael Joseph
RRP: $19-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Callie Reynolds is surprised when she learns that she has inherited her grandparents’ rural property, Glenmore, in south-western Victoria. Callie’s clear intention when she travels to Glenmore is to immediately make arrangements to sell the property. Her relations with her family are strained and she harbours a guilty secret about past events. The last thing she needs is a country property. However, when she goes through the house and its contents, fond memories come flooding back. Then, she meets a handsome neighbour named Matt Hawkins, an ex-soldier determined to succeed as a farmer. Callie has second thoughts about selling!
The plot of “Heartland” is a familiar one and the outcome is predictable. However, the author, Cathryn Hein, has a genuine rural pedigree and she is able to bring credibility to this pleasant addtion to the thriving rural romance genre.

AIR DISASTER CANBERRA – By: Andrew Tink

Reviewed: 22nd April 2013
Publisher: Newsouth
RRP: $45
Review: Frank Nolan
On 13th August 1940, an RAAF Hudson bomber crashed in Canberra. All ten people aboard died instantly. The victims included three senior Federal Cabinet members, two senior military officers, four members of the flight crew, and one senior civil servant. The Australian Prime Minister declared, on hearing news of the crash, “I felt for me the end of the world had come”.
In the crash, Menzies lost from his Cabinet both the Minister for Air, James Fairbairn, and the Minister for the Army, Geoffrey Street. Also lost was the Chief of the General Staff, General Cyril Brudenell Brigham White and the Vice-President of the Executive Council, Sir Henry Gullett. This occurred at a time when Australia was already at war with Germany and war with Japan was imminent.
Andrew Tink’s book, Air Disaster Canberra, outlines the Australian political scene between the two World Wars, focussing particularly on the careers of the men lost in the crash. Tink discusses at length two matters which have been the source of speculation ever since. It has been claimed that Air Minister Fairbairn had taken the controls of the Hudson prior to the crash, although he was not qualified to do so. It has also been claimed that the crash brought about the fall of the Menzies government due to the sudden, tragic loss of key personnel.
Today only a plaque, erected at the scene and now damaged by vandals, remains as a memorial to Canberra’s air crash disaster. Andrew Tink’s impressive book is a long-overdue account of this little known chapter in Australia’s history.

THE UTOPIA EXPERIMENT – By: Kyle Mills

Reviewed: 15th April 2013
Publisher: Orion
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Utopia was the mythical perfect society described by the English writer Thomas More in his 16th century book. It was a society organised on purely reasonable principles devised by wise philosophers. However, there are no philosophers or reasonable principles whatever in Kyle Mills’ The Utopia Experiment. A brilliant engineer named Christian Dresner has invented a sophisticated gadget called Merge which can interact with the human brain giving its owner power to perform incredible mental and physical functions. It involves having a microphone implanted in a tooth and two studs implanted in the skull. Despite these rather inconvenient operations, people line up in droves to get their Merge. The military ramifications of this invention are so important that its inventor resolves to release it only to the U.S. military. Of course, other powers also want the secret new device and so Colonel Jon Smith and his top secret organisation named Covert One are ordered by the Presidnt to ensure that his never happens. Much bloodshed occurs as Covert One goes into action.
This is the tenth Covert One novel and perhaps the most far-fetched of all. It may be difficult for readers to willingly suspend disbelief while reading The Utopia Experiment. If so, perhaps having a microphone inserted in a tooth and two studs implanted in the head may help!

BUSH NURSES – Edited by Annabelle Brayley

Reviewed: 8th April 2013
Publisher: Michael Joseph
RRP.: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Bush Nurses is a collection of true stories contributed by nurses who have worked in rural and remote Australia. Dr Nicholas Williams, a former District Medical Officer in Alice Springs, writes in an introduction to the book that “some of the stories will raise the hairs on the back of your neck, some will make you laugh and some will make you cry.” Vanessa Page’s story titled “Scaly Surprise”, a snake yarn with a surprising ending, may evoke all three responses mentioned by Dr Williams. The same could be said of the stories the nurses tell about delivering babies, often in the most difficult of circumstances. Nan Farmer tells an amazing story of how “Bush Medicine” was able to cure an infection on which antibiotics had no effect. Dulcie Peel’s story of performing an operation via radio instruction, while two policemen held the patient down, is modestly described as “quite a nerve-wracking thing to do”!
Annabelle Brayley’s anthology of stories of nursing in some of the most isolated places on earth is both gripping and inspiring. All royalties from the book are donated to Frontier Services.

THE SUNBURNT COUNTRY – By: Fiona Palmer

Reviewed: 18th March 2013
Publisher: Michael Joseph
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
In 1904, Dorothea Mackellar wrote the poem “My Country” which became known to generations of primary school children. The second stanza begins with the line,”I love a sunburnt country”. Possibly Fiona Palmer had the poem in mind when she set her novel in the sunburnt country around a country town south-west of Perth in Western Australia.
Prolonged drought has ravaged the country and many farms held for generations by local families are being lost. When young Daniel Tyler is sent as relieving bank manager to the town of Bundara, he finds that, to the struggling farmers, the bank is the enemy and he is the object of resentment and suspicion. Fortunately, Daniel meets Jonelle the attractive young operator of the local garage. As a sometimes stormy relationship develops between Daniel and Jonelle, Daniel’s eyes are opened to the stark reality of life in the country during tough times.
While basically a pleasant, light-weight romance, The Sunburnt Country also tells a story of drought and the tragedies it brings to a small country town.

THE GIRL UNDER THE OLIVE TREE – By: Leah Fleming

Reviewed: 25th February 2013
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
RRP: $25-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Following the Battle of Crete in May 1941, a British nurse named Johanna Stavridi was honoured by the Hellenic Red Cross for bravery. Nurse Stavridis was the inspiration for Leah Fleming’s character, Penelope George, in the novel The Girl Under the Olive Tree, however, the author insists that the novel is entirely fictitious.
The Girl Under the Olive Tree tells the story of Penelope George, the daughter of wealthy English parents, who is visiting Crete when World War 2 breaks out. She volunteers for work with the British Red Cross but is forced to change her identity and appearance when the island is over-run by German troops. She narrowly escapes arrest by the Gestapo due to the intervention of a young German officer.
Leah Fleming tells an amazing story of bravery amid the horror of war.

BACKFIRE – By: Catherine Coulter

Reviewed: 18th February 2013
Publisher: Michael Joseph
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Catherine Coulter has written sixteen books in her FBI suspense thriller series. In the latest book, Backfire, she introduces readers to a husband and wife duo of FBI agents, aptly named Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich. Savich, as Head of the Criminal Apprehension Unit in Washington DC, is both Sherlock’s boss and her husband. When a long time friend, Judge Ramsey Hunt, is shot outside his San Francisco bayside home, the duo fly across the continent to assist in solving the crime.
Coulter employs a few well-used devices in developing the plot. A mysterious note is delivered to FBI headquarters. An aggressive Federal prosecuter suddenly changes his style and a judge is shot. Sherlock and Savige try to connect the pieces of a complicated puzzle while coping with some rather unenthusiastic local law enforcement agencies.
There are many twists and turns as the story develops but the likeable Sherlock and Savige prove more than a match for the villains of the piece.

TOTALLY MAD – By: The Editors of Mad Magazine

Reviewed: 28th January 2013
Publisher: Little Brown
RRP: $45
Review: Frank Nolan
Mad Magazine was founded by editor Harvey Kutzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Intended originally to be a “comic book”, it quickly became a magazine which made fun of almost everything on the American scene. The magazine satirised politics, celebrities, sports, the media and life in general and attracted a world wide audience. Totally Mad: Sixty Years of Humor, Satire, Stupidity and Stupidity is an impressive coffee-table volume which includes many of the original pieces printed in the monthly magazine during its sixty years of publication.
Totally Mad is notable not only for its quirky content but also for the high quality of the art work involved in its presentation. A book written by authors who describe themselves as “the usual gang of idiots” may not appeal to everyone but it would make an excellent present for people who can laugh at themselves!

FLINDERS – By: Rob Mundle

Reviewed: 21st January 2013
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $45
Review:Frank Nolan
Rob Mundle has written the factual story of the life of Matthew Flinders not as a historian but as a storyteller with a passion for sailing and the sea. He begins with the first entry of the name of Matthew Flinders in the books of the Royal Navy in 1789. Born in 1774, the son of a Staffordshire doctor, Flinders saw service aboard British warships before being selected to accompany Governor Hunter to New South Wales in 1795. In the next few years, Flinders completed several dangerous voyages around the coast of Australia, eventually completing its circumnavigation in 1802. In 1803, Flinders was imprisoned for six years by the French on the island of Mauritius. After reaching England, despite failing health, he completed his monumental work “A Voyage to Terra Australis” which was published on the day after his death in 1814.
A highly respected sailor himself, Rob Mundle is well qualified to tell the exciting story of a great sailor and explorer. Mundle claims that Matthew Flinders should be remembered as “the third member of a remarkable triumvirate of seafarers and explorers – Cook, Bligh and Flinders.”

PACIFIC 360 – By: Roland Perry

Reviewed: 14th January 2013
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $50
Review: Frank Nolan
The task of describing Australia’s battle for survival in World War 2 in one volume is a challenging one. Melbourne writer Roland Perry focuses on some of the major players in the story of a relatively helpless Australia’s fight to survive invasion by the Japanese. It begins with John Curtin becoming Australian Prime Minister on 3rd October 1941. Perry points out the both Curtin and British Prime Minister Churchill had more character-forming traits in common than they knew – both were alcoholics and both suffered from depression. Also, while the American commander Douglas Macarthur demanded idolatory, Curtin deplored it. Macarthur had contempt for the style of Australian military commander Thomas Blamey, even for the way Blamey dressed! However, as Perry’s story illlustrates, this diverse cast of characters helped steer Australia through the most dangerous period of its history.
Perry describes the great battles in which Australian troops fought before the final Japanese surrender on 2nd September 1945. He concludes by claiming out that there is a strong case for judging John Curtin as Australia’s greatest Prime Minister.

JUST MY TYPO – By: Drummond Moir

Reviewed: 14th January 2013
Publisher: Sceptre
RRP: $19-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Putting things into writing can be a dangerous thing. It takes just one slip of the pen, typographical error, or misprint to change a perectly respectable expression into something meaningless, hilarious or outrageous.
Drummond Moir has collected typos in literature, in the media, in the law, in politics, school and from anywhere humans write things down. His collection is published in Just My Typo.
The book warns the reader not to pee in the oven while cooking a souffle since this will impair flavour. It makes the learned statement that Germans are so small that there may be as many as billions of them in a drop of water. The book reports a “use by” warning with the date 30th February. A local council planned to use a donation to buy new wenches for the park because the old ones were in a dilapidated state. A sign in a bank urged customers to save money regularly and you will never reget it. The names of a family appeared in a school magazine as Gavan, Helen and ugh!
Maybe typos should never happen but they sure are good for a laugh!

THE SILVER BRUMBY CENTENARY EDITION – ELYNE MITCHELL

Reviewed: 16th December 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review: Frank Nolan
The Silver Brumby books have delighted generations of young Australian readers since the publication of the first volume in 1958. To commemorate the centenary of the birth of Elyne Mitchell, author of the Silver Brumby books, three beautiful new publications are now available. The Silver Brumby Centenary Edition contains the first four of the books which tell the story of Thowra, the magnificent silver stallion, king of the brumbies.
On the Trail of the Silver Brumby is a charming anthology of some of the best of Elyne Mitchell’s other writing which demonstrates her knowledge and love of the high country which she knew so well. The book is beautifully illustrated and includes amazing photographs of the grandeur of the landscape.
Elyne Mitchell’s daughter, Honor Auchinleck, writes a detailed biography of Elyne, daughter of Sir Harry Chauvel, a senior officer in the A.I.F. and Commander of the Desert Mounted Corps in World War 1. In 1935, Elyne married Cambridge- educated lawyer Tom Mitchell and moved to Towong Hill Station in north eastern Victoria. The Silver Brumby stories were written for the Mitchell children who were home-schooled. Elyne retained her great love of horses throughout her life, and a pony, aptly named Thowra, led her funeral procession in 2002.

TEN AUSTRALIAN BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU DIE

The ABC television program “First Tuesday Book Club” conducted a survey of listeners asking them to nominate their “best Australian books to read before you die.” These were the ten favourite books in order of popularity:
CLOUDSTREET: Tim Winton
THE BOOK THIEF: Marcus Zusak
A FORTUNATE LIFE: Albert Facey
THE HARP IN THE SOUTH: Ruth Park
THE POWER OF ONE: Bryce Courtenay
JASPER JONES: Craig Silver
THE MAGIC PUDDING: Norman Lindsay
THE SLAP: Chris Tsiolkis
THE SECRET RIVER: Kate Grenville
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK: Joan Lindsay

A WEEK IN WINTER – By: Maeve Binchy

Reviewed: 10th December 2012
Publisher: Orion
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Maeve Binchy wrote her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, back in 1982. Sixteen novels followed and Binchy built up a large following with her sweet stories of pleasant, “ordinary” people. Sadly, her latest book, A Week in Winter, will be her last, since Maeve Binchy died in July 2012 at the age of 72.
“Stone House” is a country house hotel on the west coast of Ireland. During the wet, wild and lonely months, the hotel is a popular place for guests to spend a quiet “week in winter.” The stories of a disparate group of guests form the main part of the book. It is really a collection of short stories about interesting people, ranging from a cheerful nurse with an obnoxious mother-in law to an eccentric woman who claims to be psychic. Christmas will never be the same without a new Maeve Binchy book, so read and enjoy the swansong of a fine story teller.

THE GOLDEN LAND – By: Di Morissey

Reviewed: 10th December 2012
Publisher: Macmillan
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Perennial favourite Di Morrissey provides some pleasant holiday reading in her latest novel, The Golden Land. As she does in several of her novels, Morrissey sets the story initially in Australia and then moves to another land. In this case, Burma or Myanmar, as it is now known, is the location for most of the story. Natalie a young wife and mother living on Australia’s Gold Coast discovers that she has inherited a precious Burmese artifact. It is, in fact, a Buddhist manuscript known as a Kammavacca. Natalie decides that the artifact should be returned to the family of its rightful owners, the former Burmese royal family. With the help of friends, she scrapes up an airfare to Burma and is billeted in the homes of Burmese people during her stay. What follows is a delightful travelogue through the beautiful Burmese landscape and a tour of many examples of Buddhist shrines and glittering gold pagodas.
Morrissey makes no secret of her love for Burma and this is reflected in her charming story set in two very different “golden lands.”

ELOISE – By: Judith Finnigan

Reviewed: 3rd December 2012
Publisher: Little Brown
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
After many years of reviewing and presenting books to radio and television audiences in the U.K., Judith Finnigan has finally taken to writing a book of her own. She sets Eloise in Cornwall and the influence of Cornwall’s most famous novelist, Daphne du Maurier, is quite evident. The central character, Kathy, has lost her best friend Eloise to cancer. Kathy’s grief brings on a recurrence of mental illness which has seriously affected her life. Kathy experiences disturbing dreams which warn of terrible danger to Eloise’s young children. In fact, there is danger, but from a most unlikely source.
The plot has all the ingredients for a commercially successful novel. A psychiatrist-husband, a mentally ill wife, a cruel and brooding widower, and some charming but endangered children make up the cast of Finnigan’s Cornish soap opera.

