Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe


  • Taking Tom Murray Home – Tim Slee

    Harper Collins July 2019 ISBN: 9781460757864 ISBN 10: 1460757866 Imprint: HarperCollins – AU RRP $32.99 The inaugural Banjo Prize competition attracted 320 entries but it was Taking Tom Murray Home that took out the first prize with its truly authentic Australian voice. Tim Slee’s novel bristles with laconic wit, quirky characters and bitter-sweet emotions and underlines with eloquence…

  • The Middle of Nowhere [Usborne Modern Classics] – Geraldine McCaughrean

    Harper Collins October 2018 ISBN: 9781409570516 ISBN 10: 1409570517 Imprint: Usborne – GB List Price: 14.99 AUD Rarely have I read a book which so captures the Australian landscape, isolation and the deep abiding racism of times gone past which has been written by a non-Australian but this is superb. Taut, thrilling and anxiety-making the narrative follows the friendship…

  • My Australia – Julie Murphy/Garry Fleming

    National Library of Australia April 2018 9780642279163 RRP $24.99 Those of us of a certain vintage will have vivid memories of learning off by heart Dorothea MacKellar’s famous poem My Country at school. For many I guess it may have been a trial but for me it was a joy, not least of all because…