November 9th

Book & Publishing News

Here are the nominees and winners from the 2010 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards:
CHILDREN’S FICTION- ‘Star Jumps’ by Lorraine Marwood
FICTION- ‘Dog Boy’ by Eva Homung
NON-FICTION- ‘The Colony: A History of Early Sydney’ by Grace Karskens
YOUNG ADULT FICTION-‘Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God’ by Bill Condon

This Weeks Reviews:

John Reviewed- ‘Resistance’ by Owen Shears

RESISTANCE by Owen Shears was published 2007 by Faber & Faber and has been translated into ten languages and was short listed for the Writer's Guild of Great Britain Best Book Award 2008. Currently under preproduction as a film.

I first discovered the writer Owen Shears on ‘A Poet’s Guide to Britain’, ABC 2, Sunday at 8.55pm and was an instant fan. Owen Sheers was born in Fiji in 1974 and brought up in Abergavenny, South Wales and has published 2 books of poetry and a novella and his work has been nominated for a number of awards.

The plot is based on a very creative premise, presupposing that the Germans defeated the Normandy landings of 1944, and counter-attacked so powerfully that they soon occupied almost the whole of Britain. The premise is actually based on historical facts that Shears discovered when working as a builder’s laborer one summer in a Welsh valley. During the war evidently men had been recruited into a Special Forces division dedicated to resisting German occupying forces, should Britain be occupied which was a distinct possibility. This particular genre is described as ‘alternative history’ or ‘counterfactual’ and in the spirit of Philip Roth’s ‘The Plot Against America.’
Sheers takes readers to a small Welsh village during a speculative WWII – featuring a German invasion of Britain . It’s 1944 and Sarah Lewis and the women in Ochlon valley are left alone after all the local men disappear one night without warning. The women’s worlds suddenly shrink to the day-to-day struggles to keep their sheep farms going until the war comes to their doorsteps in the form of Captain Albrecht Wolfram and his men, who have a murky mission to carry out in the valley. Wolfram, despite being a Nazi Captain emerges as atypical, having studied history at Oxford before the war and more interested in classical music and history than the business of war.
Promising to leave the women alone, the Germans occupy an abandoned house and the two camps keep mostly to themselves until a harsh winter takes hold, and it becomes clear that the locals and the Germans will have to depend on one another to survive. When the weather breaks and the valley reopens to the world – and hence the war – the peculiar idyll threatens to shatter. This is pretty much the plot outline, relying on the tension between these 2 groups of sworn enemies living together in this winter-bound valley.
There are mysteries and revelations: why have the soldiers been ordered to come to this particular valley? Will the men return? What will be the nature of the relationship between Sarah & Wolfram? How will the story end? It would be unfair to to reveal any of these details.
Shears is a poet at heart and he expresses this poetry in his prose too. He gives readers a wonderful sense of place in this valley with its day to day rhythms of farming and sheepherding and the connection to the land and its animals. Particularly poignant is Sarah’s dedication to keeping a diary for her absent husband detailing the small changes in nature and the farm as the seasons roll by.
The valley is cut off from the rest of the world and the only information about the outside world comes through a crackling radio broadcast which gradually reveals a picture of the gradual take-over of the country by the invading German army. The destruction of London and the major landmarks we take for granted today is particularly touching depicting the possible outcomes had that war been quite different. We learn of the almost total destruction of London buildings and Nelson’s column at Trafalgar square being dismantled and taken to Berlin as a war trophy while in small English villages groups of citizens are being executed for resisting the occupying forces.

The story has a lot to say about the futility of war and its effect on individuals. Its strength lies in the fact that it goes beyond the sorts of stereotypes of individuals that now, more than 50 years on we have come to see as normal. It is also a stark reminder of the effects an occupying force can have on a population, something Western colonialism perhaps hasn’t yet quite understood. Dare I saw the occupation of Australia is one case in point. This is a poetic and impressive story with much to tell contemporary readers.

This Weeks Poem:

“Small Man With Tree (After Domenico Tiepolo)”- by Peter Steele SJ
This poem comes from a published collection of his works ‘A Local Habitation: Poems and Homilies’, it is based on a passage from Luke 19: 1-10 in the bible.

