AustLit

'Peter Corris, the ‘Godfather of Australian crime fiction’, died in his sleep on 30 August 2018. His Godfather columns have been part of the Newtown Review of Books from the beginning, and we feel his loss keenly.' 

'David Williamson is without question one of Australia's most significant and celebrated cultural figures. For over thirty years his plays have been the mirror to which many Australians have turned to see themselves reflected - from the early, coruscating sensations of Don's Party, The Club and The Removalists to the annual smash-hits like Emerald City, Travelling North and Brilliant Lies, Williamson's plays have been the way we have known ourselves.

'And Williamson's life has been as engaged and interesting as his art. For thirty-five years, Williamson has been at the white-hot welding point of art and politics - friend of most of the significant artistic and political figures of his generation: Peter Carey, Jack Hibberd, Gough Whitlam, Bruce Beresford, Clifton Pugh, Paul Keating. Through his plays and his articles, Williamson's views have characterised and galvanised generations of Australians. He has been, above all, passionate.

'Who better to invite us into that life than the woman with whom he has shared it, his wife Kristin? Kristin takes us behind the scenes - into the study, the dining room, the rehearsal room - to give us the ultimate portrait of the man whose plays have so defined his times and his country.' (Publisher's blurb)

On a Queensland beach in 1962 Meg, Virginia and Sally plan their lives and make a pact to build a place in the bush where they can meet once a year. Twenty-five years later, nothing is as they imagined it would be. Meg, an investigative journalist, is distressed by her childlessness, Virginia has fled her artist lover to set up a commune in far north Queensland, and Sally has been left by the husband she has devoted over twenty years to.

But their love and friendship survive, and it is to Tanglewood, the house they dreamt of, that they go to gather the strength to take them into the future. (Publisher's blurb, back cover).

On her fourteenth birthday, Kate feels that her life is perfect, until she discovers that she is adopted. Kate becomes obsessed with discovering the identity of her real parents. She eventually meets her mother and her half-siblings; the latter know nothing of Kate's existence. In her quest, however, Kate has been oblivious to her adoptive parents' feelings. Their concerns make her realise how important they are to her.

(Source: LibrariesAustralia)