LOST VOICES – By: Christopher Koch

Reviewed: 3rd December 2012
Publisher: Fourth Estate
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The natural beauty of his native Tasmania features prominently in Christopher Koch’s latest novel Lost Voices. Koch tells two stories, set almost a century apart, but with a common theme of humanity’s search for a “Utopia”, a mythical, ideal world.
The first part of Koch’s novel is told in the words of Hugh Dixon who grows up in a quiet suburb of Hobart in the 1930s. When Hugh’s father foolishly steals from his employer to back a “certainty” at the races, young Hugh boldly asks his wealthy great-uncle, Walter Dixon, to help his family out. Walter takes a shine to Hugh and eventually relates to him the family legend of an ancestor who was part of a band of outlaws who established a “Utopia” in a remote area of Van Dieman’s Land during the 1850s. This amazing tale of a settlement in “Nowhere Valley” forms the second part of the book.
While the stories may seem unconnected, the author links them together in a beautiful final chapter. Many characters are searching for their personal Utopias. Hugh father’s Utopia is the unattainable big win. Hugh seeks his Utopia in art, as does Walter Dixon with his collection of masterpieces. The legendary people of ”Nowhere Valley” seek their Utopia far away from the cruelty of penal settlements. All of them search for what Christopher Koch describes as “territories forever beyond reach”.

Frank’s “Top Ten” books for 2012

Choosing favourite books is a very personal thing. We would probably all pick a different list. However, from over sixty books we reviewed this year on the Book Segment on Pete and Di’s Monday Community Voices Program, here are my “Top Ten”. The list is based solely on the criterion that I loved reading them!
Hopefully, you may find some holiday reading in the list.
BLACK CAVIAR: Gerard Whateley
QF32: Richard de Crespigny
LOST VOICES: Christopher Koch
THE MAN WHO INVENTED VEGEMITE: Jamie Callister
THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY: Louise Penney
I DIDN’T ASK TO BE BORN: Bill Cosby
LIGHTHOUSE BAY: Kimberley Freeman
CANADA: Richard Ford
ANTARCTICA: Gabrielle Walker
BRADMAN’S WAR: Malcolm Knox

SMALL PLATES AND SWEET TREATS – By Aran Goyoaga

Reviewed: 26th November 2012
Publisher: Little Brown
RRP: $45
Review: Ann Paterson
When she and her children were diagnosed with gluten intolerance, Aran Goyoaga turned to gluten-free cooking. In her beautiful book Small Plates and Sweet Treats, Aran combines the flavours of her native Spain with skilled artistry to produce a wealth of gluten-free small plate dishes.
The book is divided into four sections with appropriate recipes for the four seasons-Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. The clearly written cooking directions are accompanied by beautiful photographs taken by the author herself. Stews, quiches, soups, cookies cakes and sweets are all to be found in this treasure trove of gluten-free recipes. Aran even includes a variety of interesting salads.
Fans of Aran’s previous book Canelle et Vanille, those with gluten allergies, and cookbook enthusiasts looking for something new and special will all be attracted to this breathtaking book. Small Plates and Sweet Treats would also make a beautiful Christmas present for anyone who loves good food.

ELOISE – By: Judith Finnigan

Reviewed: 19th November 2012
Publisher: Little Brown
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
After many years of reviewing and presenting books to radio and television audiences in the U.K., Judith Finnigan has finally taken to writing a book of her own. She sets Eloise in Cornwall and the influence of Cornwall’s most famous novelist, Daphne du Maurier, is quite evident. The central character, Kathy, has lost her best friend Eloise to cancer. Kathy’s grief brings on a recurrence of mental illness which has seriously affected her life. Kathy experiences disturbing dreams which warn of terrible danger to Eloise’s young children. In fact, there is danger but from a most unlikely source.
Finnigan’s plot has all the ingredients for a commercially successful novel. A psychiatrist husband, a mentally ill wife, a cruel and brooding widower and charming but endangered children make up the cast of a soap opera set on the romantic Cornwall coast.

INNOCENT TEARS – By: Iris Blobel

Reviewed: 12th November 2012
Publisher: Astraea Press
RRP: Not Available
Review: Frank Nolan
Miners Rest author, Iris Blobel, sets her third light romantic novel in the city of Melbourne. When six year old Nadine peers over the reception counter of a big city hotel and tells the receptionist, “My mum’s dead”, the reader’s attention is immediately gained. In fact, Nadine steals every scene she appears in thereafter! Hotel receptionist Emma is required to act as Nadine’s unwilling babysitter and the cute little girl soon wins her support and love. When Emma meets Flynn, Nadine’s father and a busy and successful lawyer, her involvement becomes more than simply as a babysitter. Things do not always proceed smoothly and the reader is kept guessing until the satisfying conclusion.
The author creates a cast of likeable characters who act out a credible plot laced with a touch of fantasy. Innocent Tears is now available as an e-book.

MY IDEAL BOOKSHELF – By Thessaly La Force (Ed.)

Reviewed: 12th November 2012
Publisher: Little Brown
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
We hear sometimes of people being asked the rather silly question,”What book or books) would you take with you if you were cast away on a desert island?” Perhaps a better question is that asked of the people approached by the editor of My Ideal Bookshelf. They were asked to name “the books which most influenced them” and which they would place on their “own ideal bookshelf.” One hundred people were interviewed and their responses to the question are reported in short essays. Original paintings of the colorful and delightful book spines showcase the books selected by each respondent.
The books selected reflect the individuality of each reader. Many classic authors such as Jane Austen, John Steinbeck, James Joyce and Charles Dickens feature frequently as do children’s authors such as Louisa M.Alcott and Madeleine L’Engle. However, lesser known authors also appear far more frequently showing that book choice is a very personal matter.
The respondents to this fascinating investigation are mostly American and many of them will be unknown to Australian readers. It would be interesting to see a similar exercise performed on a group of Australian readers. In the meantime, try writing down the names of the ten books which most influenced you and which would be included in your ideal bookshelf. You might surprise yourself!

BRADMAN’S WAR – By: Malcolm Knox

Reviewed: 29th October 2012
Publisher:Viking
RRP: $40
Review: Frank Nolan
The Australian Test cricket team which toured England in 1948 is the only Australian Test team ever to complete a whole tour undefeated. Five Test matches and twenty seven other matches were played with Australia winning many of them by huge margins. The team has become known as “The Invincibles”. However, Malcolm Knox, while acknowledging Australia’s cricketing superiority, questions the sportsmanship of the Australian captain, Don Bradman, who appeared determined to not only beat the English teams but to humiliate them.
Knox points out that the “Victory Tests”, played in the summer of 1945 with Bradman missing and Lindsay Hassett as Australian captain, were played in a spirit of friendliness and genuine sportsmanship. In contrast, Knox argues, the 1948 Australian team was led by Bradman, an “angry man” who had many scores to settle, including his treatment during the infamous “bodyline” series. The 1948 tour saw little of the friendliness and sportsmanship of the Victory Tests. Knox concludes that 1948 was “not a year of welcome return to cricket between England and Australia, but of farewell”.
Malcolm Knox never disputes Bradman’s legendary cricketing ability but his scathing criticism of Bradman’s attitude as Australian captain of the “Invincibles” will certainly create much controversy.

THE RED BOOK – By Deborah Copaken Kogan

Reviewed: 22nd October 2012
Publisher: Virago
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The Red Book is a publication of Harvard University in which graduates report every five years on their careers and personal lives. Deborah Copaken Kogan’s book is the story of a group of room mates who come together for a class reunion. The short essays each of the class mates have written for The Red Book are compared with the real truth of their lives which is revealed during the reunion weekend.
The Red Book is an interesting story of how the grand plans of ambitious young people are not always achievable. However, the small print of the text makes reading this novel hard work.

SALVATION OF A SAINT – By: Keigo Higashino

Reviewed: 22nd October 2012
Publisher: Little Brown
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
There is a cosmopolitan flavour about this detective novel since it was originally written in Japanese, is now translated into English, and is promoted as the work of “the Japanese Stieg Larsson.” It is the story of the murder of a Japanese businessman. The logical suspect is his long-suffering wife. However, she has a seemingly-watertight alibi because she was a hundred miles away at the time of the murder. When the detective investigating the case finds himself falling in love with the dead man’s wife, things become quite complicated.
Here is a real “whodunnit” which keeps the reader guessing until finally the truth comes out.

BLACK CAVIAR – By: Gerard Whateley

Reviewed: 22nd October 2012
Publisher: ABC Books
RRP: $45
Review: Frank Nolan
A beautiful hardcover biography of 381 pages is not unusual. However, when the subject is a racehorse which is only six years old and whose racing career may not yet be over, such a book is very unusual. Author Gerard Whateley points out that, in writing the biography of the great racehorse Black Caviar, “what began as a racing story came to transcend sport.” Black Caviar has become not only a champion racehorse but also a national icon.
Whateley charts Black Caviar’s life beginning with breeder Rick Jamieson’s careful selection of brood mare and stallion which brought about the champion racehorse. Whateley describes Black Caviar’s subsequent sale for $210,000, its early training, and every one of its 22 wins from 22 starts. Whateley outlines the enormous effort which goes into the care and training of a race horse, especially when the horse weighs 600 kilograms and is prone to injury. When Black Caviar, despite being injured, ran and won at Royal Ascot in June this year she received a congratulatory pat from the Queen, a gesture perceived by Whateley as a “commendation for gallantry”.
Whateley’s book provides a fascinating insight into the joys and sadnesses of horse racing. As well as telling of the horse’s triumphs, Whateley details the essential roles played by trainers, jockeys, veterinarians and humble stable hands in looking after highly-strung thoroughbreds. The story of the mare accepted as the fastest sprinter ever known will thrill fans of the sport of kings.

ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE JANUS REPRISAL – By: Jamie Freveletti

Reviewed: 15th October 2012
Publisher: Orion
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Although he died in 2001, Robert Ludlum seems to have the indestructible qualities of some of the characters in his books. Ludlum’s name keeps appearing in the title of books which are in fact written by other, still-living people!
Robert Ludlum’s The Janus Reprisal is the ninth book in what is called the “Covert One” series. Because the numerous intelligence agencies in the U.S.A. are wracked by internal power struggles, the President has set up a highly-secret group, code-named “Covert One”. It is only called on as a last resort and when there is a threat on a global scale, with time running out.
Covert One operative, Colonel John Smith, narrowly escapes assassination while attending a conference on infectious diseases in The Hague. Smith discovers that terrorists plan to release a deadly virus in the New York City subway. Many weapons are fired and many bodies fall before Smith and his cohorts save the world. The Janus Reprisal is an exciting but hardly original yarn.

FALSE FRIENDS – By: Stephen Leather

Reviewed: 15th October 2012
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
When Osama Bin Laden is tracked down and killed by U.S.Navy Seals, it is believed that a leak from Bin Laden’s own hide-out made the killing possible. Now, MI5 superman, Dan ”Spider” Shepherd, has the job of protecting the two dissident students who betrayed Bin Laden. This difficult job is complicated when Spider finds out that Al Quaeda terrorists plan a retaliatory attack on a busy London shopping centre.
There is never a dull moment in Stephen Leather’s thriller of modern day terrorism and counter-terrorism.

THE MAN WHO INVENTED VEGEMITE – By: Jamie Callister

Reviewed: 8th October 2012
Publisher: Murdoch Books
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Cyril Callister was born in 1893 at Chute, a small town near Beaufort. He won a scholarship to Grenville College in Ballarat. A fellow student and scholarship holder was Robert Gordon Menzies. Callister was a brilliant student and was awarded an exhibition and residential scholarship at Queen’s College in the Universtity of Melbourne. During World War1, he was trained in cordite manufacture and worked as a chemist at the huge munitions plant at Gretna Green in Britain. After the war, Cyril returned to Australia and was employed as head chemist by the food manufacturing firm of Fred Walker and Co. In 1923, after many trials, Cyril perfected Vegemite. Its main competitor was the English product Marmite. A proposal to re-name Vegemite “Parwill” with the advertising slogan “Marmite but Parwill” was, perhaps wisely never implemented!
Cyril Callister’s biography is written by his grandson, Jamie. He points out that Cyril should be remembered for much more than Vegemite. He played an important part in Australian industry, particularly in food production, in the years between the two world wars.
The author concludes that Vegemite has “become an integral part of Australia’s identity, an object of intrigue and curiosity, and a strangely pervasive national emblem.” The story of the boy from Chute who invented it is a fascinating chapter in our social history.

SHANNON NOLL SO FAR – By: Shannon Noll and Alan Whiticker

Reviewed: 8th October 2012
Publisher: New Holland
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Shannon Noll became one of Australia’a best known performing artists when he was runner-up to Guy Sebastian in the Australian Idol contest in 2003. His biography, written with the assistance of Alan Whiticker, tells of his childhood on the family farm at Condobolin in N.S.W., his successful sporting career, his early days in the entertainment industry and his big break when selected for Australian Idol. Life in show business is tough and Noll tells of both the highs and lows of his career to date. Aged only 37, he indicates that there is much more to come.
In addition to outlining his singing career, Noll shares some of the sadnesses in his family life and reflects on some social problems, particularly those facing young men in rural areas.
He also writes lovingly of his wife and three young children.
Photos of performances and a detailed discography accompany the text of the interesting story of Shannon Noll So Far.

THE MAN FROM COOLIBAH – By: Milton Jones and James Knight

Reviewed: 1st October 2012
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $35
Review: Frank Nolan
Milton Jones’s face became known to thousands of Australian television viewers in 2010 when a programme titled Keeping Up with the Joneses was screened. Back in 1988, Milton had scraped up enough money to buy Coolibah Station, a 700 square kilometre property which he described at the time as “a rough little block”. Now, Coolibah is a thriving cattle station, just one of the many properties owned or partly owned by the Joneses.
The Man from Coolibah tells Milton Jones’s story from his early life working on cattle stations in the Australian outback to the present day when dozens of helicopters are used to muster the huge numbers of Brahman cattle which graze on his properties. A lucrative sideline is crocodile farming, an enterprise of which Milton warns ”you need to know what you’re doin’”.
Snakes, crocodiles, wild bulls and buffalos are every day hazards on cattle stations while natural disasters such as hurricanes, bush fires and floods can wreak havoc. Milton tells of these dangers but also the joys of living and working on the land he loves. He concludes that life on Coolibah is, “Yeah, not a bad life, eh.”

KOKODA FRONT LINE – By: Neil McDonald

Reviewed: 1st October 2012
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $35
Review: Frank Nolan
When young Damien Parer told his father that he wanted to be a photographer, his father warned that “photography is all right as a hobby but not to earn a living.” However, despite the depression, Parer did indeed earn a living in the 1930s working in the fledgling Australian film industry with directors such as Charles Chauvel. During World War 2, Parer was employed by the Department of Information as official movie photographer to the A.I.F.
He went with the A.I.F. to Africa and Europe where his movie and still photography depicted the horrors of war. In 1942, he was in New Guinea with the troops where he filmed Kokoda Front Line, the first Australian film to win an Academy Award. In 1943, Parer, fed up with the parsimony of the Department of Information, resigned his position and was immediately employed by Paramount Studios as a newsreel photographer. On 17th September 1944, Parer was killed while filming American Marines advancing on the Japanese on the Pacific island of Pelileu.
Originally published in 1994 as War Cameraman and as Damien Parer’s War in 2004, Kokoda Front Line is an enthralling story of a brilliant photographer and an incredibly brave man. The new paperback edition contains numerous Parer photographs and is a fitting memorial to the man generally recognised as Australia’s greatest war photographer.