Music

This week’s music featured Australian artists:
-‘Rock It’ by Little Red
-‘Day Too Soon’ by Sia from her album ‘Some People Have Real Problems’
-‘Poorhouse’ by The Audrey’s from their album ‘Sometimes The Stars’

November 16th

This Weeks Review: 'Fall Girl' by Toni Jordan

Reading this book was really refreshing. Here is a newish young female novelist who is prepared to write an unashamed piece of pure escapism and does so with style and flair.
Perhaps the title is in danger of telegraphing the book’s denouement, but if the end of heroine Della/ “Ella’s” journey isn’t quite what she had hoped for, the ride is certainly entertaining. In a recent interview, author Toni said: “I’ve tried to channel my love for screwball romantic comedies of the 40s and 50s into a modern story – a novelist’s ‘Charade’ or ‘To Catch A Thief’ except set in contemporary Melbourne…fascinating characters, intricate plots, witty dialogue and sexual tension. I only hope I have done them justice.” Well, Toni, I think you have.

Della and her extended family are eccentric in way we don’t often encounter: they are ‘con artists’ with a naïve Robin-Hood principle backing their often-grand highly illegal schemes for making money. Their whole lives – where they live, the daily and weekly routine, their identities, issues of security and secrecy dictate their comings and goings. Every moment is devoted to the sourcing, planning, and precise execution of serial ‘dodginess’ involving everything from carrying out phoney real estate deals to selling shonky patent medicines. The elegant, confident and articulate Della is sure she is onto a winner with her elaborate plan to relieve a ‘ridiculously wealthy’, handsome young millionaire, Daniel, of many thousands which will finance a spurious field research program to prove that the ‘Tasmanian Tiger’ is still at large in the Wilson Promontory National Park.
Masquerading as Dr ELLA Canfield, evolutionary biology academic extraordinaire, she sets up the interview with the respective foundation, secures the promise of a sizeable grant and sets off – in a very amusing sequence – for a field trip in order to demonstrate to Daniel just how his money will be spent. As the blurb says, “Someone is going to take a fall.”
Because this is a ‘sting’ story, I will say no more. Things move at a rattling pace throughout, but it is the characters who got my attention – the sincerely amoral family: father, stepmother, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin, hanger-on Jerome and Della’s would-be-boyfriend, Tim. They represent a highly original take on the Fagin syndrome…One thinks of the British Ealing comedies [“The Lavender Hill Mob”!] of the early 50s as well as the more sophisticated American films already cited.

This is pretty daring stuff in that it defies genre which of course should guarantee Toni a broad reading audience. The dialogue is sharp and has an authentic contemporary ring. The locations – Melbourne and the Prom – are handled with sureness. It would make a good film.
I know we will be reading Toni Jordan again. An earlier novel, “Addition” ,is next on my list. She has the gift of telling a good yarn fluently and in a way that kept me turning the pages.

Published by ‘text’,2010,pp 234,rrp $32-95.

“Hand Me Down World” by Lloyd Jones

Doesn’t the variety of the human imagination just floor you? It does me. The way composers can continue to invent new tunes –and make them into songs and orchestral suites and symphonies and operas….Or the ways painters can ‘create’ new colour combinations into shade and tones and shapes that give us new visions of the world?...And the novelty of our WRITERS! Well, that is largely what “The Blurb” is about: giving you, dear reader , some of the NEW that is around in books and ideas.
New Zealand novelist, LYOYD JONES, reminded us last year about an awful civil war which raged on our northern doorstep not long ago – on the island of Bougainville – in his award-winning “Mister Pip”. Since then, he has given us an ’uneven’ [in the opinion of or reviewer] anthology of short sties, “The Man In The Shed”. Lately he is back to his best, thank heavens, with another highly-original yet topical story with “Hand me Down World”.
“Ines” is an African woman whose short-term lover kidnaps their baby son in northern Africa which leaves her utterly distraught, but not to the extent that she gives up on life. She determines to seek out both, and to get her child back. Now, you can see the possibilities for an emotional ‘journey”/”road” novel in the making. Jones manages to create the woman’s world as she moves from Africa into Italy and then northern Europe. But it isn’t until the second half of his novel that he really takes us into Ines’ mind. Until then we must be content with the viewpoint of several very different people she encounters, and this is the particular skill Jones manages in this remarkable book. Each of these people not only tell us her piece of the global story, but incidentally and importantly present an opinion on her situation. This in turn forces the reader to contemplate Ines’ plight – and the situations so many thousands face in today’s world, the stateless refugees who knock daily at the doors of us, the wealthy and comfortable. Jones re-awakened in me the shame I feel as an Australian whose successive governments effectively shut the gate on the trickle of supplicant-refugees coming to my country. Ines’ story is very moving, especially when Ines is finally able to be with her son in Berlin.
Of course, the son had been “handed on” in a sense early in the book; Ines is on occasion literally handed on, and not always kindly. Jones is a very compassionate writer, but avoids sentimentality. I suspect it is his journalism background that enables us to see his Italy, and particularly Berli [….which has been to the fore for me of late, with a TV documentary last week about Weimar Germany and :the real “Cabaret’”. There was the new Le Carre novel with its hints of his early classics “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold”, etc.] Jones has a rather spare writing style; there aren’t many adjectives or adverbs. None of those purple patches, so dreaded by teachers of English [and creative writing] Listen, for example, to Defoe, one of Ines’ lovers, talking about his stroll through Berlin on World Cup Day : pp 175-6.

