book editor, bibliophile + word nerd
I’m one of those bibliophiles who have to purchase a book without the movie cover. The alternative seems tacky. Not sure why I feel this way as over the years I have enjoyed many of the movies that have stemmed from books—Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, Life of Pi, and so on… There have ...
Done With Men is a fun-filled Indian romantic comedy/romance that’s an easy read and one which I can see heading to the big screen one day. Think Bridget Jones’s Diary, only set on the beach in Goa. Quite apt that the book was released on Valentine’s Day 2014 (apologies this is an old review only just ...
I loved The Rosie Project but this sequel was, well, a sequel. When the first is so wonderful, the second has so many expectations to live up to. I appreciate that Graeme Simsion is a wonderfully clever writer but I just didn't warm to Don's wife Rosie in this book. And although she was pregnant, ...
What a hoot! Marble Bar is the wonderful sequel to Heist, which you can read about here. Can't wait for the third instalment but when I spoke to the author Robert Schofield he said it might be a wee while as he is completing the trilogy as part of his PhD in Creative Writing. Get ...
I am not an avid crime reader but I am really pleased to see West Australian (WA) authors currently doing so well in this genre. I have just finished Heist by Perth-based crime writer Robert Schofield and really enjoyed escaping into the Goldfields in outback WA, where the story kicks off. I met Robert last year when Heist was launched ...
Who doesn’t love to watch an elite sportsman move, and where he is a hot champion surfer, that’s an added bonus in my book. I really enjoyed Jenny’s sweet romance set in Jardin Bay (aka Margaret River) where she brings together two characters, Zane and Molly, who are mismatched in every way. While one travels the ...
If you are not already a little bit in love with the landscape and people of the Kimberley region of north-west Australia,chances are you will be after reading Stephen Sourfield’s As the River Runs. Scourfield is travel editor of The West Australia newspaper and has visited the Kimberley region over 100 times. Needless to say, he ...
Courtesy Penguin This coming-of-age novel set against the harsh backdrop of the Western Australian landscape has become a modern classic for Randolph Stow. When Stow passed away at the age of 74 in England on 29 May 2010, he had spent more than 40 years out of the country, but West Australian’s still mourned the loss of one of their own. Stow was the ...
Courtesy Text Publishing The Women in Black by Madeleine St John has been called a ‘neglected Australian classic’ that all Aussies should have read but probably haven’t. First published in Great Britain in 1993, it was re-released in 2009 by Text Publishing, Melbourne and was the first of four novels that St John wrote before passing away in England in 2006. The ...
This award-winning coming-of-age novel was written by Australian Craig Silvey out of his passion for the southern gothic fiction of Twain, Lee and Capote. In an interview with his publisher Allen & Unwin, Silvey summarises his novel as “coming-of-age, regional mystery novel, stuffed inside a nervous little love story, garnished with family drama and adolescent escapism ...
“…this is a story of right and wrong, and how sometimes they look the same.” So true. This is heart-breaking! I really enjoyed (is that the right word when it was so sad?) this book set on an island off the coast of the south west of Western Australia, a region I grew up in. It ...
Courtesy of Text Publishing First published in 1999 and re-release in 2010, Madeleine St John’s final novel is the tale of three friends locked in a love triangle with no easy way out. Setting of A Stairway to Paradise Although born in Sydney, St John spent much of her adult life in London, in particularly Notting Hill, and it is here amongst the ...
I am an Australian freelance editor, proofreader and blogger with extensive experience working with books, magazines, newspapers, websites, social media and academic journals.