ONE FALSE MOVE – By: Robert Macklin

Reviewed: 24th September 2012
Publisher: Headline
RRP: $35
Review:Frank Nolan
The George Cross was established in 1941 by King George the Sixth to recognise individual acts of bravery by the civilian population. Between 1941 and 1978, fourteen Australians received the Medal. These included Leon Galsworthy, Hugh Syme, George Gosse and Stuart Mould who received the award for”mine recovery and defusion during the Second World War.” The four Australians were members of the Royal Australian Navy Volunteer Reserve who volunteered and were specially trained for bomb and mine defusion before being sent to England in 1941. So secret was their work that their story could not be told until after the war and has not been told in full until now.
The title of Robert Macklin’s book, One False Move, sums up the extremely dangerous nature of defusion. In fact, at one stage, the men estimated that, if a fuse began to “tick”, they had twenty-three seconds to”run like hell” before the weapon exploded. Not only were the weapons extremely dangerous and difficult to handle they also contained booby traps which were constantly changed to deceive the defusers.
Incredibly, despite many narrow escapes, the four men survived the war and returned to civilian life in Australia. Robert Macklin’s account of what Winston Churchill callled their “cold-blooded heroism “ is a truly breath-taking read.

LIGHTHOUSE BAY – By: Kimberley Freeman

Reviewed: 24th September 2012
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The opening of the first parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia was a splendid affair immortalised in the paintings of Tom Roberts and Charles Nuttall. Kimberley Freeman uses this historic event as background for her new novel Lighthouse Bay. A gold, jewel-encrusted mace, the ceremonial staff of office, sent by Queen Victoria as a present for the new Commonwealth of Australia, has been lost in a ship-wreck during a hurricane off the coast of Queensland. The story of what happened to the mace forms one part of a cleverly constructed plot. The second part takes place 110 years later in the small coastal town of Lighthouse Bay where the mystery of the mace is finally resolved.
The setting on the beautiful Sunshine Coast adds to the charm of this enjoyable tale of love and adventure.

THE STORY OF BILLY YOUNG – By: Anthony Hill

Reviewed: 24th September 2012
Publisher: Viking
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Billy Young joined the A.I.F. in 1941, aged fifteen. He was too young to enlist but the “signature” of a mythical aunt on his consent form resulted in his escaping a precarious existence around the Paddy’s Markets area of Sydney. However, Billy was destined to spend the next four years in far more precarious circumstances. He was captured after the fall of Singapore and held in some of the most barbaric of prisons including Changi, Sandakan and Outram Road. Remarkably, Billy survived the war and his self-published story forms the basis of Anthony Hill’s biography of the boy soldier. In addition, Billy, now aged 86 and living in Sydney, provided 60 hours of interviews with Hill in which he told of his survival against all odds. The story is supported by paintings and drawings by Billy himself which portray the horrors of imprisonment by the Japanese.
The Story of Billy Young will bring tears to the eyes of many readers but it is an important first-hand account of a painful chapter in Australian history.

OUTBACK SURVIVAL – By: Bob Cooper

Reviewed: 10 September 2012
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $24-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Bob Cooper is the founder of Bob Cooper Outdoor Education and has 25 years of experience in training people in practical survival skills. In his book Outback Survival, Cooper tells of his early experiences including completing a 26 day Special Air Service Regiment survival course. He outlines survival techniques in five main areas – Water, Warmth, Shelter, Signals, and Food. The book also includes sections on Australian snakes, bites and stings, and first aid for injuries.
The focus in on practical things some of which many people will have learnt in Guides and Scouts. However, Cooper’s advice is especially for those who venture into the Australian outback, one of the most harsh environments on earth. Here, survival depends on using knowledge gained from not only traditional Australian aboriginal communities but also the people of other harsh areas of the world including Mexico and the Kalahari Desert.
Bob Cooper’s little book of sensible and practical advice is interesting for all readers but essential for those who are inspired to explore the remote areas of our continent.

THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY – By: Louise Penny

Reviewed: 10 September 2012
Publisher: Sphere
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The Beautiful Mystery is Louise Penny’s sixth novel featuring Chief Inspector Gamache and his partner Inspector Beauvoir. The Quebec detectives are called to a most unusual scene of murder. Twenty four monks of an obscure religious order live on an island cut off from the outside world. One of the monks is murdered. The detectives find twenty-three suspects when they are rowed out to the island where they receive a rather chilly welcome. Gamache finds that the monks, despite their mediaeval garb and strict monastic customs, have become celebrities because of the sensational success of a recording of their singing of beautiful Gregorian chant. The once poor community is now a wealthy organisation. Does the mystery of the murder lie within the “beautiful mystery” of the glorious music?
There is none of the gory detail common to many detective yarns in The Beautiful Mystery. The plot unravels slowly as the detectives search for the truth in an unfamiliar environment. Here is a good old-fashioned detective yarn with a believable plot, charming characters, a fascinating location and enough red herrings to keep the reader alert.

BERT HINKLER – By: Grant Kieza

Reviewed: 27th August 2012
Publisher: ABC Books
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Bert Hinkler was born in Bundaberg Queensland in 1892 and died in Italy in 1933, aged 40 years. During his short life, Hinker became one of the world’s most famous aviators and was given the title of “the most daring man in the world”. Grant Kieza’s biography tells of Hinkler’s growing up in Bundaberg, his fascination with the new science of aviation and his insatiable curiosity about how machines work. In 1912, Hinkler went to England and worked for the Sopwith aircraft company. During World War 1, he served with distinction as an observer/gunner and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.
After World War 1, Hinkler became a test pilot with the firm of A.V. Roe and flew Avro aircraft in many of the exciting air races held during the 1920′s. In 1928, he flew an Avro Avian solo from Britain to Australia in a record-breaking fifteen and a half days. In 1931, he made the first solo flight across the South Atlantic.
Hinkler died in a crash in atrocious weather in the Tuscan mountains of Italy. On the orders of Benito Mussolini, Hinkler was buried with full military honours in Florence.
Grant Kienza’s account of the life of a great Australin aviator is an exciting tale of a skilled and brave man. Hinkler’s story also demonstrates the incredible progress in aviation from mankind’s first clumsy attempts at flying to the amazing machines in use today.

BERLIN SYNDROME – By: Melanie Joosten

Reviewed: 20th August 2012
Publisher: Scribe
RRP: $25-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Stockholm Syndrome is the name given to the condition in which kidnap victims can apparently become emotionally attached to their captors. Ballarat-born author Melanie Joosten sets her first novel in East Berlin where Clare, a young architectural photographer, meets and subsequently enters into a relationship with a German teacher named Andi. The initial happiness of the relationship breaks down when Andi begins to take control of Clare.
When he locks Clare in his apartment, what had begun as a light-hearted holiday romp quickly becomes a terrifying experience.
The setting for the story, East Berlin near “Checkpoint Charlie”, is an apt one. The emotional damage suffered by the people of East Berlin, held captive during the “cold war”, is reflected in the relationship between Clare and Andi. The title Berlin Syndrome is a clever derivation from Stockholm Syndrome.
Melanie Joosten makes an impressive debut with this gripping psychological thriller.

CANADA – By: Richard Ford

Reviewed: 20th August 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
In his first two paragraphs, Richard Ford gives away much of the plot of his new novel Canada. There will be robbery and murder. However, the reader soon realises that the real focus of the novel is not on these crimes but on their consequences. The story is related by sixty-six year old teacher Dell Parsons and tells of events which took place back in 1960 when Dell was fifteen years old. The lives of Dell and his twin sister Mildred are shattered when their parents stupidly rob a bank in Montana. Mildred takes off for California with her
rather seedy boyfriend while Dell is sent to live with a relative in the tiny town of Fort Royal in the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan. Here, in the “middle of nowhere”, and, effectively orphaned, Dell has to survive among people he neither knows nor trusts.
There is something Dickensian in Ford’s story of a child’s survival in a cruel adult world but the setting is the wildly beautiful prairies of Saskatchewan rather than a dreary city of nineteenth century England.
Pulitzer Prize winner, Richard Ford, enthralls the reader with his description of the fauna and flora of Saskatchewan. This contrasts with the brutishness of the American shooters who swarm across the border from Montana to slaughter Canada geese.
A beautifully written story of childhood resilience amid dangerous adult chaos, Canada is a novel not to be missed.

JACK KNIFE – By: Paul Horner

Reviewed: 13th August 2012
Publisher: Zeus
RRP: $32-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Sub-titled “The Crashing of a Policeman”, Jack Knife is the story of 38-year-old Paul Horner, an ex-member of the N.S.W. Police Force. Paul served in Mount Druitt, Cabramatta, Bourke and Byron Bay during his eleven years with the police. He was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and, in 2008, was discharged from the Force on medical grounds.
Paul describes the dangerous and highly stressful situations faced by police officers in their daily work. He suffered severe physical injury at work but it was acute mental stress which ultimately ended his police career.
The book was commenced on the advice of Paul’s psychologist and the author is now using it to educate not only serving police officers and their families but also the general public of the nature Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Paul is also endeavouring to convince Australian police authorities to take steps to ensure that what he calls the “the engine room of the force” is looked after better.
Jack Knife is an inspiring book about one man’s experiences in the “engine room” of a modern-day police force.

THE BOURNE IMPERATIVE – By: Robert Ludlum and Eric van Lustbader

Reviewed: 6th August 2012
Publisher: Orion
RRP: $ 22-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Robert Ludlum’s hero, Jason Bourne, has appeared in numerous books and films. Ludlum died in 2001 but his hero lives on in books written by Eric van Lustbader. The seventh of these is The Bourne Imperative. Bourne, recovering from serious injuries but always indestructible, fishes a badly wounded man from a lake near Stockholm. The man has lost his memory and Bourne sets out to discover the truth about the stranger.
Eric van Lustbader has written over forty thrillers and he brings his expertise in the genre to The Bourne Imperative. It helps greatly to have read other Bourne novels since many of the characters have appeared in previous stories. The distinction between the “goodies” and “baddies” is not always clear and this uncertainty keeps the reader guessing as the tension mounts.
As usual, right triumphs over wrong but not before much blood is spilt. Devotees of Jason Bourne will welcome his latest exciting adventure.

GREAT AUSTRALIAN GHOST STORIES – By: Richard Davis

Reviewed: 30th July 2012
Publisher: ABC Books
RRP: $25-95
Review: Frank Nolan
It is claimed that Ballarat has at least one ghost, that of Walter Craig, the builder of our beautiful Craig’s Hotel. The story goes that a few days before the 1870 Melbourne Cup, Craig told of a dream he had in which his horse Nimblefoot won the Cup, with the jockey wearing a black armband. Craig died before the race was run. Nimblefoot won and his jockey wore a black armband in memory of the late owner! Craig’s ghost is said to roam the darkened passages of Craig’s to this very day.
Richard Davis tells the story of Craig’s ghost with numerous other great yarns in his amusing and sometimes spine-tingling book Great Australian Ghost Stories. A ghost appears at a bush cricket match in the chapter titled Sportin’ Types. A long-dead Head Mistress occasionally appears at Rockhampton girls’ school. A strange nun, dressed in a grey habit, sometimes helps out in a Sydney hospital. An unusual bridegroom takes part in a wedding held in a small church in the Wimmera. The ghost of opera singer Frederici still roams Melbourne’s Princess Theatre. A country dunny in the Barossa Valley is visited by a spectral figure. A more modern ghost takes up residence in a computer!
“On dark and stormy nights” during Ballarat’s long winter, readers can chuckle, or perhaps shiver, with Great Australian Ghost Stories.

ALL THAT I AM – By: Anna Funder

Reviewed: 23th July 2012
Publisher: Penguin
RRP: $ 22-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Amid the carnage of trench warfare during World War 1, a German officer named Ernst Toller severely reprimanded a boy soldier he finds weeping over the body of a dead comrade. Toller wrote later of the pure hatred in the boy’s eyes which reflected the “brutality we have taken inside us.”
Ernst Toller, a Jew, survived the war and became a successful playwright whose work warned of the dangers of Nazism. Toller was one of a group of educated men and women, mostly Jewish, who organised meetings and rallies and spoke and wrote against the “brutality we have taken inside us”which was reflected in the rise to power of the Nazis. When Hitler became German Chancellor in 1933, the group fled to London where they continued their vain attempts to influence public opinion.
Anna Funder’s book All That I Am, tells the story through the eyes of Toller and also those of another dissident, Ruth Blatt. Ruth, her husband Hans, and cousin Dora were among those who risked their lives in both Germany and England for a cause in which they believed passionately.
All That I Am, Anna Funder’s first novel, is a moving story of the courage of a small number of people who dreamed of a world without war. It was recently awarded the Miles Franklin Award, Australia’s most prestigious literary prize.

TEAM SPIRIT – By: Brendan Hall

Reviewed: 23rd July 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is a 35,000 miles ocean race in which the competitors circumnavigate the globe. Described as “the ultimate long distance challenge”, the race is sailed in legs by twelve identical racing yachts. The skippers are professionals but all other crew members are amateurs. The promoters of the race, Clipper Ventures, select crews from applicants from all around the world. Forty-four crew are assigned to each yacht, eighteen of whom sail at the one time. Crew must pay for a place and can sign on for all or part of the race.
The 2009-10 race was won by Spirit of Australia skippered by Brisbane born Brendan Hall with an Australian crew of almost equal numbers of men and women. Aged 28, Hall was the youngest and also the least-experienced of the twelve skippers. In his book, Team Spirit, Hall gives a grippping account of the race and describes the intense pressure on the skippper whose job it is to lead his team in a challenging and often dangerous enterprise.
The book is, to some extent, a manual for leadership. Hall lists the key elements of a successful strategy for leaders and concludes that the most important factor of all is Effective Communication.
As the tale of a wonderful adventure and also a case study in leadership skills, Team Spirit, is an enthralling read.

TOTALLY RANDOM POEMS FOR KIDS – By Darren McErlain

Reviewed: 9th July 2012
Publisher: Darren McErlain
RRP: $15-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Many of us have mixed feelings about the poetry we learned at school and question the value of “learning by heart” pieces by Wordsworth and Keats. Darren McErlain is a primary teacher and his delightful collection of Totally Random Poems aims to provide models for today’s children of how poetry can be used to express emotions and to make observations from things all around them. The 101 poems in the collection deal with subjects as varied as School Camps, Dinner for Sale and The Budgie Instructor. Kids will laugh at No That’s Silly, perhaps shed a tear for the sadness of Natalie’s Book, and play around with Alliteration in B Major. Any subject can inspire a poem, even the shabby school bag – A True Friend.
The poems are meant to be read aloud, to be enjoyed, and to encourage kids to see if the words of the poems resonate with their life experiences. The illustrations by the author’s twelve year old daughter show how one listener re-acted to the poems.
Totally Random Poems is a great collection of verse to be read to and enjoyed by children from nine to fourteen years. McErlain assures his young readers and listeners that, if they can walk, talk, write and think, they can write poems. Totally Random Poems will help them to find inspiration.