Text Publishing, 2010, pp 313, rrp $32-95,pb.
SCORE: ***+

Author Interview: Toni Jordon author of “Fall Girl”

We spoke with Toni Jordon this week about her new novel “Fall Girl”. Toni also writes a weekly column for The Age as well as teaching creative writing.

Toni on the warm response her book has received

I was not expecting the response that this book got because you can’t fit my work into the box of typical genres.

Toni on the inspiration for “Fall Girl”

Classic 50s and 60s romantic comedies…People think it [romantic comedies] has to be brainless these days, but I wanted to make something that was genuinely funny.
Films are helping to portray the brainless side because the actors and actresses these days are young and can’t seem to carry off deeper, underlying stories.
My novel is a character driven comedy that can only have a funny line because it comes from that character.

Toni on her writing

I write by word count. I sit down every day and have to write at least 1500 good words before I finish for the day.

Toni on her first novel “Addiction” being made into a movie

Screen writing structure is a specific skill and I could not do it. If they [the screen writers] need more dialogue, I would be happy to write more, so that book can translate to the screen well.

This Weeks Poem:

“The Sharpener ”- Chris Wallace Crabbe

Music

This week we played the following tracks:
-‘Dance, Dance’ by Fall Out Boy, covered by the String Quartet Tribute to Fall Out Boy. This was an instrumental version using only string instruments.
-‘Talking Like I’m Falling Down Stairs’ by Sparkadia. This is the first single to be released off their new album coming out in 2011.

October 5th

This week Bernard was on holidays in Forbes NSW so I took over solo hosting duties.

Book & Publishing News

We brought you all the winners from the 2010 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards:
• The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction: Truth, Peter Temple
• The Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction: Reading by Moonlight: How Books Saved a Life, Brenda Walker
• The CJ Dennis Prize for Poetry: Possession, Anna Kerdijk Nicholson
• The Louis Esson Prize for Drama: And No More Shall We Part, Tom Holloway, A Bit Of Argy Bargy
• The Prize for Young Adult Fiction: Raw Blue, Kirsty Eagar
• The Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate: “Seeing Truganini”, David Hansen
• The Prize for a First Book of History: Becoming African Americans: Black Public Life in Harlem, 1919-1939, Clare Corbould
• The Prize for Indigenous Writing: Legacy, Larissa Behrendt,
• The John Curtain Prize for Journalism: Who Killed Mr Ward?, Janine Cohen and Liz Jackson, Four Corners, ABC Television
• The Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer: House of Sticks, Peggy Frew

This Weeks Review: “Trick The Dark”- Val McDermid and “The Glass Rainbow”- James Lee Burke

Listeners may wonder how we select the books for review on your favourite “books’n’reading’ program. First of all, the publishers are very generous and keep us supplied with new titles. It is a matter of my reading as much of the publishers ‘info’ I can get my hands on, early reviews and finding books that suit the broad framework of what is popular and what is worthwhile. Very subjective, of course, because I feel our show has an educative role as well as its entertainment goals. Old favourites are sometimes injected into the mix, and occasional ‘genre’ groupings, as with today’s two novels. I think I am trying always to fathom an answer to why we read what we read.

