Tuesday 24th November

Today we had a studio full of guests! John Bartlett one of our roving reviewers, shared his insights on MJ Hyland's "Carry me down" - as John says, she specialises in troubled people - or do her characters provide a window on a troubled society?

He attended a writers forum in Katoomba "From book to film", with special mention of a workshop entitled "Help! A filmaker stole my baby!". Among the presenters at the forum were producers, directors and screenplay writers, with special guest David Stratton from "At the Movies". Bernard nominated "Wake in Fright" and "Catch 22" as books that translated very well to film, wheras the film "Jindabyne" failed to capture the mood of Raymond Carver's original short story "so much water, so close to home".

Helen Morris, author of "Libby Llama and Charlie's Adventure" and illustrator, Bill Warren, a local artist, were our next guests. This book features Barwon Heads as one of its characters, along with Libby the Llama and young Charlie, available from Griffiths bookstore and bookshops at the Bellerine Peninsula.

Tunes we played today:
"Missing in Action" by Weddings Parties Anything
"Pure Love" by Colin Hay
"Chunari Chunari" from the Monsoon Wedding soundtrack
"Everything's turning to white" by Casey Chambers (written by Paul Kelly).

Today's poem was "The Polish Guitarist's First Paris Concert" - published this summer's "Meanjin" (Melbourne University Press) and winner of the inaugural Dorothy Porter prize for poetry.

In a brief review, Bernard thought that Tom Frame's "Losing my religion: Unbelief in Australia" was a lost opportunity for an engaging discussion of this rather important topic. It read too much like a textbook and Frame lacked empathy for the perspective of those outside the Christian faith.

Next week, we're hoping to Blurb on with some people from Geelong Writers Inc. - stay tuned!

Tuesday 17th November 2009

On today's show:
Our roving reviewer, Alison Miller, interviewed Nikki Gemmell about her latest publication "Why you are Australian: a letter to my children".

Bernard interviewed Candida Baker about her latest book, "The Infinite Magic of Horses" published by Allen & Unwin, a collection of heart-warming true stories from horse owners around the world.

Bernard reviewed "The Assassin's Song" Written by M.G. Vassanji, an Indian expat now living in Canada.

Tunes featured on the program today were:
"Under the Clocks", Weddings Parties Anything from their album "Roaring Days"

"The Blind Harper" from Kate Rusby's album "Underneath the stars"

"Laal Laal Ghagri" by Vikrant Singh from the album "Bhangra - The sound of Bollywood"

Today's poem, read by Bernard, was "The Horses" by Ted Hughes.

Tuesday November 10th 2009

Today we had local author John Bartlett in to review Alex Miller's latest book, "Lovesong". We also interviewed Juliet Marillier about her book "Heart's Blood", published by MacMillan.

Songs featured in today's program were:
Our theme tune "Gymnopeide"
"Two Hearts" Chris Isaak from "The Baja Sessions"
"The Bonny Swans" Loreena McKennitt

Bernard and Robyn read excerpts from a couple of Poems, including "The Lady of Shallot".

Coming next week: Alyson interviews Nikki Gemmell about her new book, "Why you are Australian: a letter to my children".

And here it is folks... the new webpage/space/thingy

Welcome, avid listeners of the Blurb (all 5 of you) to our webspace where we promise we will leave you with a summary of each show, including books we've reviewed. Even if we fail to mention vital information like title and author on our program, you can be sure to find it here. As long as Robyn manages to keep it updated. Hmmm.