A BRIEF LIFE OF THE QUEEN – By: Robert Lacey

Reviewed: 2 July 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
RRP: $22-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Amid the plethora of material produced to celebrate the sixtieth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth 2, this beautiful little book by Robert Lacey stands out. Lacey has already written much about the Queen including a full-length biography titled Monarch which was published in 2002. His aim in his new book is to “distill and reshape” what he has already learned in writing about the Queen for over forty years into one “pleasant afternoon’s reading.” He achieves this aim brilliantly.
The book is divided into six chapters which describe stages in the Queen’s life. Each chapter is given a significant title. The chapter titled “Whatever “in love” means” is taken from a comment made by Prince Charles in 1981. The chapter titled “As your Queen and as a grandmother” is taken from the Queen’s memorable speech on the death of Diana Princess of Wales.
Relevant photographs supplement the text. The detailed list of sources quoted indicate Lacey’s reliance on much more than the anonymous “sources close to the palace” referred to in so much which is written about the royal family. While the book does not tell us much more than is already known about the Queen and her family, it does correct some of the distortion of fact by less responsible authors than Robert Lacey.
A Brief Life of the Queen is an attractive little hardback and a worthy souvenir of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

THE SECRET LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE – By: Jude Morgan

Reviewed: 2 July 2012
Publisher: Headline
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Little is known of the life of William Shakespeare. The dates of his birth, marriage and death are documented but the first biographies of the bard did not appear until nearly a century after his death. These biographies are probably a mixture of fact and legend and the full story of Shakespeare’s life will never be known. Hence, he is a wonderful subject for fiction writers.
The latest work of fiction is Jude Morgan’s The Secret Life of William Shakespeare. The story begins in 1582 when Will is aged eighteen and apprenticed to his father, a glove-maker and local alderman. The story ends in 1603 when Will’s troup of players are adopted by the new King, James1, and become known as The King’s Men. The “secret life”is an apt title for Morgan’s book because it focuses on the life of a man so gifted as to be an enigma to all who knew him. Morgan portrays William Shakespeare as a man whom no one fully understands. In some respects, the reader learns more about Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife, and Ben Jonson, a fellow playwright, than of the bard himself. It is Anne, portrayed as the generous and devoted wife and mother, who comes closest to recognising Shakespeare’s uniqueness. She acknowledges his need to write and act, and thus allows his genius to flourish.
Morgan must have his sixteenth century characters speak in language which modern readers can understand. He succeeds in this although the prose calls for slow and careful reading. The Secret Life of William Shakespeare is a superb book for leisurely reading on long winter nights.

ANTARCTICA – By: Gabrielle Walker

Reviewed: 25th June 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Antarctica is the world’s coldest, most inaccessible continent. Humans have never lived there permanently. In the interior of the continent, there is little food, no shelter no fuel, no liquid water, nothing but ice. Many books have beeen written about Antarctica. The heroic achievements of explorers such as Amundsen, Mawson, Shackleton and Scott have been recorded. More recently, TV presenters such as David Attenborough have revealed many of the natural wonders of the great continent.
The Antarctic Treaty of 1961 resulted in scientists from many different countries establishing research bases. Gabrielle Walker has been fortunate enough to visit several of these bases and she tells of these visits in her new book Antarctica. Walker met many of the men and women who live for short periods in the bases and she points out that there are no “resident” human beings in Antarctica. Rather, there are human visitors to an “alien place”.
The book reveals some amazing facts. A Russian team has broken through four kilometres of ice to find Lake Vostok, the seventh largest lake on earth. Further research will examine whether there is any life in this lake which has been cut off by ice for millions of years. In other research, scientists have discovered unique animal life such as huge sea spiders, anti-freeze fish, and microscopic oddities never before seen.
Ernest Shackleton wrote a poem about ”the fever of those who burned with a strange passion for the South and drank strange frenzy from its wind”. Walker’s portrait of Antarctica reveals that the men and women who visit there still feel this passion.

THE SONG OF ACHILLES – By: Madeline Miller

Reviewed: 25th June 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
RRP: $19-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The Iliad of Homer is one of the epic poems of ancient Greece. Set in the last year of the Trojan war, it is the story of the Greek hero Achilles. Madeline Miller presents a new version of the story in which she has Patroclus, one of Achilles’s best friends, tell the tale. The Trojans have abducted the beautiful Helen and the Greeks fight a bloody ten-year war trying to release her. Patroclus, an inferior fighter, dies on the battle field leaving Achilles stricken with grief. Achilles wreaks terrible vengeance on the Trojan leader Hector.
Miller provides a fascinating account of the complex relations between men and gods in Greek legend. Readers must be prepared for the sudden appearance of mythical creatures such as sea nymphs, monsters and fierce gods who intervene to frustrate the ambitions of mere mortals. However, since there are many popular modern books which feature super-natural beings, their appearance may come as no surprise.
Lovers of the myths and legends of the ancient world will enjoy another telling of a well-known tale. However, Miller’s focus on the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, a minor detail in the Iliad, detracts from the grandeur of one of the greatest stories ever told.

BERTIE PLAYS THE BLUES – By: Alexander McCall-Smith

Reviewed: 11th June 2012
Publisher: Abacus
RRP: $19-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The loquacious Alexander McCall-Smith returns with the sixth series of episodes in the lives of the odd collection of Edinburgh society who live at 44 Scotland Street. The first Scotland Street stories appeared in serialised form in the London Daily Telegraph and McCall-Smith assumes that the readers of Bertie Plays the Blues are already familiar with Matthew and Elspeth, Angus and Domenica, Antonia, Big Lou, and little Bertie and his dysfunctional family. However, readers will quickly get to know these lovable characters whose daily adventures he describes.
It is little Bertie, aged six, who steals the show. Worn out by the busy schedule of saxophone lessons, yoga, Italian converazione and psychotherapy, Bertie follows the advice of his friend Ranald Braveheart McPherson and offers himself for adoption on Ebay. Bertie assures prospective adoptive parents that he will behave well if adopted by nice people and that he speaks Italian. As an afterthought, he adds, “Non-Smoker.” Incredibly, he receives a reply and Bertie and Ranald Braveheart McPherson set off for Glasgow on a great adventure.
The eccentricities of the delightful residents of 44 Scotland Street may take a bit of getting used to but McCall-Smith’s stories will brighten up the dullest day.

THE TRADER’S SISTER – By: Anna Jacobs

Reviewed: 4th June 2012
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The Trader’s Sister is the second book in Anna Jacobs’s proposed four-part series titled The Trader. The first book, The Trader’s Wife told the story of Isabella Saunders a young English woman who is left alone and distressed in Singapore in 1860 when her mother dies suddenly. Befriended by a kindly Chinese businessman, Isabella is eventually introduced to a dashing young Irishman named Bram Deagen who is planning to set up a trading business in the Swan River Settlement in Western Australia. Now, in The Trader’s Sister Bram’s sister, Ismay, flees an unhappy marriage in Ireland and travels to Western Australia to join her brother and his wife. The book becomes part-travelogue as Ismay visits Suez, Ceylon and Singapore on the way to Australia.
Anna Jacobs has produced a succession of light-weight romantic series dating back to 1994. She is a good story teller and this second volume in The Trader Series will have her devoted readers begging for more.

THE GIRL WHO FELL FROM THE SKY – By: Simon Mawer

Reviewed: 21st May 2012
Publisher: Little Brown
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
During World War 2, a secret British organisation, known simply as “The Special Operations Executive”, sent 39 specially trained young women into German-occupied France to work with the French Resistance. Of these women, twelve were executed by the Gestapo, one died of meningitis during her mission while the others survived the war. The stories of some of the heroic women, including Odette Churchill and Nancy Wake, have been told but the deeds of the others remain obscure.
Simon Mawer’s book The Girl Who Fell From the Sky is a work of fiction and tells the story of Marian Sutro who is specially selected from the Women’s Auxilliary Air Force to train as a secret agent. She is parachuted into France where her special mission is to contact a brilliant French nuclear scientist whose help is needed by the British in the development of a secret weapon.
Much of the book is taken up with Marian’s training which takes place in a remote area of northern Scotland. When she finally arrives in France, her job requires her to take on the difficult role of another person. Her survival depends on secret codes and signs.
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is a good old-fashioned war story with a plausible plot and a fascinating central character. The pace slackens at times but the shocking ending is well worth waiting for.

THE CHALK GIRL – By: Carol O’Connell

Reviewed: 14th May 2012
Publisher: Headline
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
A serial murderer loose in New York’s Central Park is hardly an original subject for a crime novel. However, Carol O’Connell’s tenth novel featuring NYPD Detective Kathleen Mallory makes up for its hackneyed theme with the inclusion of several colourful characters.
There is the fearsome cleaning lady, known simply as Mrs Ortega, who dispenses summary justice on a paedophile lurking near a kids’ playground. There is a fascinating little girl called Coco who the other children call the “chalk girl”. Coco has Williams Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder characterised by elfin facial characteristics, an unusually cheerful demeanour and strong language and musical skills. Coco immediately relates to the brilliant Kathleen Mallory and plays a vital role in the solution of the murders.
The Chalk Girl includes lots of gruesome detail of terrible crimes but readers immune to this will enjoy the latest adventure of a very unusual lady detective.

THE OFFICE: A HARDWORKING HISTORY – By: Gideon Haigh

Reviewed: 7th May 2012
Publisher: Miegunyah Press
RRP: $45
Review: Frank Nolan
One may question as to why on earth someone would write 610 page book on the history of the office! However, when one remembers that the office is where a very large part of the world’s population spends more time and expands greater effort than anywhere else such a book may be regarded as long overdue.
Melbourne writer Gideon Haigh divides his book into two halves. The first tells the story of office work beginning around the year 2000BC when Egyptian scribes have been depicted diligently working in an ancient office environment. Stages in the office’s development are described including those of mediaeval monks, Italian merchants, Dickensian clerks and the multitudes of modern-day office workers housed in towering skyscrapers in the great cities of the world. The second half of the book tells the story of office life in at least some of its varieties. Haigh writes of communication in the office, the legendary “man in the grey flannel suit”, discrimination, violence, and even sex and romance in the office!
Haigh wonders if his story of our everyday working moods and mores will in the future be regarded as “a last twinge of nostalgia for steady unvarying routines before white-collar work atomises under the influence of total contactability and the 24/7 routine.” Whether this happens or not remains to be seen but, in the meantime, The Office: A Hardworking History provides delightful reading.

THE OTHER CHILD – By: Charlotte Link

Reviewed: 30th April 2012
Publisher: Orion
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Charlotte Link is not a name well known to English readers. However, she is a very popular German writer with her recent novel The Other Child reaching sales of a million copies. It is not surprising that the novel has been translated into English by Stefan Tobler and is now available in Australia.
Link sets the story in the Scarborough area of Yorkshire. It begins with a scary scene near a derelict farmhouse in the year 1970. The action then moves to 2009 when a young student is murdered. There seems no connection between the two events until the threads of a clever plot are slowly unwound. The “other child” of the title is a pitiful litle boy who attaches himself to another child evacuee sent out of London during the dark days of the Blitz of World War 2.
The Other Child is an interesting crime thriller with a sometimes heart-wrenching romantic tale as a bonus.

THE DAY OF THE LIE – By: William Brodrick

Reviewed: 23rd April 2012
Publisher: Little Brown
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Father Anselm was a successful barrister before he found “a peace this world cannot give” as a Gilbertine monk in a monastery in Suffolk. His serene existence is interrupted when he is visited by an old friend named John, a former Reuters correspondent in Warsaw in the 1980s. John convinces Anselm to travel to Warsaw to advise a lady named Rosa Mojeska who, during the Martial Law regime in Poland, had been imprisoned and tortured for writing in underground newspapers. Her case is now being examined by the Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes Against the Polish Nation. Anselm convinces a reluctant Rosa to tell the story of her ordeals and of the underground resistance to the totalitarian regime.
William Brodrick was inspired to write The Day of the Lie by the release in Poland of some three million files on the activity of underground printing kept by Polish security forces.
Brodrick’s heroine is a fictitious character whom he describes as “a symbol of the ordinary person compelled to make far-reaching decisions in the darkness of their time.”
The Day of the Lie is a moving story of quiet heroism during the Cold War.

DEAD HEAT – By: Bronwyn Parry

Reviewed: 16th April 2012
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $22-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Jo Lockwood is a National Parks Ranger. She loves her work in the rugged country of western New South Wales. However, her usual routine of checking on tourist stops, cleaning up after damage caused by what she calls Homo Idiota, and preserving the fauna and flora of the land is broken by a shocking discovery. Jo finds the mutilated remains of a man and immediately calls the police. Detective Nick Mathison has recently taken up a position in the area after a hectic career fighting organised crime in Sydney and Newcastle. His dream of finding peace in the country is shattered when the dead man is identified as a member of a major drug ring with connections to Mexican drug barons. Since Jo may have seen the face of the murderer during her patrol of the district, she is in great danger.
Bronwyn Parry tells the story of murder in the outback in her third romantic thriller Dead Heat. When armed “heavies” arrive on powerful motor cycles to rescue hidden loot and eliminate the only possible witness to murder, the meagre resources of the police are stretched to the limit. As the battle rages between good and evil, the body count rises. However, a developing romance between Jo and Nick provides pleasant relief.
Dead Heat is a good combination of thriller and romance set in the harsh beauty of the Australian outback.

THE LIFEBOAT – By: Charlotte Rogan

Reviewed: 16th April 2012
Publisher: Virago
RRP: $29-95
Review: Frank Nolan
What must one do to survive? This is the fundamental question being considered in Charlotte Rogan’s book The Lifeboat. The year is 1914 and a transatlantic liner has founded.
Passengers have been loaded onto over-crowded lifeboats. Lifeboat 14 carries 39 people and
drifts for 21 days before being rescued. During these 21 terrrible days, several passengers disappear overboard. Some die of natural causes but were others killed by the stronger passengers on Lifeboat 14? If so, is “murder” in this situation defensible?
The first and final chapters of The Lifeboat describe a court case which inquires into the fate of the missing passengers. The 21 days during which Lifeboat 14 drifted in the ocean are the setting for the main part of the book. The story is told by a survivor, Grace Winter, who, with two other women, is facing criminal charges over the affair. However, is GraceWinter telling the truth? Is it possible for an inquiry to obtain a”true version” of events? Are extreme measures justifiable in a life-and -death situation?
Charlotte Rogan raises many questions in her first novel. The reader is challenged to find answers to these questions. The Lifeboat is an absorbing and thought-provoking book.

LETTER FROM MY FATHER – By: Dasia Black

Reviewed: 2nd April 2012
Publisher: Brandl and Schlesinger
RRP: $26-95
Review: Frank Nolan
A letter dated 30th November 1942 was sent from Kislev in Poland by a Jewish man named Szulem Hadasa. Written in New Hebrew on two thin yellow sheets of paper, the letter was addressed to “Our Dear Friends in America.” Its writer prays that “my daughter will survive the evil decrees and be witness to the raising of the lot of Israel.” Incredibly, the letter reached Pittsburg, U.S.A. and was eventually forwarded to Szulem’s daughter Dasia Black who did survive the “evil decrees” and had migrated with her adoptive parent to Australia in 1951.
Dasia Black tells her remarkable life story in Letter from My Father. She recalls that, at the age of four, she was handed over to a Catholic family by her father who warned her that she must pretend to be an Aryan child and never tell her real name to anyone. She never saw her parents again. She grew up in Sydney, completed higher degrees, married and had two sons, taught in universities and is now a psychologist in private practice. However, the loss of her childhood identity has, in her own words; “hobbled” her. Inspired by a wise friend to write her life story, the process of writing has helped her to reflect on both the joys and sadnesses of her life and to reclaim ownership of that life.
The original “Letter from My Father” is now kept in the Yad Vasheem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem.