Having spent most of my working life studying as well as teaching, I sought out recreational reading, and mostly read work by detective writers. Naturally I developed a taste for favourites – of which crime novels have gained popularity in both literary and television worlds. By the way, did you know that students studying for a degree in Arts at the University of Melbourne these days, can attempt a first year unit in “Detective Fiction”. The course requires a close study of classics in the genre from the likes of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Arthur Conan Doyle. A bit different from my days when I was studying English from Chaucer to Hardy, circa 1400 CE to 1900 or so. About 15 solid texts from poetry, drama and fiction. Yes, I am all for progress, but I wonder why tertiary humanities students are not asked to study the foundation texts any more. I know I am playing with the lid of the worm can here. Yes, scratch me a bit and you’ll see I am quite conservative.

Readers of James Lee Burke will know that his characters generally inhabit Louisiana, the backblocks of New Orleans specifically,[though recently we see his new character Billy Bob Holland resident in Montana.] My point is that a lot of Burke’s attraction comes from the strong sense of location: we almost breathe the salty tang of the bayou country. While the plots are more or less procedure-based, Burke’s detective novels are very much character-driven. It is his staunch Catholic, sober alcoholic, Vietnam vet cop Dave Robicheaux who is front –and-centre for all the action, and it is his point of view through which we follow events.
Val McDermid, meanwhile, is a resident of Scotland so her fiction is Britain-based. This time we spend a fair amount of time in the environs of historic and tourist-attracting Oxford. For me, there is only one outstanding British crime writer: Ian Rankin whose Edinburgh is almost a spiritual location for the long-suffering John Rebus, as it is a crime scene.
There are other significant differences between Burke and McDermid, not at least in the overall quality of their writing. I’m sorry to claim that McDermid is somewhat of a hack detective writer, writing to a formula rather than accepting the challenge of crisp language and serious character and/or plot development. OK, my judgment is solitary – for she has sold over ten million books in a career of over twenty years, and is a frequent performer at all the usual writers’ festival including our [Melbourne’s] own.
Burke’s storyline is a fairly familiar one. Dave is working again with his old risky mate, Clete. We are treated to even more of both their ‘back stories’, perhaps too much – to hide a rather rambling plot-line? However, ordinary Burke is still pretty good. The usual villains appear; sleazy crooks with the slightest veneer of old-money respectability. This time, Dave’s young adult daughter, Alafair, becomes naively involved and hell hath no fury greater than Dave’s where family is concerned. The crime this time relates to what becomes a series of unsolved murders of women which leads Dave and Clete to a conspiracy within the murky, mysterious historical perspective he relentlessly, continuously, gravitates towards. I have to admit I found this book too lengthy. The ending is rather explosive though, so persevere, readers. If you have not encountered Dave and his experiences in ‘The Big Easy” you may wish to begin with an earlier title: check them out in your library.
McDermid’s book did not win me over. Not only was it very slow, I also wondered about elements of the plot. Her main character, “Charlie” [female] happens on the findings of a murder case just too easily – and the verdict in said case just isn’t plausible. My reaction to Charlie’s love interests in this novel also worried me. I hope I am not homophobic, but I felt her lesbianism not only dominated this genre novel, but somehow at the same time the theme was treated too glibly. Sex in detective fiction is as old as, well, Chandler. Maybe I am a wowser. No, there’s nothing graphic here, my unease is technical: the villainous femme we meet fairly early in the piece is also a predator of attractive women.
Anyway, the book proceeds with Charlie cleverly reclaiming her professional reputation and apparently living happily ever after. Who am I to say that McDermid can’t write good detective fiction?

