The on-going bush fires that are relentlessly sweeping Eastern Australia are truly apocalyptic, like something from a Cormac McCarthy novel, a sixties Hollywood movie about the end of the world, a war zone, or the new norm. The sky is black with smoke, the sky is crimson with smoke; day is night. Huge black clouds […]

Alison sits on the almost empty train. It would be nice to just keep going, an endless loop through the suburbs, and the city, Circular Quay, the harbour, then round again, a bag full of sandwiches and books. She thinks again of Tolstoy’s introduction to Anna Karenina, All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
It’s true. She knows no one else who is unhappy the way she is. She can only guess about what is happening in Mark’s head.
Alison doesn’t go directly home when she gets off the train. She checks her purse to see how much money she has, enough to take herself and Anna into a bar close to the station. It is early evening and quiet. She buys a glass of white wine, then finds a corner…

The why and how of my writing; what I write about, how I got there, and some of the writers that influenced me. I am a writer of the diaspora – along with the growing millions of others who flee conflict or seek a better life.

invited to speak at two conferences in India

She stands in front of me, water up to her waist. Her cozzie’s too big . It hangs loose and I can see her titties under her togs, like two little raspberries. I try not to look — but I try to look as well.

Two young brothers, Danny and Michael, each has a wish to make, but first they must confront the Devil.

Radio Blue Mountains

The children became a supply of female domestics and male farm labourers for land owners.

Spring and the birds are moving.

The event created a new literary pleasure for me, reading excerpts from my stories to a live audience…