Theresa Smith's Blog, page 47
October 13, 2021
Book Review: Flight of the Budgerigar by Penny Olsen
The Budgerigar is arguably Australia’s best-known bird. At the same time, it is so ubiquitous that not everyone knows that it is Australian. Nor do many realise that the multicoloured bird that comes to mind—not to mention today’s super-sized, extravagantly coiffed show budgie—is as different from the free-living original as a chihuahua from a wolf.
Far from the cosy domestic lives our pet budgies live today, the native budgerigar has lived millennia of boom-bust cycles in the arid inland of Australia. Life was often short; if they were not fodder for predators, they starved or had to struggle their way to districts closer to the coast. For the Warlpiri and their Arrernte neighbours around Alice Springs, the Budgerigar (in its ancestral form) was a totem animal, featuring in art, ceremonies, songlines and legends.
Since 1840, when ornithologist John Gould took living specimens to London, this little parrot has been on a remarkable journey. The Budgerigar was Australia’s first mass export; its story includes British queens and nobles, Japanese princes and Hollywood stars. It has won the hearts of British spies and world leaders, including Churchill, Stalin and Kennedy.
Taking the reader from the Dreamtime to the colonial live bird trade, the competitive culture of the showroom and today’s thriving wild flocks, Flight of the Budgerigar is the authoritative history of the Budgerigar, written by respected ornithologist Dr Penny Olsen, and lavishly illustrated in full colour.
Published by NLA Publishing
Released 1st October 2021
About the Author:Penny Olsen is an Honorary Professor in the Division of Ecology, Evolution and Genetics at The Australian National University. After a career as a field biologist and ecological consultant, she has is now mostly occupied writing books about Australian natural history and its recorders, both artistic and scientific. She has written more than 25 books, including Australian Predators of the Sky (2015) and Australia’s First Naturalists: Indigenous Peoples’ Contribution to Early Zoology (2019).
My Thoughts:Last year I read a non-fiction book titled Budgerigar by Sarah Harris and Don Baker (you can see my review here) and to be honest, there was a lot of cross over between that book and this one. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed returning to the topic. The research within Flight of the Budgerigar is immense and the wider focus on natural history was fascinating. The illustrations throughout were wonderful and provided an informed history on their own. From the earliest images of budgerigars to the most modern photos, I really loved poring over all the illustrations and reading the captions that accompanied them. My favourite section of the book was the chapter titled ‘Casualties of War’ which detailed the impact WWII had on budgerigars and other pets in London during the Blitz. Very sad, indeed. I immensely enjoyed the stories sprinkled throughout about well known people from history and their beloved budgies, such as Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, and the Kennedy’s. I just love the way these stories highlight that when it comes to loving a pet, be it cat, dog, or bird, we’re all the same.
“The Budgerigar was Australia’s first mass export and yet another example of Australians selling off their natural resources for a pittance to be value-added elsewhere and sold back at great expense. Perhaps, too, an example of talent that must prove itself overseas before it is celebrated here.
The elegant little parrot that Australia gave away and then reclaimed is arguably the nation’s best-known bird. At the same time, it is so ubiquitous that not everyone knows that it is Australian.
…in the mid-1930s, the Budgerigar was protected and feted back in its home country, having already seduced a good slab of the rest of the world.”
I have a personal interest in birds, so I am drawn to books like this, plus, it is just quite fascinating history, and you all know how much of a history buff I am. This little parrot, the budgerigar, native to Australia and unable to survive in the wild anywhere else, has evolved into such an iconic little pet all around the world. It’s a rather impressive and interesting history. The author has also considered the place that budgerigars have within Aboriginal history, and this is something of which I was previously unaware. This book will appeal to those who love budgerigars, of course, but also those who have an interest in natural history, particularly that which relates to Australian birds. Well written, extensively researched, and beautifully presented, Flight of the Budgerigar is a book I highly recommend, particularly as Christmas approaches. It would be an ideal gift for the non-fiction book lover in your life.
Thanks to Quikmark Media for the review copy.
October 12, 2021
Book Review: 2 Sisters Detective Agency by James Patterson and Candice Fox
Two sisters go into the family business they didn’t know they had – catching killers.
Attorney Rhonda Bird returns home to LA to bury her estranged father, and discovers that he left her two final surprises.
The first is a private detective agency.
The second is a teenage half-sister named Baby.
When Rhonda goes into her father’s old office to close down the business, she gets drawn into a case involving a young man who claims he was abducted.
The investigation takes Rhonda and Baby to dark and dangerous places. Soon they are caught in the crosshairs of an angry criminal cartel and an ex-assassin seeking revenge . . .