DEFENDING JACOB – By: William Landay

Reviewed: 26th March 2012
Publisher: Orion
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Assistant District Attorney Andy Barber is called to the scene of the murder of a fourteen year old school boy. However, when Andy’s own son, Jacob, is charged with the crime, Andy is quickly taken off the case. During the six months before Jacob comes to trial, the Barber family is in crisis. Neighbours shun them, offensive phone calls are received and the mental health of Laurie, Andy’s wife, swiftly deteriorates. Jacob remains uncommunicative while Andy agonizes over whether his first duty is to his son or to the Law. It emerges that, while Andy knows a lot about the Law, he and his wife know very little about their own son.
Author William Landay was an assistant District Attorney before turning his hand to writing. His knowledge of the Law and of legal procedures lends authority to his work of fiction and the court room scenes are brilliantly portrayed. Defending Jacob is an intriguing story of a terrible event and the turmoil of a family which follows.

11.22.63 – By: Stephen King

Reviewed: 19th March 2012
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The notion of “What if?” novels has unlimited possibilities. What if Hitler had invaded England in 1940? What if Mozart had lived beyond 35 years? What if President John F Kennedy had not been assassinated in 1963? This last “What if?” is the inspiration for Stephen King’s latest novel, 11.22.63. The title derives from the date of Kennedy’s death.
Stephen King has written many novels aimed mostly at young adult audiences. 11.22.63 is a more serious novel and it brings the story of Kennedy’s tragic death to a younger generation of readers. The main character, Jake Epping, a high school teacher, receives the power to go back in time and to experience the world of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who fired the bullet which took the life of the U.S. President. What if Jake could prevent the shooting? Would the world be a better place as a result? These are the questions posed in King’s long novel.
Nineteenth and twentieth century readers enjoyed science fiction novels including H.G.Wells’s The Time Machine. Twenty-first century readers will enjoy Stephen King’s tale of time travel but reading 740 pages requires a lot of stamina.

THE TURIN SHROUD SECRET – By: Sam Christer

Reviewed: 19th March 2012
Publisher: Sphere
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Sam Christer’s first novel The Stonehenge Legacy was a thriller which used the ancient stones on Salisbury plain as a background. Christer’s second novel is another thriller which uses the mystery of the Turin Shroud as a background. The technique of combining a lurid tale of a serial killer in present day Los Angeles with a story of an ancient icon whose history is sketchy and fragmented is a very strange mixture indeed. The cover of the paperback edition of The Turin Shroud Secret may suggest a story of a religious nature but the novel is no more than another serial killer yarn with much sickening and gratuitous detail included.

TITANIC LIVES – By: Richard Davenport-Hines

Reviewed: 5th March 2012
Publisher: Harper Press
RRP: $35
Review: Frank Nolan
The tragic sinking of the White Star Liner “Titanic” on 15th April 1912 has been well documented. Hence, when another book about the tragedy appears, readers might well fear that it may be yet another graphic account of the great liner’s final hours. Fortunately, this is not so. In fact, only some 40 pages of Richard Davenport-Hines’ 364 page book describe the actual collision with an ice-berg and the subsequent swift sinking of the ship.
As its title indicates, Titanic Lives focuses on the people who financed, built and sailed on the 46,328 ton liner. Part One deals with the embarkation of what the author calls “a cross-section of people, conveniently divided into classes, which roughly represented the class system of the time”. Part Two describes the conditions aboard for the First, Second and Third Class passengers and the 829 members of the crew. The final part, titled “Life and Death”, tells of those who survived and those who died.
Davenport-Hines begins with a Prologue describing the breaking away of a huge chunk of ice from the Jacobshavn glacier and ends with a poetic description of the final melting of the “shard of ice which bore no sign of its murderous history”.
Titanic Lives is a scholarly, thoroughly documented account of the people who brought the “greatest ship ever built” into being, and those who sailed on her first and last voyage.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UNLIKELY – By: Mungo MacCallum

Reviewed: 27th February 2012
Publisher: Black Inc.
RRP: $29-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Mungo MacCallum observes that Australians are not very fond of their politicians, alive or dead. No great monuments to our leaders have been erected. However, Ballarat is exceptional in that we have Prime Ministers Avenue in our Botanical Gardens.
MacCallum writes a short article on each of Australia’s twenty-seven Prime Ministers. His sources include scholarly books by writers such as Michelle Grattan and Colin Hughes as well as numerous other publications and reports. Humourous anecdotes are included, many of which derive from MacCallum’s long experience as a political journalist. He claims to have known twelve Prime Ministers personally and to have been on first name terms with eleven of them. The reader is left to guess who was the twelfth man!
The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely is, as the title suggests, a light-hearted look at our political leaders. Like that wonderful TV series Yes Prime Minister, Mungo MacCallum’s book warns us not to take things too seriously.

THE SOLDIER’S WIFE – By: Joanna Trollope

Reviewed: 20th February 2012
Publisher: Doubleday
RRP: $29-95
Review: Frank Nolan
The difficulties facing the families of British soldiers returning from active service in Afghanistan are the central focus of Joanna Trollope’s seventeenth novel. When Major Dan Riley returns home on leave from commanding an artillery battery near Helmand, his concern for his young men shockingly wounded in battle seems to take preference over that for his wife and family. Also, Dan’s concern for the shaky marriage of his mate Gus blinds him to the fact that his own marriage is in jeopardy.
Joanna Trollope offers no simple solutions to the stresses placed on the family lives of military personnel. However, her sensitive portrayal of a modern military family in stress elevates her latest novel above the usual light weight romance.

UNUSUAL USES FOR OLIVE OIL – By: Alexander McCall-Smith

Reviewed: 30th January 2012
Publisher: Little Brown
RRP: $27-99
Review: Frank Nolan
If you are puzzled by the title of this new book by the prolific Alexander McCall-Smith, you must wait until the final pages of this latest instalment of the adventures of Professor Moritz-Maria Von Englefeld. The learned author of Portuguese Irregular Verbs decides that it is time he found a wife. A very promising prospect disappears when Von Egelfeld fails to recognise the significance of the chosen lady’s surname. Another prospect is abandoned when the Professor discovers that the lady in question, a dentist, has been using the using the 1200 page Portuguese Irregular Verbs to stand on while operating on her patients.
Unusual Uses for Olive Oil is the fifth book about the ridiculous members of the Institute of Romantic Philology at the University of Regensburg. They do not seem to achieve much in the academic field but they are great fun to know.

I DIDN’T ASK TO BE BORN – By: Bill Cosby

Reviewed: 30th January 2012
Publisher: Center Street
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
When Bill Cosby’s fourteen- year- old daughter was asked to clean up her room, the rebellious teen-ager’s response was, “I didn’t ask to be born!” Even after seventeen years of handling hecklers as a stand-up comedian, Bill had no immediate response to that. His wife did, quickly responding, “We didn’t ask for you either!”
This anecdote is one of dozens Cosby relates in his hilarious reflections on subjects as varied as, “Who did the interviews, wrote up the text and edited the Book of Genesis?’ to, “How did the wagons in a wagon train get into a circle when attacked by Indians?” He tells of an interview he did with a lady from a place called North, South Carolina, which is South-East of a place called Due West. Sorting this out took several minutes!
Cosby is surely one of the funniest of comedians, a man who can see humour in the most mundane of things. He adds to the title of the book, “But I’m Glad I Was”. Most of us would agree.

NETHERWOOD – By: Jane Sanderson

Reviewed: 23rd January 2012
Publisher: Sphere
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The Edwardian era in England has been a rich souce of inspiration for books and TV series. Jane Sanderson’s Netherwood is set on the vast Hoyland Estate in Yorkshire where collieries have desecrated the pristine beauty of the land as they bring untold wealth to its fortunate owner Lord Hoyland. While the Hoyland family lives in luxury in the stately home, coal miners and their families occupy the nearby village. When miner Arthur Ward is killed in a mine accident, his enterprising wife, Eve, sets up in business selling Puddings and Pies. The business is such a success that even King Edward the Seventh becomes a grateful customer.
The story of the rich and the poor of Netherwood is an entertaining one and appears a likely source for a TV series. The book also provides a glimpse of the social and economic changes which were talking place in Edwardian England. A bonus is an appendix which contains some of Eve’s Recipes!

THE OPAL DESERT – By: Di Morrissey

Reviewed: 23rd January 2012
Publisher: Macmillan
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Popular and prolific writer Di Morrissey takes her readers to the opal fields west of Broken Hill in her latest book The Opal Desert. Three very different women meet up in the remote community of Opal Lake. A middle-aged widow, an 80 year old recluse and a 20 year old prospective Olympic runner make up an unlikely mix, but each is able to help the others sort out some of their problems. As with many of Morrissey’s books, the The Opal Desert is told in a fascinating setting inhabited by likeable people. The desolate but strangely beautiful landscape, where hardy prospectors search for the elusive opal, provides an apt environment for the three main characters as they search for inner peace.

RAY MARTIN’S FAVOURITES – By: Ray Martin

Reviewed: 16th January 2012
Publisher: Melbourne University Press
RRP: $49-99
Review: Frank Nolan
After 45 years of journalism, Ray Martin calculates that he has conducted well over 10,000 interviews. Those interviewed include Hollywood stars, Prime Ministers, U.S. Presidents, elite sportsmen, criminals such as Ronnie Biggs and churchmen such as Pope John Paul 2. Martin surveys this range of characters in Ray Martin’s Favourites: The Stories Behind the Legends. He devotes a chapter to thirty selected and gives his personal recollections of each of them. He tells of his interview with Kerry Packer, the last interview Packer ever gave. He provides the full transcript the last of of his memorable interviews with Don Bradman, and he praises Michael Crawford as “simply the best” of all the entertainers he has ever spoken to. Martin also reveals his favourite interview of all time.
A handsome coffee table book, Ray Martin’s Favourites is also an entertaining read.

UNDER THE HAWTHORN TREE – By: Ai Mi

Reviewed: 16th January 2012
Publisher: Virago
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Under the Hawthorn Tree is a love story set in the period of China’s Great Cultural Revolution. A young girl named Jingqiu whose family has been branded as “politically questionable” is sent into the countryside to work on a textbook for schools based on stories told by lower and middle class peasants. She is also forced to perform back-breaking physical work. Jinqiu falls in love with the son of a district level commanding officer of the People’s Revolutionary Army, a love affair which cannot survive in the political climate.
The story of Jinqiu and her lover has a “Romeo and Juliet” flavour and, like the star-crossed lovers of Shakespeare’s play, their story has a tragic ending. The story also gives some insight into the suffering of the people of China during the Cultural Revolution.

THE HOUSE OF SILK – By: Anthony Horowitz

Reviewed: 19th December 2011
Publisher: Orion
RRP.: $29-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were the inventions of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Watson describes the amazing detective skills of Holmes in numerous stories which have delighted generations of readers. Conan Doyle died in 1930 but now a new Sherlock Holmes story has appeared under the authorship of Anthony Horowitz.
Horowitz, best known as the writer of the very popular TV series “Foyle’s War” and “Midsomer Murders”, cleverly adopts the writing style of Conan Doyle in “The House of Silk”.
The book tells of a case which was solved by Holmes and written up by Watson over a hundred years before. However, it was considered too shocking to be published at the time since Watson feared that it might “tear apart the entire fabric of society”. Modern day readers, accustomed to “shocking” cases, will probably not be all that horrified by The House of Silk but will enjoy an intriguing detective yarn recounted in the style of Conan Doyle.

THE MAID’S TALE – By: Rose Plummer

Reviewed: 19th December 2011
Publisher: Coronet
RRP: $19-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Television series such as Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs have achieved great popularity. They purport to portray life in the houses of the rich in early 20th century England. Rose Plummer grew up in the London slum of Hoxton and, at the age of fifteen, began life as a maid in a house in the West End. The story she tells is very different from that depicted in the TV series. Servants were treated as less than human and were required to perform long hours of back-breaking work. They were not permitted to speak to the lady of the house or even to look at her! Wages amounted to a few misereable shillings a week.
While spending her last years in nursing homes, Rose told her story to writer Tom Quinn, and this true account of life below stairs is told in The Maid’s Tale. The real world of life Upstairs, Downstairs seems a far cry from that seen on TV.

JOURNEY TO HER DREAMS – By: Iris Blobel

Reviewed: 12th December 2011
Publisher: Astrea Press
RRP: Not Available
Review: Frank Nolan
Ballarat writer Iris Blobel’s first book was titled Sweet Dreams Miss England and was set in London and Dublin. She returns to the subject of dreams in her recently published second novel Journey to Her Dreams. The story is set in two small islands – Tasmania and Ireland – and involves the lives of two young women. Hollie lives with her father on a farm near Launceston while Sam lives in Dublin. A recurrent, disturbing dream inspires Hollie to visit Ireland and the two women meet in extraordinary circumstances, with momentous effect on both of their lives.
A cleverly constructed plot, believable characters and lucid writing make Journey to Her Dreams enjoyable romantic fiction reading. It is available now as an e-book, and will apppear shortly in paperback.

THE PRICE OF LIFE – By: Nigel Brennan, Nicole Bonney and Kellie Brennan

Reviewed: 5th December 2011
Publisher: Michael Joseph
RRP: $29-95
Review: Frank Nolan
In August 2008, Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan and Canadian colleague Amanda Lindhout were kidnapped in Somalia by a brutal criminal gang. They were held in atrocious conditions for 462 days while the kidnappers demanded a ransom of 1.5 million U.S. Dollars. The Australian and Canadian governments would not pay ransom and Brennan’s family spent many months desperately trying to raise money to secure his release.
The aptly titled The Price of Life tells two stories. One is that of the 462 days of detention in Somalia told by Nigel. Conditions were deplorable. Both Amanda and Nigel were brutally beaten and, following an attempted escape, kept in chains. Meanwhile in Australia, the Brennan family faced almost overwhelming difficulties as they strove to secure Nigel’s
release. This story is told by Nigel’s sister Nicole, who acted as chief negotiator, and sister-in-law Kellie who handled the frustrating financial matters.
The Price of Life is an inspiring true account of determination and family love.

THE REAL KATIE LAVENDER – By: Erica James

Reviewed: 28th November 2011
Publisher: Orion
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The ever popular Erica James comes up with another enjoyable romantic yarn in The Real Katie Lavender. A year after her mother’s death, Katie receives a letter from a solicitor with astounding news. She is told that her father was a wealthy man who had been building a trust fund for her. Katie discovers that she is a wealthy woman! She decides to find out all she can about her father and benefactor but soon wonders if it would have been better not to do so.
Like all Erica James’s novels, the plot has many twists and turns leading to a happy ending. The Real Katie Lavender is pleasant holiday reading.

THE TRADER’S WIFE – By: Anna Jacobs

Reviewed: 28th November 2011
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Prolific writer of romantic fiction, Anna Jacobs, sets her latest novel in Singapore and the Swan River settlement in Western Australia in the 1860s. Isabella Saunders is left alone and without support in Singapore when her mother dies. Fortunately, Isabella is befriended by a wealthy Singaporean businessman who engages her to teach him the English language. Isabella meets and marries a dashing young trader named Brad Deagan. They move to the Swan River Settlement and set up a trading business. Here, they face hardship and even danger as they work to become established in the young colony.
The Trader’s Wife is a charming love story which also gives an insight into the early days of European settlement in Western Australia.