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Burke: ***
McDermid: **

James Lee Burke: “The Glass Rainbow”, Orion, 2010, pp 433, rrp $32

Val McDermid: “Trick Of The Dark”, Little Brown, 2010, pp 451, rrp $32

Review: “Fallen”- Lauren Kate

We did another review this week on Lauren Kate’s “Fallen” and gave a comparison between this novel and its peers in the teen fiction vampire/supernatural, epic love story genre. In particular, Stephanie Myer’s ‘Twilight’ Saga.
One can easily draw parallels between “Fallen” and Stephanie Myer’s “Twilight Saga”, having read both, in terms of supernatural themes and an underlying love story, which I believe is a strength, the fact that both writers can translate and present an epic and intense Romeo and Juliet-esque , love to a modern day audience.
However “Fallen” is distinct in the fact that it deals with angels rather than vampires and also the time sequencing in the novel.
It starts off in England in 1854 for the first 8 pages then moves into modern day. This time sequencing seems out of place to begin with, but is integral to understand the rest of the story. The story starts off with a man drawing a sketch of a woman he is in love with, when she comes into the room and catches him doing it. She is clearly in love with him too, but he doesn’t want to give into temptation because he knows if he does kiss her, she’ll disappear, which is what happens.
Then time moves into modern day where we meet one of our protagonists Lucinda at a school called Swords & Cross, which she quickly finds out is not your usual high school.
A love triangle is quickly set up between Luce, Cam; the friendly and cute guy that Luce first meets and Daniel the breathtakingly handsome guy that avoids Luce.
What we don’t find out, just yet, is that both Cam and Daniel, in fact most teens at Swords & Cross are fallen angels, except Luce and one of her friends Penelope who dies in the grand battle towards the end of the novel, that is essentially between good and evil.
It takes a fire that Daniel rescues Luce from and a fight between Cam and Daniel over Luce to find out the real story behind Luce’s attraction to Daniel, which comes quite late in the story.
It reveals that this is not the first time these lovers have met. They meet every lifetime, every 17 years. The problem is that Luce never remembers that Daniel is her lover and that they have met many lifetimes before, while he remembers everything. I think the way Kate intertwines this abstract concept into her story is cleaver, exciting and intriguing. It lets the audience explore the idea of reincarnation in a non-confrontational way by weaving it through a love story.
Daniel tries to avoid Luce in most lifetimes because their love is so intense and he just can’t deal with losing her, which is the inevitable outcome, but Luce always finds him, no matter where he is; shipwrecked in Tahiti, a convict in Melbourne, an injured solider in WW1 or dancing at the Kings coronation ball in Scotland during the Reformation.
Although this lifetime is different and Luce doesn’t disappear. The ending is left open and that’s where “Torment” comes in, the sequel to “Fallen”, which was released on September 28th and out now at bookstores. I haven’t read it yet, but if “Fallen” is anything to go by, I don’t think “Torment” will disappoint.
I also believe that while Kate’s work and Myers “Twilight Saga” are distantly different, Kate will have a collection of “Fallen” novels in the same fashion as Myer’s and that film versions will be inevitable in the future.
I know that Disney has already purchased film rights in the hope of having their own super franchise and phenomenon, much like “Twilight” did for Summit Entertainment. Keep an eye out, it is set to be released in 2012.

“Fallen” offers a wonderfully intriguing, intense and passionate love story that has been well written by Kate.

Interview with Jo from Angus & Robertson

We had our wonderful sponsors in this week. Jo from Angus & Robertson joined me in the studio to talk about what’s new and the most popular titles at the moment. She also mentioned the comeback of the ‘classics’ due to Penguin re-releasing titles in gift packs (not a bad idea to build up your collections or as a Christmas present for an avid reader). We got into a lengthy discussion about the new e-readers versus the art of buying a book in hard copy. But we left it up to you to decide which you preferred.

Music

I shared some of my favourite tracks with you. They included:
-‘When Did Your Heart Go Missing”- Rooney
-‘1901’ – Phoenix from their album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

October 26th

Book & Publishing News

* JANE SULLIVAN always writes something interesting in her weekly column in the Saturday “Age”. She noted recently how it is not surprising that ALBERT CAMUS may be back in fashion. His “The Plague” can be purchased in the new ‘cheap’ Penguin edition.

* CALEB’s review from last week of DBC PIERRE”s “Lights Out In Wonderland” should be available on this site by the end of the week.

* PUBLISHERS: we love to hear from ALL publishers, new/old, big/small…especially local. Contact us: send us your books and we will talk about them on the program. I have recently contacted Ballan-based ‘Conner Court’ who are bringing to the public the ideas of such writers as eminent historian [ANU Emeritus Professor] JOHN MOLONY and veteran Rome-based journalist Desmond O’Grady.

*”Strine” is always with us: have you seen all the Gloria Soames out in Wandana Heights? A new edition of “Professor Afferbeck Lauder’s 1970s classic is now available. [Have you ever seen Round John Bergin in any depiction of the Christmas scene?]

* JAMES McNEISH whose “The Crime of Huey Dunstan” I reviewed recently has been lately given the New Zealand PM”s 2010 Award for Literary Achievement – at age 79. [Today’s interview with Maris Morton, is further proof that “age shall not weary” determined novelists!]