A thrilling new novel starring a captivating sister-detective duo.
Published by Penguin Random House Australia
Released 28th September 2021
My Thoughts:The conclusion to this novel gives a distinct beginning of a series vibe, and if this is the case, I am completely on board with that. I’d love to read more thrillers such as this with Rhonda and Baby at the helm. These two sisters are as different as night and day, yet they slowly but surely reveal, to the reader and each other, the many ways in which they are alike. Patterson and Fox have created an impressive duo with these two. I grew to love them both over the course of the novel, Rhonda in particular with her intelligent wit and sarcasm. I loved how she could talk her way out of anything, or at least give it a red hot go. Plus, she was just epically cool and self-assured in a way I really admire.
I am a fan of Candice Fox, but I must admit, this is the first James Patterson novel I’ve read. I’ll pause for a moment so you can all gasp in shock and wonderment. I tried one of his romances many years ago, but they were not for me. This, however, was a different story. I recognised Candice Fox’s work within this collaboration, her fingerprints were all over the narrative, however, having never read Patterson before, I don’t know what his usual style is and whether it just seamlessly coexists with Fox’s so that what I recognised as her influence was actually the two of them. I am curious about how collaborations work. Who writes what? Does one author write the sections with these characters while the other author writes the sections with those characters? I found myself really dwelling on this all through the novel as I haven’t read many collaborations before, and my inner writer couldn’t help but curiously rear her head.
This novel is an absolute cracker of a thriller and highly entertaining. There are shades of macabre humour throughout, which suited me just fine, I like it when a book doesn’t take itself too seriously. Instead of dancing around the edges, this one is more like a sledgehammer through a plate glass window. It shocks, it thrills, it makes you laugh, it makes you gasp, and it never stops delivering. The chapters are short and sharp, which as the novel builds towards its conclusion, becomes furiously maddening because you just cannot put it down and the whole just one more chapter isn’t good enough – the chapters are too short, they don’t tell you enough, you have to keep going! My only let down with the whole thing was that a certain villain didn’t get their just desserts, something I had been counting on. Also, a picture of Rhonda’s car, with its leopard print paint job wouldn’t have gone astray…
I feel like I’ve been missing out now by never having read a James Patterson and Candice Fox team up until now. Fortunately, they have a backlist of collaborated titles, so I’m all set for more thrills in the coming months. I highly recommend this one if you are craving some escapism for yourself or looking for a guaranteed enjoyable read to give as a gift.
Thanks is extended to the publisher for the review copy.
October 11, 2021
Book Review – Earthshot: How to Save Our Planet by Colin Butfield, Jonnie Hughes
A book of action and optimism to save our planet.
With an introduction from Prince William and contributions from Sir David Attenborough, Shakira Mebarak, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Naoko Yamazaki and Christiana Figueres, EARTHSHOT shows us how, by working together, we can solve earth’s greatest challenges.
As Prince William, founder of The Earthshot Prize, said, ‘The Earth is at a tipping point and we face a stark choice: either we continue as we are and irreparably damage our planet, or we remember our unique power as human beings and our continual ability to lead, innovate, and problem-solve. People can achieve great things. The next ten years present us with one of our greatest tests – a decade of action to repair the Earth.’
The Earthshot concept is simple: Urgency + Optimism = Action. We have ten years to turn the tide on the environmental crisis, but we need the world’s best solutions and one shared goal – to save our planet.
It’s not too late, but we need collective action now.
The Earthshots are unifying, ambitious goals for our planet which, if achieved by 2030, will improve life for all of us, for the rest of life on Earth, and for generations to come. They are to:
Protect and Restore Nature
Clean our Air
Revive our Oceans
Build a Waste-Free World
Fix our Climate
EARTHSHOT: HOW TO SAVE OUR PLANET is the first definitive book about how these goals can tackle the environmental crisis. It is a critical contribution to the most important story of the decade.
Published by Hachette Australia – Imprint: John Murray
Released 12th October 2021
My Thoughts:This was a tremendous book. One of those books that everyone needs to read. I’m not going to summarise what it’s about, the book description above encapsulates everything you need to know. What I am going to say is that this book has had quite an impact upon me. I thought that I was across environmental issues and fully aware of how to go about reducing my carbon footprint. Turns out what I knew was not even the tip of the iceberg on both accounts. And that’s why this book is so incredible. It’s so comprehensive, an actual global look at all the environmental crises we are facing, what needs to change, what has already changed, and what we can do within our own backyard to contribute.