GHOST WAVE – By: Chris Dixon

Reviewed: 21st November 2011
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Cortes Bank is a dangerously shallow chain of underwater mountains in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 kilometres off the south-west coast of California. The shallowest point, known as Bishop’s Rock, comes to within a metre of the surface of the ocean. It is a favourite spot for scuba divers and fishermen. It also attracts surfers, although only the bravest will attempt to ride the massive waves which break across Bishop’s Rock.
Chris Dixon traces the history of this wild spot in Ghost Wave. Among the stories he tells is that of the botched attempt in 1969 by a syndicate of adventurers to locate a former U.S. navy ship on the submerged mountain top, from which a seafood processing plant would operate. Then, in 1985, the giant U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise struck Bishop’s Rock causing seventeen million dollars damage to the ship.
Beautiful photos support Dixon’s descriptions of some of the great surf rides on the Cortes Bank. This is a book for true surfing enthusiasts.

THE WAVE – By: Dave Sparkes

Reviewed: 21st November 2011
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $25-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Dave Sparkes is a surf photographer and writer whose work has appeared in publications around the world since 1984. He tells of his childhood spent on Bondi Beach and of his travels around the globe in search the best waves. He writes of surfing in Indonesia, Mexico, Tahiti, the Phillipines and, of course, Australia. Perhaps the most terrifying venue is a spot named “The Death Pit” in western central Java. The waves here are so dangerous that they are vetoed by the professional World Tour surfers.
The photographs of surfing greats, including Stephanie Gilmore, Mick Fanning, Kelly Slater and Tom Curren, in action on the world’s best surf beaches are truly astonishing. The text may be for the dedicated surfer but all of us can enjoy Sparkes’s photographs of nature’s power and beauty.

THE MASTER – By: Les Carlyon

Reviewed: 14th November 2011
Publisher: Pan McMillan
RRP: $59-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Bart Cummings has trained the winners of twelve Melbourne Cups, an achievement described by Les Carlyon as “Bradmanesque”. However, what is Bart Cummings really like?
This is the question Carlyon addresses in The Master, a memoir that is skewed towards events that Carlyon has personally witnessed. He traces Cummings’s career with focus on the great horses Cummings has trained including Light Fingers, Galilee, Let’s Elope, Saintly and So You Think.
The Master is a beautiful book. Carlyon brings a poetic quality to writing about a subject as mundane as horse racing. Superb photos and reproductions of Judith Leman’s sublime paintings of some of Cummings’s horses support the text. But what is Cummings really like? Carlyon concludes that, ultimately, he is “unknowable”. Joe Agresta Cummings’s track rider agrees. “If you think you know Bart,” he once observed, “then you don’t know Bart!”

THE LITIGATORS – By: John Grisham

Reviewed: 14th November 2011
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
RRP: $39-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Harvard Law School graduate, David Zinc, walks out of his job as one of the 600 lawyers who comprise the Chicago law firm of Rogan Rothberg. He gets a job with Finley and Figg, a “boutique” law firm which specialises in “bender-fenders, slips and falls and quickie divorces”. The firm gets way out of its depth when it takes on a pharmaceutical company marketing a suspect drug calles Krayvox. Crushed by defeat in court and hopelessly in debt, the future of Finley and Figg looks hopeless until Zinc accidentally stumbles on a tragic case which calls for legal practitoners with integrity as well cunning.
Grisham follows a formula he has perfected in his 23 books of legal fiction. A zealous young lawyer pits his skills against greedy corporate giants. Nobody describes American legal shenanigans better than Grisham who illustrates the truth of the Dickensian character Mr Bumble’s assertion that “the law is an ass!”

THE BEST OF ME – By: Nicholas Sparks

Reviewed: 7th November 2011
Publisher: Sphere
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Nicholas Sparks is the author of sixteen novels, six of which have been made into films.
His latest book, The Best of Me, is set in the small town of Oriental, North Carolina. High school sweethearts, Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole come from opposite sides of the tracks and their relationship ends when each leaves town to pursue a career. Twenty-five years later, they meet again at the funeral of an old friend. Both Amanda and Dawson have changed a lot in twenty-five years and they find that they must accept that their youth is past and can never be restored.
The plot, as in many romantic novels, includes unlikely co-incidences to bring about a satisfying, happy ending. A box of tissues is recommended when enjoying this ideal piece of holiday reading.

THAT WOMAN – By: Anne Sebba

Reviewed: 7th November 2011
Publisher: Weidenfeld and Nicholson
RRP: $35
Review: Frank Nolan
Did Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King George the Sixth of England, ever refer to Wallis Windsor as “that woman”? The story evolved from an article in Life magazine in 1941 and its origin is suspect. This appears to be the case with much that has been said and written about the woman for whom King Edward the Eighth of England abdicated the throne in 1936. Anne Sebba was given access to the King’s Proctor Files, held in the National Archives in Kew, and her book contains extensive reference to contemporary documents relating to Edward and Wallis. However, the book also contains much “gossippy” material which is presented as fact. Sebba concludes that no one will ever be able to explain how a “plain, middle -aged married woman” convinced a “troubled, boyish prince” to renounce the throne of England.
However, this easily-read biography of Wallis Windsor throws some light on the mystery of one of the most publicised love stories of all time.

THE ANTHOLOGY OF COLONIAL AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE FICTION – Edited By: Ken Gelder & Rachael Weaver

Reviewed: 31st October 2011
Publisher: Melbourne University Press
RRP: $39-99
Review: Frank Nolan
This anthology of adventure fiction is the fourth in a series of colonial Australian literature published by Melbourne University Press. It was preceded by anthologies of gothic fiction, crime fiction and romance fiction. The anthology comprises seventeen stories edited by Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver. Subjects include the shameful slaughter of the aboriginal people, the constant battle by settlers to preserve their property, the fierce forces of nature, and the determination of young immigrants to succeed in the Australian colonies.
While most authors are male, stories by female writers such as Rosa Praed, Ellen Liston and Laura Palmer-Archer are also included.
Modern readers may find the colonial writers’ styles rather stilted and their attitudes strange by today’s standards. However, the stories clearly illustrate the variety and richness of Australian colonial adventure fiction.

I’VE BEEN THERE (AND BACK AGAIN) – By: Joy McKean

Reviewed: 24th October 2011
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $39-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Joy McKean and Slim Dusty were married for over 50 years. Commencing in 1954, they travelled all over Australia with their popular program of country music. I’ve Been There (And Back Again) includes the lyrics of 25 of the songs composed by Slim and Joy and these are accompanied by beautiful photographs of country Australia. Nostalgic reproductions of old “Hillbilly” song books, publicity posters for the show, and photographs of some of the great personalities of country music are also included.
Part memoir, part song-book and part picture book, I’ve Been There (And Back Again) is a vivid account of the careers of two of Australian country music’s greatest performers. For lovers of the genre, the attractive hard- back edition would make a treasured Christmas present.

ABSOLUTELY – By: Joanna Lumley

Reviewed: 24th October 2011
Publisher: Weidenfeld and Nicholson
RRP: $45
Review: Frank Nolan
Joanna Lumley introduces her autobiography with a warning: “I want to show you, dear reader, everything I have; like an exhibitionist or, to be frank, like a crushing bore.”
However, reading Absolutely is anything but boring! From the opening chapter which describes her childhood in India and Malaya to the closing chapter detailing her much-publicised campaign for justice for ex-Gurkhas, Lumley’s book is both informative and entertaining. She tells of her very successful career as a model, her entry into show business, her many films and plays, her early TV work and then her big break in winning the role of “Patsy” in the hilarious TV series “Absolutely Fabulous”.
The book is interspersed with numerous photos of a glitttering career. Lumley has done so many exciting things in a life which she recalls with humour and humility in this beautifully presented hard-cover book.

DEATH OF THE MANTIS – By: Michael Stanley

Reviewed: 17th October 2011
Publisher: Headline
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Possibly inspired by the remarkable success of Alexander McCall-Smith’s Number One Ladies Detective Agency books, two African writers, Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, have commenced another series of detective novels set in Botswana. The third in the series is titled Death of the Mantis and features Assistant Police Superintendant David Bengu who prefers his tribal name of Kubu. In this story, Kubu is requested by an old friend to investigate the murder of a park ranger where nomadic bushmen are suspected of the crime. The case takes Kubu from his familiar patch in Gabarone into the countryside of Botswana.
Death of the Mantis is a good detective yarn with just enough red herrings to keep the reader alert. The book also indicates how the ancient life-style of the bushmen of the Kalahari is being constantly threatened by the modern world’s lust for riches. Like Alexander McCall-Smith, the authors of Death of the Mantis convey something of the beauty and mystery of southern Africa.

ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE ARES DECISION – By: Kyle Mills

Reviewed: 17th October 2011
Publisher: Orion
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The title of this book is something of a mystery. Robert Ludlum, author of 23 thrillers, died in 2001. The Ares Decision was not one of them. Hence, it seems that Kyle Mills has written this book in a way in which he thinks Ludlum may have written it!
A very nasty terrorist named Bahame has come into possession of a terrible bio-weapon and the future of the whole world is at stake. Fortunately, the U.S. President has set up a secret organisation named Covert One and its top microbiologist, Colonel John Smith, is assigned the task of eliminating Bahame and the bio-weapon. He is assisted by a very tough lady named Sarie Van Keuren, a gin-drinking biologist who is also a hot shot with the latest in weaponry. A lot of blood and guts are spilled before good triumphs over evil.
The Ares Decision certainly has excitement and furious action but it lacks the quality of the genuine old Robert Ludlum novels.

GHOST PLATOON – By: Frank Walker

Reviewed: 10th October 2011
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $35
Review: Frank Nolan
“In war, Truth is the first casualty” is a saying of obscure origin. However, history has repeatedly demonstrated its wisdom. Frank Walker’s book, Ghost Platoon, tells the story of the 2nd D&E Platoon, an Australian unit of 39 men which was based at Nui Dat, Vietnam, in 1969.
The platoon did not have an officer or even an NCO in charge when it was involved in a fierce fight against Viet Cong troops. A British ex-marine, Jim Riddle, led the Australians safely from the battle field but the Viet Cong suffered many causalities. Walker’s study of this incident reveals a strange cover-up of the truth about the 2nd D&E platoon, even to the point of its very existence being denied. Not until 2008 did the Australian Government admit that the 2nd D&E platoon did exist and that it was engaged in a series of important actions in Vietnam.
Frank Walker investigates the mystery of the “Ghost Platoon” and uncovers many unpalatable facts which authorities at the time did not want known. The book also examines the terrible effects of war time experiences on Australian soldiers in Vietnam.
Ghost Platoon is a deeply disturbing book. It tells an ugly story of an ugly war.

SLOW TRACKS – By: Jude Fitcher

Reviewed: 10th October 2011
Publisher: Affirm Press
RRP: $24-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Jude Fitcher’s first book is sub-titled A Canter Through Victoria and Country Races. The author insists that the book is not about racing but, rather, about community and regional Victoria. The races merely provide a great excuse to get out and explore our state. The little -known attractions of small town Victoria, from Dederang to Manangatang and from Buchan to Wycheproof, are revealed in this delightful little book. Beautiful photographs enhance the text, capturing images as varied as “The Female Jockeys Room” at Woolamai, “The Mighty Murray at Koondrook” and “Ye Olde Stuff” at Dunkeld.
Reading Slow Tracks makes one want to follow its author’s advice to pack the picnic rug and head for the fresh air and new country experiences, to drive slowly and discover the far-flung corners of Victoria.

COLLINGWOOD A LOVE STORY – By: Paul Daley

Reviewed: 3rd October 2011
Publisher: Victory
RRP: $34-99
Review: Frank Nolan
In the late 19th century, Collingwood was a disease -ridden slum where “rats flourished and undertakers prospered”. Such is the setting for Paul Daley’s book Collingwood A Love Story. It is the story of Malcolm (Doc) Seddon, his childhood sweetheart Louie Newby, and Seddon’s Collingwood Football Club team-mate Paddy Rowan. Between 1912 and 1915, Seddon and Rowan were key players in Collingwood’s VFL team. Rowan married Louie in 1915 before the two men went to fight in the war in Europe. Before Rowan died in the Battle of the Somme, he had asked Seddon to take care of Louie and her infant son. Seddon survived the war and subsequently married Louie in 1923.
Daley paints a vivid picture of Collingwood in the early 20th century where the football club played a vitally important part in the people’s lives. Legendary characters such as Archbishop Mannix, John Wren, and great footballers such as Jock McHale and Charlie Pannam are all part of the story. However, it is Daley’s graphic account of the horror of World War 1 and its devastating effects on the people back home which makes this book a memorable read.
It is said that Victorians comprise two types of people – those who barrack for Collingwood and those who do not! However, all will love Collingwood A Love Story.

THE HOUSE OF THE WIND – By: Titania Hardie

Reviewed: 26th September 2011
Publisher: Headline
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
When tragedy strikes Madelaine Moretti’s life, she follows her Italian grandmother’s advice and travels to a beautiful part of Tuscany known as “The Valley of Serenity”. Here, she becomes fascinated with the history of the area and particularly the legend of a ruined villa known as the Casa Al Vento. The legend tells how in 1347, on the eve of St Agnes, a fierce storm destroyed the house killing all of its occupants except a grieving young girl.
Australian writer Titania Hardie cleverly intertwines two love stories, set centuries apart, in her new novel The House of the Wind. The world of San Francisco’s financial centre in 2007 is contrasted with that of “The Valley of Serenity” in the 14th century. However, the tale of lost love transcends the centuries.
Inspired in part by the romantic poetry of John Keats, The House of the Wind is an enthralling and moving novel.

THE RETRIBUTION – By: Val McDermid

Reviewed: 19th September 2011
Publisher: Little Brown
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Jacko Vance, killer of seventeen teen-age girls, murderer of a serving police officer and the man once voted the sexiest man on Britsh TV is serving a life sentence for his crimes.
After years of model behaviour, he is placed in the “Therapeutic Community Wing” of his prison from which he makes an easy escape. A highly-embarrassed Home Secretary and furious senior police officers demand that the evil escapee be caught. However, after several murders, each more brutal and horrible than the last, Vance has the entire population frightened. Perhaps most frightened are police profiler Tony Hill, Detective Inspector Carol Jordan, and Vance’s ex-wife Micky Morgan on whom the killer has sworn savage revenge.
Val McDermid is the author of twenty-five crime novels and is the creator of TV’s Inspector Morse and also the series Wire in the Blood. Her latest novel, Retribution, is a chilling tale of crime and detection. The plot is taut and swift-moving. However, some readers may find the graphic descriptions of bloody murders distressing.

BABYLON – By: Stephen Sewell

Reviewed: 13th September 2011
Publisher: Victory
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Mick is a nineteen year old English backpacker trekking to the north of Australia in search of work. On a lonely stretch of road in the outback, Mick accepts a ride in an old black Chevy driven by a man named Dan. Mick soon regrets his decision. Dan is a terrifying psychopath who leaves a trail of misery and death in his wake. Teenage holiday makers, a family whose car has run out of petrol; and a priest are among the victims. The naïve young Englishman is fascinated by Dan’s evil and it is the rapid corruption of Mick’s innocence which is perhaps the most evil act of all.
Babylon will certainly discourage English back-packers from hitch-hiking in the Australian outback. The sickening violence in the apocalyptic landscape makes depressing reading.

