AustLit

'When the eldest daughter of a whaling family in Eden, New South Wales, sets out to chronicle the particularly difficult season of 1908, the story she tells is poignant and hilarious, filled with drama and misadventure.

Swinging from her own hopes and disappointments, both domestic and romantic, to the challenges that beset their tiny whaling operation, Mary's tale is entirely relatable despite the hundred-odd years that separate her world from ours.

Chronicling her family's struggle to survive the season and her own attempts to navigate an all-consuming crush on an itinerant whaleman with a murky past, Rush Oh! is also a celebration of an extraordinary episode in Australian history when a family of whalers formed a fond, unique allegiance with a pod of Killer whales - and in particular, a Killer whale named Tom.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Scottish-born artist Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) is a giant amongst Australian painters and is revered by fellow artists. Shaped by European modernism - post-impressionism and cubism - Fairweather was a recluse drawn to Asia. He lived in Shanghai and Peking in the 1930s, and along with his study of Chinese writing, developed a highly individual, distinctive linear style. His paintings are like no others. To Robert Hughes, he was 'a deeply spiritual artist' and 'one of the very few modern artists to make a convincing bridge between Eastern calligraphic traditions and Western drawings'.

'Fairweather's life was as unusual as his art. It was a solitary life of hardship and adventure, Murray Bail finally devoted to art. He lived for twenty years in a hut on Bribie Island, Queensland, allowing his life to wander through his work. This is the fascinating story of a man who cared nothing for comfort or material possessions, living a hand to mouth existence. Unable to afford good quality materials, Fairweather often painted on cardboard with Dulux paint from the hardware shop.

'Fairweather is an entirely new study on this acclaimed artist. Murray Bail has unearthed newly discovered writings and letters, paintings and rare photographs, and has expanded and revised his views on the artist. With 233 reproductions, most in colour, many of paintings and drawings never seen in public, Fairweather is the definitive account of the life and art of this great painter.' (Publisher's blurb, 2009 Murdoch Books edition)