This Weeks Review: “A Darker Music”- Maris Morton

I am coming to admire the work our Australian publishers are doing in
encouraging new writers – though I know some of us are still striving to get our work out there to the public. There are fortunately quite a few ‘cottage’ publishers, even in our own region, working hard to help you out. [Please let “The Blurb” know of these so we can publicise them in our “News”: segment at least.] SCRIBE as well as Allen & Unwin, Black Inc., Text and the university presses have given us not only good texts this year, but they are presented so beautifully – which is vital in getting books OFF the shelves and into readers’ hands. Today’s author has been awarded Scribe’s Fiction Prize for this year with her “A Darker Music.”

From the Blurb

“When Mary Lanyon takes on the job of temporary housekeeper at ’Downe’, a famous merino stud farm, she is looking forward to staying in a gracious homestead with the wealthy Hazlitt family. The owner’s wife, Clio, is ill, and Mary’s task is to get the house back in shape in the lead-up to the wedding of the only son and heir, Martin.
When she arrives, however, Mary realises things are not right. Clio rarely ventures from her roo. The House is shabby, redolent of dust and secrets. As a friendship develops between the women, Mary discovers answers to the questions that have puzzled her….”

Maris has developed an interesting plot in her novel and she certainly knows how to write. It all rings true because she has herself lived aspects of the station life she depicts. I was lucky to live for a decade in Western NSW which included two years on a 5000-hectare mixed farm on the Lachlan River in the early 70s. It was amazing how quickly the culture of a ‘farm’ got into one’s consciousness. Constant talk of the weather seasons, prices/markets, stock, workmen…pet lambs, dogs and river levels, agricultural shows, camping out…and so on. The authentic fee Maris creates for life in “The Bush” with its three-dimensional human takes us right inside their lives. Mary and Clio are exceptionally well-drawn: their informal conversations, the day-to-day routine, the barely-spoken feelings each comes to share. Mary – a cosmopolitan, well-educated and sophisticated young woman, learns to be sensitive to the sad realities of Clio’s prisoner-life existence. The “darker music’ of Clio’s life is both a remembered memory and a metaphor for everyone connected to ‘Downe’. It is not a happy place. Some of the best-recalled scenes for me are when Mary escapes to an exquisite stand of wildflowers, her own “music”. The musical motif is used subtly throughout not only to reveal Clio’s inner life then, but to explore the moods and swings of all the characters really.
Not to be pedantic, the minor characters – people associated with the property – are neatly conjured up, though perhaps the husband is perhaps slightly caricatured. I was left wanting to know him better.
This is a very good novel and I am amazed to learn it is Maris’s first published work in this mode.

Maris Morton: “A Darker Music”, SCRIBE, 2010, pp 312, rrp $32

Author Interview: Maris Morton author of “A Darker Music”

The Blurb chatted to Maris Morton author of “A Darker Music” about her writing career, her first novel and inspiration for the story, here is some of what she had to say.

Maris Morton on how “A Darker Music” came about

I’ve always been an avid reader but I have never really had the time or motivation to write. Now being retired and having the time to learn a new skill, which has taken me ten years to grasp, I have started writing five novel’s but this one [A Darker Music] was the first one I have felt confident enough with to give to a publisher.

Maris Morton on the culture of farm life and her experience

I’ve lived in the Southwest where it’s a rich agricultural life and this is where the book is based. I have always enjoyed being in the country and prefer the country life. Country people are rather different and used to solitude.

Maris Morton on the woman’s quest for freedom

Cleo was purely invented, but I heard a story about a farmer’s wife where the idea of being committed to music and loosing it came from. Cleo is not a perfect woman but she does what she has to do.
Mary on the other hand made the life she wanted to have.

Maris Morton on the music motif

I grew up in a house filled with music. My dad played the Spanish guitar and was in an amateur band. Mum was a singer and came from the church and hymn singing background. I also played the piano like most people did.

This Weeks Poem:

“Gifts”- Bruce Dawe
This is a pre-Christmas poem recently published by Bruce Dawe and was released this month.

Music

This week’s tracks included:
-‘Set Fire to the Third Bar’- Snow Patrol featuring Martha Wainwright
-’15 Step’- Radiohead