THE GODS OF ATLANTIS – By: David Gibbins

Reviewed: 13th September 2011
Publisher: Headline
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The legend of Atlantis, the lost city, has fascinated writers since the time of the Greek philosopher Plato. Popular writers from Conan Doyle to Clive Cussler have based works of fiction on the legendary city which is supposed to have sunk beneath the sea centuries ago.
David Gibbins has a Doctorate in Archeology from Cambridge University and is a widely experienced marine explorer. In two of his books, Atlantis and now The Gods of Atlantis, Gibbins has sent his fictional team of explorers in search of the great treasures of Atlantis.
Marine archeologist Jack Howard links expeditions authorised by the German Gestapo boss Heinrich Himmler in the 1930s to the search for great relics lost in Atlantis. The trail leads to a drowned city beneath the Black Sea where terrifying secrets are uncovered.
One enthusiastic reviewer sees Gibbins as “a cross between Indiana Jones and Dan Brown”. It is hard to take The Gods of Atlantis seriously but lovers of long, far-fetched adventure yarns may find it fascinating.

A TRICK OF THE LIGHT – By: Louise Penny

Reviewed: 6th September 2011
Publisher: Sphere
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The fictional village of Three Pines in Quebec is the setting for Canadian novelist Louise Pennny’s new book. The village houses a community of artists, one of whom, Clara Morrow, has just received her big career break. She has a solo exhibition at the Musee d’Art Contemporain in Montreal. All night celebrations of the opening of the exhibition are soured when a body is found in Clara’s garden the following morning. The body is that of Lilian Dyson, a feared art critic, known for her skills in ending many an artist’s career with a cruelly-written line.
Inspector Armand Gamache, head of homicide in the Surete du Quebec, finds that almost everyone at the celebrations had a motive for killing the hated critic! Numerous red herrings delay the solving of the crime because in Three Pines it is very hard to distinguish between the truth and a “trick of the light”.
Louise Penny handles a complex plot with great skill and has the reader breathlessly awaiting the final dramatic disclosure of “whodunnit”.

THE ARCHITECT OF KOKODA – By: Robyn Keinzle

Reviewed: 15th August 2011
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $35.00
Review: Frank Nolan
Military historian Peter Fitzsimons asserts that “Bert Keinzle did more than any other single man to make the Australian victory at Kokoda possible”. Keinzle was a successful planter and gold miner in New Guinea in the 1930′s and was well known for his excellent relationship with his native workers. Keinzle walked the Kokoda “mail trail” at least four times before the war broke out and flew over the area dozens of times. During World War 2, Keinzle guided B company of the Australian 39th battalion across the trail to secure the airfield at Kokoda. In June 1942, he was put in charge of native labourers transporting supplies and evacuating the wounded along the legendary “Kokoda Trail.”
Robyn Keinzle tells the story of her father-in-law’s extraordinary life, before, during, and after World War 2, in The Architect of Kokoda. The book is an important contribution to the history of Australia’s involvement in Papua New Guinea in both war and peace.

I LOVE CATS. I LOVE DOGS – By: Catherine Ledner

Reviewed: 15th August 2011
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $14-99 ea
Review: Frank Nolan
At first sight, these two books look like cute little picture books for kids. However, on closer inspection, the reader will find superb photographs of felines and canines taken by some of the world’s greatest animal photographers. The pictures are interspersed with apt quotations. Of cats, Leonardo da Vinci said, “The smallest feline is a masterpiece”, while Oliver Herford remarked that “A cat is a pygmy lion who loves mice, hates dogs, and patronises human beings”. Of dogs, an anonymous sage once declared, “Dogs think they are human”, and then added, “Cats think they are God.”
Cat and dog lovers will cherish these beautiful little hardcovers and. perhaps, learn more about their cute, cuddly and clever pets.

VICTORIA – By: Elizabeth Longford

Reviewed: 8th August 2011
Publisher: Abacus
RRP: $29-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Queen Victoria reigned longer than any other English monarch and the longest of any female in history. She reigned at a time when the British Empire was at its height and immense industrial, political, trade, scientific and military progress occurred.
Elizabeth Longford’s biography of Victoria is a scholarly yet readable account of the life of a diminutive but formidable woman. When Longford began her research for the biography in 1960, there were still people alive who could recall personal memories of the latter years of Victoria’s life. However, Longford had to base her biography mainly on the voluminous records available in British archives. The sheer size of the task is demonstrated by the 630 pages of text, 20 pages of references and a 21 page index of names which comprise the paperback edition of Victoria.
This is not a book to be read quickly but, rather, one to be sampled at the reader’s leisure. The dear old Queen would be “not amused” by a hurried scanning of this detailed story of her long life.

THE LIAM JURRAH STORY – By: Bruce Hearn Mackinnon

Reviewed: 1st August 2011
Publisher: Victory Books
RRP: $24-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Shannon Liam Jurrah was born in September 1988 at Yuendumu, an aboriginal community some 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs. He was drafted by Collingwood Football Club in 2007 but played only in VFL matches before being picked by Melbourne Football Club in the 2008 pre-season draft. Since then, Jurrah has played over 50 AFL games and has astounded coaches, players and spectators with his amazing skill, lightning speed and freakish leap.
There are many aboriginal players in the AFL. However, Bruce Hearn Mackinnon, Jurrah’s biographer, points out that, as far as can be ascertained, Jurrah is the first fully initiated aboriginal from a remote tribal community ever to play football at the elite level in the 134 year history of the VFA/VFL/AFL.
Mackinnon’s book is more than a story of football. It is also a story of the cultural challenges faced by a talented aboriginal man during his incredible journey from Yuendumu to the MCG.

ALL FOR YOU – By: Sheila O’Flanagan

Reviewed: 1st August 2011
Publisher: Headline
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The popularity of Irish writer Sheila O’Flanagan is demonstrated by the fact that she now has 20 novels published. Her latest book tells the story of Lainey, a stunningly beautiful meteorologist who presents the nightly weather forecast on TV and is universally adored by her viewers. However, Lainey’s personal life is not so successful. After two broken engagements, she hopes that her latest friend, Ken, will turn out to be “Mr Right”. When Lainey most needs a friend and advisor, her mother, Dawn, turns up from the U.S.A. where she has lived for years. What starts out as a rather stormy reunion turns out well in the end and mother and daughter can happily go their separate ways.
Not a lot happens in the 500 pages of All for You but O’Flangan’s numerous fans will flock to read her latest feel-good romantic piece.

FAR TO GO – By: Alison Pick

Reviewed: 25th July 2011
Publisher: Headline
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Kindertransport was the name given to a project initiated by British Jewish leaders in which some 10,000 Jewish children were rescued from the Nazis in Europe shortly before the outbreak of World War 2. The children were placed in foster homes in England. Most survived the war but few ever saw their parents again.
Canadian writer Alison Pick’s novel Far to Go is a work of fiction based on fact. Set in Czechoslovakia, it tells the story of wealthy Jewish factory owners Pavel and Annaleise Bauer who, despite the increasing hatred and violence towards Jews, cannot bring themselves to accept that the comfortable world they enjoy is about to collapse around them. They wait too long to escape the Nazis and their desperate hope is that their six-year-old son, Pepi, will be rescued by Kindertransport.
Far to Go is a beautifully written, moving story of one family overtaken by terrible events. The novel has been long-listed for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING SEVEN – By: Alexander McCall-Smith

Reviewed: 25th July 2011
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $22-99
Review:Frank Nolan
Alexander McCall-Smith is one of Britain’s most prolific and popular writers. The latest in his popular 44 Scotland Street series is The Importance of Being Seven. The title refers to six-year-old Bertie Pollock and his horrendous mother, Irene. Bertie’s childhood is taken up with saxophone lessons, Italian conversation lessons, Yoga for Tots, and weekly visits to a psychotherapist. Even his boy scouts meeting which he dearly loves is in jeopardy because Irene has doubts about Baden-Powell. The poor kid hopes that turning seven will somehow make things better.
There are several other wacky residents of 44 Scotland Street whose stories are intertwined with that of young Bertie. The book is a compilation of daily episodes, first published in The Scotsman, in which McCall-Smith pokes gentle fun at his amusing characters.

GANGLAND SYDNEY – By: James Morton & Susanna Lobez

Reviewed: 18th July 2011
Publisher: Victory Books
RRP: $24-99
Review: Frank Nolan
During World War 2, racing in Sydney was reduced to Saturday afternoon only. When, one Saturday afternoon, Prime Minister John Curtin asked for a telephone call to be put through to discuss the war situation, he was told that there were sixty bookmakers ahead of him in the queue for connection. Such was the strength of illegal SP betting at the time! This story and hundreds of others are told in Gangland Sydney, an account of criminal activity from the earliest settlement of white people at Botany Bay in 1776 through to the present day. James Morton and Susanna Lobez combine to tell of villains of all kinds who made Sydney their base. Chapters are devoted to the colonial era, the “rip-roaring twenties”, World War Two, gang wars in the 1970s and 1980s, and the present “Kings of the Cross”. While the book mostly deals with serious crime, some relief is provided by humourous stories of how the best laid schemes of the cleverest criminals sometimes misfired.

GANGLAND MELBOURNE – By: James Morton & Susanna Lobez

Reviewed: 18th July 2011
Publisher: Victory Books
RRP: $24-95
Review: Frank Nolan
James Morton and Susanna Lobez claim in their introduction to Gangland Melbourne that “Melbourne numbers amongst the great crime cities of the world.” While Melbourne citizens may be outraged at such a claim, the book’s account of Melbourne crime paints a grim picture. The first chapter, titled”Not so Marvellous Melbourne”, includes details of some of the most gory of crimes committed in the city’s mean streets in the 19th century. A whole chapter is devoted to the crimes of “Squizzy” Taylor and “friends” in the first decades of the 20th century. “The Great Bookie Robbery” of 1976, the war for control of the Queen Victoria Market, the long-running Painters and Dockers Union war, and drug gangs’ wars of more recent times are some of the major criminal activities which are described in this somewhat disturbing snapshot of crime in Victoria’s capital city.

TWO GREEKS – By: John Charalambous

Reviewed: 11th July 2011
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
RRP: $24-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Ten year old Andy Stylianou wonders if all Greeks are like his bullying father, Harry, who rules with an iron fist his quarter acre block in suburban Melbourne in the 1970s.
However, when Andy meets Mr Voreadis, an older Greek man who lives over the back fence, a whole different world begins to open up for him. Mr Voreadis introduces Andy to Greek language and literature and becomes, in some ways, the father which Harry is not. However, the harm inflicted by Harry on his wife Carol, fourteen year old daughter Angela and young Andy has long-term effects on all the members of an unhappy family.
Two Greeks is Bendigo writer John Charalambous’s third novel. It is a wonderful evocation of Melbourne suburban life in the 1970s and of an ordinary family’s long and hard struggle to rise above the cruelty of a bitter, tyrannical husband and father.

INSPECTOR SINGH INVESTIGATES: A DEADLY CAMBODIAN CRIME SPREE – By: Shamini Flint

Reviewed: 11th July 2011
Publisher: Piatkus
RRP: $22-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Shamini Flint introduced Inspector Singh of the Singapore police in 2009. The wheezy, overweight, beer-drinking, chain-smoking Inspector does not fit the desired model of a Singaporean police inspector. While his superiors cannot fault his performance in bringing criminals to justice, they frequently “lend” the vexatious Singh to authorities in other Asian countries. In the fourth novel in the series, Singh is sent to Cambodia as an ASEAN observer at the International War Crimes Tribunal in Phnom Penh. Singh hates the idea and, when an officious young Cambodian girl is assigned as his partner, his mood is dark indeed. However, when a key witness at the tribunal is murdered, Singh’s skills of detection prove invaluable.
A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree is told in a humorous manner although the terrible crimes of the Pol Pot regime form a grim background to the story.

THE EDWARDIANS – By: Vita Sackville-West

Reviewed: 27th June 2011
Publisher: Virago
RRP: $24-99
Review: Frank Nolan
The very popular TV series Downton Abbey is a fictitious tale of life both upstairs and downstairs in a stately home in Edwardian times. Vita Sackville-West’s first novel, The Edwardians, first published in 1930 and reprinted numerous times since, gives a more realistic picture of the lives of the English aristocracy. Sackville-West writes with authority since she herself was a prominent member of that aristocracy.
The Edwardians is the story of one aristocratic family and how it must strive constantly to preserve itself. The central character, Sebastian, the nineteen year old duke and heir to a vast estate, finds himself unable to escape from the weight of tradition, despite his personal loathing of the shallowness and extravagance of his life-style.
The Edwardians is an amusing portrait of a fashionable society now long gone.

ALL PASSION SPENT – By: Vita Sackville-West

Reviewed: 27th June 2011
Publisher: Virago
RRP: $24-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Vita Sackville-West’s second novel is another tale of a declining aristocatic family in Edwardian times. Recently widowed Lady Slane, at the age of eighty-eight, throws off the shackles of respectable society. After the funeral of her husband of seventy years, Lady Slane horrifies her family by refusing to live in the family mansion. She chooses instead to buy a small house in unfashionable Hampstead and to move there with only one aged servant.
The story of the dear old lady’s one year of freedom makes delightful reading.
A bonus with Virago’s latest reprint of the 1931 novel is the beautiful foreword by Joanna Lumley who demonstrates that she can write as well as act.

THEODORE BOONE THE ABDUCTION – By: John Grisham

Reviewed: 20th June 2011
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
After producing 23 crime novels, John Grisham made the surprising decision last year to write a book for children, specifically those aged between eight and twelve years. Theodore Boone:Half the Man, Twice the Lawyer, the first title, has been followed quickly by Theoore Boone: The Abduction. Both of thirteen year old Theodore’s parents are lawyers and Theodore aspires to following in their footsteps. In the small town of Strattenburg, Theo has access to the Court House and is well known to the lawyers, judges, police and other court officers. He is even allowed to sit in on cases being heard. When one of Theodore’s school friends disappears from her bed room, an abduction is feared. Theo sets out to locate the missing girl.
Theodore Boone is a very different character from Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl. It will be interesting to see how Grisham’s intended audience accepts the studious young “half-lawyer”.

AND THE BAND PLAYED ON – By: Christopher Ward

Reviewed: 13th June 2011
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
RRP: $32-95
Review: Frank Nolan
The story of the sinking of the “Titanic” has been told many times. One of the legends arising from the tragic event is that of the bandsmen of the “Titanic” who continued to play as the great ship went down.
The author of And the Band Played On, Christopher Ward, is a grandson of Mary Costin, the fiancee of “Titanic” bandsman Jock Hume. Mary was pregnant with Jock’s child when the young violinist died. Jock’s father questioned the paternity of the child and Mary was obliged to prove this in court. She also had to fight a protracted legal battle to obtain the meagre compensation granted to her which amounted to two shillings and sixpence per week and a lump sum of sixty seven pounds.
Many memorials have been dedicated to the memory of the bandsmen of the “Titanic”, including the beautiful bandstand in Ballarat’s Sturt Street. Christopher Ward tells the moving story of one of these bandsmen and his determined young fiancee.

WILLIAM AND CATHERINE – By: Andrew Morton

Reviewed: 6th June 2011
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $45
Review: Frank Nolan
One hundred thousand copies of Andrew Morton’s William and Catherine were available in London just 72 hours after the royal wedding on April 29th 2011. Despite the rush, the final product is a beautifully produced hard-cover account of the lives of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, with particular attention to the spectacular wedding itself.
While the photos, including over 40 taken at the wedding, are superb, Morton’s text is a mixture of colorful description of important events in the lives of the royal couple and “gossippy” anecdotes. For example, was the Queen really concerned at Princess Diana’s insistence on personally attending to the needs of her young sons when there were “100′s of housemaids about”? Did William really murmur ”She’s hot!” when he saw Catherine wearing a bikini under a flimsy dress in a charity fashion parade? Did the happy couple on their wedding night “float to bed at Buckingham Palace on a sea of good will and good wishes”?
However, William and Catherine is not intended to be a history book and, despite Morton’s many lapses into the language of Mills and Boon, his readers will surely treasure this attractive memento of a grand affair.

TREASURES FROM THE ATTIC – By: Mirjam Pressler

Reviewed: 6th June 2011
Publisher: Orion
RRP: $45
Review: Frank Nolan
The story of Anne Frank is well known. She and other members of her family hid from the German SS in an attic in an office building in Amsterdam from July 1942 until August 1944 when they were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Anne and her sister Margot died in Bergen-Belsen in March 1945; just weeks before the camp was liberated by British troops. Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl was first published in 1947 and has never been out of print since.
Mirjam Pressler’s Treasures from the Attic resulted from the finding in 2001 of thousands of Frank family photographs, letters and other documents in the attic of a house in Basel, Switzerland, owned by Anne Frank’s cousin, Buddy Elias. These documents have been organised and edited and form the substance of a detailed biography of the Frank family.
Pressler has three members of the family recall their experiences from the early 1930s, through World War 2, and the years immediately following. It is a moving story and, sadly, it is all true.

CHURCHILLS – By: Mary S. Lovell

Reviewed: 23th May 2011
Publisher: Little Brown
RRP: $35
Review: Frank Nolan
Mary S. Lovell admits to using a “gossipy” approach in her biography of the Churchill family. She traces the family back to the 1st Duke of Marlborough, through several generations of his offspring, and then focuses on the most famous Churchill of all – Winston Spencer Churchill. Because so much has already been written about Churchill’s long political career, Lovell tries to reveal something of the private lives of Churchill and his wife and children. Hence, the book contains numerous anecdotes based on less well-known events in the family’s lives. While the size of the book is daunting (624 pages), Lovell’s fluid writing style makes her portraits of extraordinary men and women both informative and entertaining.

UNTIL TUESDAY – By: Louis Carlos Montalvan

Reviewed: 16th May 2011
Publisher: Headline
RRP: $32-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Tuesday is a Golden Retriever. He is bred and trained specifically to be a “service dog.”
Tuesday is a product of East Coast Assistance Dogs, a not-for-profit organisaton in up-state New York. Each of the service dogs undergoes two years of training to become a life-changing companion for a seriously disabled person.
Luis Carlos Montalvan spent seventeen years in the United States Army. He was seriously wounded in Afghanistan and now suffers from both physical disabilities and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. His constant companion, friend and helper is Tuesday. When Montalvan recently received his Masters Degree in Journalism at Columbia University, the University made the extraordinary decision to also award a Diploma to Tuesday!
Montalvan describes the amazing bonding between Tuesday and himself in Until Tuesday. This is not a sentimental “doggie” yarn. Rather, it is a moving story of how a beautiful Golden Retriever is helping a shattered man find a new quality of life.

THE BUTTERFLY CABINET – By: Bernie McGill

Reviewed: 16th May 2011
Publisher: Headline
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
In 1892, Anne Margaret Montagu, mistress of a stately house in Portstewart in the north of Ireland, was found guilty of the manslaughter of her four year old daughter. After a highly publicised trial, she was sentenced to twelve month’s imprisonment. The perceived leniency of the sentence inflamed much public anger at the time.
Bernie McGill changes names and place names in her fictionalised account of the Montagu case. She has the story told by two of the major players in the drama. In prison in Dublin, the convicted woman recorded her account of events in a diary which has been found in a butterfly cabinet discovered in the family home. Years later, Maddie McGlade, the children’s nanny at the time, now aged ninety-two, gives her recollection of events.
The Butterfly Cabinet is a beautifully constructed novel which demonstrates how different witnesses of events perceive “facts” very differently.

PAST THE SHALLOWS – By: Favel Parrett

Reviewed: 9th May 2011
Publisher: Orion
RRP: $26-99
Review: Frank Nolan
“Out past the shallows, past the sandy-bottomed bays, comes the dark water – black and cold and roaring.” This poetic opening sets the scene for the story of Tasmanian abalone diver Steve Curren and his three young sons. When their mother dies tragically in a car crash, the boys endure a harsh existence under the rule of their drunken and un-loving father. Much of the action of Past the Shallows takes place aboard a leaky old boat named the Lady Ida. The story reaches its tragic climax out past the shallows where men and boys challenge the power of the sea in a hopelessly one-sided contest.
Young writer Favel Parret tells a moving story of both cruelty and of brotherly love in her impressive debut novel.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: THE OFFICIAL ILLUSTRATED GUIDE – By: Stephanie Meyer

Reviewed: 9th May 2011
Publisher: Atom
RRP: $34-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Stephanie Meyer’s publishers describe her as a “publishing phenomenon.” Sales of the four books which comprise The Twilight Saga have exceeded four million copies in Australia alone. The Official Illustrated Guide aims to expand on the world of the saga, adding background notes on the main plots and sub-plots. The book is intended for young readers who have read all or some of the saga. Printed on glossy paper with many illustrations, this attractive hard-cover will be eagerly received by its youthful audience.

POMPEY ELLIOTT – By: Ross McMullin

Reviewed: 2nd May 2011
Publisher: Scribe
RRP: $39-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Harold Edward Elliott was born near Charlton in 1878. When his father struck it rich on the Western Australian goldfields, he moved the family to Ballarat where they took up residence at “Elsinore”, in Hotham Street. Harold was educated at Ballarat College and then studied Arts and Law at the University of Melbourne. He enlisted for service in the Boer War where he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. In World War 1,he commanded the 7^th Battalion of the 2^nd Brigade of the A.I.F. at Gallipoli and later at Suez. Promoted to Brigadier General, Elliott led the 15^th Brigade at Fromelles, the battle of PolygonWood and Villers-Bretonneux. The nick-name “Pompey” came from a Carlton footballer with that name.
After the War, Elliott was elected Senator for Victoria. Sadly, he died by his own hand in 1931, aged 52.
Ross McMullin’s biography of Pompey Elliott is a remarkably detailed account of the life of a great soldier who always regarded himself as Ballarat man.

MY ANIMATED LIFE – By: Yoram Gross

Reviewed: 2nd May 2011
Publisher: Brandl and Schlesinger
RRP: $29-95
Review: Frank Nolan
Yoram Gross was born of Jewish parents in Kracow,Poland,in 1926. When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, they declared that Kracow was to be Judenfrei (Free of Jews).  Yoram’s blue eyes and blond hair helped him to avoid the ever-present danger of being arrested and sent to a concentration camp. He managed to survive the war and migrated to Israel where he achieved success as a maker of animated films. In 1968, Yoram moved to Australia and went on to make classic animated films such as Dot and the Kangaroo, Blinky Bill and Skippy. He was awarded the Order of Australia for his contribution to the Australian film industry.
In My Animated Life, Yoram tells his story with humility and good humour. Most of the book describes his early years in Poland and, hopefully, a fuller account of his work in film and television will follow.

WOLFRAM – By: Giles Milton

Reviewed: 25th April 2011
Publisher: Sceptre
RRP: $35
Review: Frank Nolan
Born in 1924, Wolfram Aichele grew up in the town of Pforzheim in the Black Forest area of south-west Germany. His great ambition in life was to be a painter and sculptor.
However, when World War 2 broke out, Wolfram was conscripted into a labour battalion and served in atrocious conditions on the Eastern Front. He was later transferred to an infantry division in Normandy where he was taken prisoner by the Americans. He spent the rest of the war in a P.O.W. camp in Texas, U.S.A. After the war, Wolfram resumed his studies in art and became a professional painter and sculptor. His work is now to be found in churches and galleries in Germany.
Wolfram’s story is told by his father-in-law, the English writer Giles Milton. There are no heroic deeds described in this book. Rather, it tells the story of one German boy sent unwillingly to war. Giles Milton’s book is also a reminder that civilians on all sides were among the victims of Hitler’s war.

THE MAN WHO BROKE INTO AUSCHWITZ – By: Denis Avey

Reviewed: 25th April 2011
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
RRP: $35
Review: Frank Nolan
Every man and woman who served in war would have a story to tell. Many stories would describe incredible events. However, few stories would be as incredible as that told by Denis Avey. In fact, Avey, now 93 years old, has spent much of his life trying to convince people of the truth of an event he describes in his book The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz.
In 1944, Avey was a British prisoner of war in E715 POW camp which was situated close to the German concentration camp known as Auschwitz 111. The British POWs were forced to labour on roadworks alongside Jewish inmates of Auschwitz. Here, the British saw first-hand the unbelievable cruelty inflicted on the Jews by their captors. Avey changed places with a Dutch Jew known only as Hans and spent two nights in Auschwitz. The motive he cites
for this dangerous act is that he wanted to see as much as he could of the obscenity around him because he knew that in time there would be a reckoning.
In January 2010, Denis Avey received the British Hero of the Holocaustaward. His
account of what he calls his “ludicrous” act during World War 2 is both shocking and inspiring.

ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD – By: E.L. Doctorow

Reviewed: 18th April 2011
Publisher: Little Brown
RRP: $29-99
Review: Frank Nolan
In his introduction to All the Time in the World, American writer E.L.Doctorow makes an interesting distinction between a novel and a short story. He states that the act of writing a novel is in the nature of an exploration:”You write to find out what you’re writing.” By contrast, a short story, “comes to the writer as a situation, with the characters and setting atached to it.”
Doctorow was grew up in the Bronx, New York, and several of the stories in his collection are set there. “Heist” tells of the puzzling theft from a church of an eight foot hollow brass crucifix which is found next day on the roof of a synagogue. ”Assimilation” is the story of a young waiter who is paid $3000 to marry an Eastern European girl so that she can get a green card. “Wakefield” is a fascinating story of a businessman who leaves his wife and children and hides out in his own backyard!
Doctorow is an acute observer of modern society and a master storyteller. All the Timein
the Worldis a beautiful collection of his work.

THE PARIS WIFE – By: Paula McLain

Reviewed: 18th April 2011
Publisher: Virago
RRP: $28-99
Review: Frank Nolan
Ernest Hemingway is one of the great figures in American literature. Paula Mcain’s new novel, TheParis Wife, is a fictitious account of Hemingway’s first marriage. The story is told through the eyes of Hadley Richardson who, at the age of 28, meets the dashing 21 year-old Hemingway. They marry shortly after and, in 1921, move to Paris where they become part of a hard-drinking  community of expatriate intellectuals. The early years of the marriage were later described by Hemingway as “when we were poor and happy.” However, when Hadley becomes pregnant with their first and only child, this is considered an impediment to the raucous life-style of the group. Hadley’s losing on a train a valise containing three years of Hemingway’s writing causes lingering resentment. Finally, when Hemingway takes up with a chic young socialite named Pauline Pfeiffer, the marriage is doomed. The couple are divorced in 1927.
The Paris Wifedepicts Hadley as a likeable but vulnerable woman while Hemingway is seen as a self-opiniated bully who is detemined to allow nothing to intrude upon his career.
McLain’s tale of the first of Hemingway’s four marriages paints a fascinating picture of colorful characters and the times in which they lived.

NOTEBOOKS – By: Betty Churcher

Reviewed: 11th April 2011
Publisher: Melbourne University Press
RRP: $44-99
Review: Frank Nolan
When Betty Churcher started primary school in Brisbane in 1936, she discovered that, while her classmates could out-run, out-jump and out-spell her, none could out-draw her.
Her natural talent for drawing has been a wonderful asset throughout her career as painter, teacher, gallery director and T.V. Presenter. When, in 2003, her eyesight began to fail, it was her ability to draw which helped her to commit to memory pictures which she most wanted to hold in her mind’s eye should she lose her eyesight. She made one last trip to London, Paris, New York, Madrid and Rome to visit great galleries, view her favourite paintings, and make drawings and notes to help her remember them. Notebooks is a record of that trip.
Great paintings by artists including Rembrandt,Titian, Cezanne, Gaugin, Velazquez and Goya are reproduced, together with Churcher’s drawings and notes. Churcher writes with clarity and humility as she leads the reader to discover intimate details of the paintings and experience their exquisite beauty.

THE DOG WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD – By: Alexander McCall-Smith

Reviewed: 4th April 2011
Publisher: Abacus
RRP: $22-95
Review: Frank Nolan
John le Carre’s novel The Spy who Came in from the Cold was rated by Time magazine as one of the 100 best novels of the 20^th century. Despite its similar title, Alexander McCall Smith’s second book in his “Corduroy Mansions” series will never reach the status of le Carre’s novel. However, McCall -Smith’s legions of readers will welcome another wry look at the absurdities of modern British life.
“Corduroy Mansions” is an old building in Pimlico which has been converted into flats. The flats are inhabited by an assortment of odd people. They include William who has a Pimlico terrier named Freddie de la Hay. Wiliam unwisely agrees to lend Freddie to MI6 to help in an important espionage mission. Another resident is James whose love affair with Caroline is doomed by James’s view that kissing is unhygienic. Dee runs a vitamin shop and markets a product which increases one’s ability to solve the most difficult Sudukos. Barbara, a publisher, is vainly pushing a book called A Biography of a Yeti.
The Dog Who Came in from the Cold was originally written as a serial for the London Daily Telegraph. While it lacks a central plot, the separate stories of the funny residents of “Corduroy Mansions” provide great light reading.

Earlier Reviews are available on request. [listed from the first book reviewed]

• LOVE AT THE RAILWAY HOTEL – By: Sue Hurley
• PEARL OF CHINA – By: Anchee Min
• THE SINGAPORE SCHOOL OF VILLAINY – By: Shamini Flint
• SOLAR – By: Ian McEwan
• PRIVATE – By: James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
• HAWKE THE PRIME MINISTER – By: Blanche D’Alpuget
• FROM HERE TO THERE – By: Jon Faine and Jack Faine
• THE GRAND HOTEL – By: Gregory Day
• NINE LIVES – By: Adam Ramanauskas with Gemma Quayle
• RED LOTUS – By: Pai Kit Fai
• THE LOST CITY OF Z – By: David Grann
• THE CHANGI BROWNLOW – By: Roland Perry
• ATLANTIC – By:  Simon Winchester
• THE SURGEON OF CROWTHORNE – By: Simon Winchester
• THE FINGER: A HANDBOOK – By: Angus Trumble
• THE MEN WHO CAME OUT OF THE GROUND – By: Paul Cleary
• INDEPENDENT COMPANY – By:  Bernard Callinan
• DON’T BLINK – By: James Patterson and Howard Roughan
• CAPTURED – By:  Neil Cross
• SPHERE OF INFLUENCE – By: Gideon Haigh
• EIGHT STEPS TO HAPPINESS – By: Anthony M. Grant and Alison Leigh
• HANDLING EDNA: THE UNAUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY – By: Barry Humphries
• EDGE – By: Jeffrey Deaver
• UTOPIAN MAN – By: Lisa Lang
• THE STONEHENGE LEGACY – By: Sam Christer
• THE WORLD’S GREATEST IDEA – By: John Farndon
• THE SENTRY – By: Robert Crais
• HALF WAY TO HOLLYWOOD – By: Michael Palin
• THE PLANTATION – By: Di Morrissey
• PROMISES, PROMISES – By: Erica James
• LIFE’S LITTLE DETOURS – By: Regina Brett
• MISTAKEN – By: Neil Jordan
• THE SATURDAY BIG TENT WEDDING PARTY – By: Alexander McCall-Smith
• MYSTERY – By: Jonathan Kellerman
• TO ALGERIA WITH LOVE – By: Suzanne Ruta