I particularly enjoyed the contributors’ essays that preface each chapter, but the entire book was so easy to read, no mean feat given how scientific it got in many parts. I loved how once I’d finished reading, I was armed with some actual plans that can be immediately implemented into my life and household with very little effort, just a change of thinking and doing on all our parts. I have already been changing my consumption and waste for the last few years, but this book has pointed out the ways in which I can do better. For me, I need to really concentrate on my fashion purchases with a view to buying pieces that have more longevity and making a conscious move away from fast fashion. I had been actively doing this in recent years but for the last few months I’ve been working for a store that very much falls into the fast fashion category and a requirement for working there was wearing the latest fashions of their clothes, so I’ve ended up buying quite a bit over the last few months that I wouldn’t normally have done. I’ve just gotten a new job so this will be easier to change than it might have been had I still been working for that store. I also need to do better on buying consumables that are not packaged in plastic. I love the idea of rewilding your backyard and this already falls into plans that my eldest son and I have been making for planting more trees. We have a lot of native bees in our backyard that happily buzz around a huge overgrown hedge that lines our pool. The hedge really needs a trim, but we’ve decided to only trim where the path is, for access into the pool, leaving the rest to grow wild and be a home for the bees. It has pretty flowers on it too and if you trim the hedge right down, as has been done in the past, you’re just chopping off all the flowers.
This book has made me really excited about the things that we can action. It’s also made me hyper aware of the challenges ahead and how critical this next ten years is for earth and humanity. It is so crucial that we hold our politicians accountable for their policy decisions and use our votes wisely. It is absolutely insane that Australia builds anymore coal fired power stations, yet presently, the National Party are pushing for a new one in Queensland. Australia doesn’t get much of a mention in this book in terms of positive action already occurring, except for some farming innovation, but we were mentioned in the list of countries that will be partially uninhabitable within a decade if change is not made. And that is a crisis that seems to be completely ignored by our current Federal Government. Reading about all the different countries and the actions they are taking and the laws they are changing honestly made me ashamed of our own government. There is so much that needs to be done to do better, to make more of a positive impact, to permanently effect change. If you are interested in finding out more, Earthshot is essential reading and will hopefully inspire you, as it has done with me, to think more globally about climate change.
“The take-home message of this book, and of The Earthshot Prize, is that optimistic, determined people make a difference. That ideas, actions and inspiration can be transformative. We cannot all be technical innovators. But we can all play our part in changing the world: through how we live our lives, how we communicate, and perhaps more importantly how we join and collaborate with other to shape our shared communities. Repairing our world will take more that fifty prize winners over a decade; it needs millions of Earthshots from millions of people.
It can feel overwhelming to change everything at once, but if we all asked ourselves what we could do year on year over the next decade, then suddenly it becomes more achievable.
One person will rarely change the world alone. But one person can light the spark that changes a lot, or can carry a torch lit by others. So be and inspirer and an enthusiastic follower. It’s of course true that many of our biggest problems need governments and the business community to make the biggest changes. Saving the world cannot be achieved by individual actions alone. But each of our actions – and our collective attitudes – ultimately determines what is normal or acceptable in a society. We can make the political weather that will ultimately decide the real weather.” – Earthshot: How to Save Our Planet.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
October 6, 2021
Book Review: The Housemate by Sarah Bailey
Three housemates. One dead, one missing and one accused of murder.
Dubbed the Housemate Homicide, it’s a mystery that has baffled Australians for almost a decade.
Melbourne-based journalist Olive Groves worked on the story as a junior reporter and became obsessed by the case. Now, nine years later, the missing housemate turns up dead on a remote property. Olive is once again assigned to the story, this time reluctantly paired with precocious millennial podcaster Cooper Ng.
As Oli and Cooper unearth new facts about the three housemates, a dark web of secrets is uncovered. The revelations catapult Oli back to the death of the first housemate, forcing her to confront past traumas and insecurities that have risen to the surface again.
What really happened between the three housemates that night? Will Oli’s relentless search for the murderer put her new family in danger? And could her suspicion that the truth lies closer to home threaten her happiness and even her sanity?
A riveting, provocative thriller from the bestselling author of The Dark Lake, Into the Night and Where the Dead Go.
Published by Allen & Unwin
Released 31st August 2021
My Thoughts:First and foremost, I need to let you know that I’m a Sarah Bailey super fan. Not a crazy one (seriously) but a dedicated one. I’ve read and reviewed all her books, with the most recent two releases sporting quotes from my reviews inside of their opening pages. I love crime fiction, but it’s the police procedural more than the psychological thriller that draws me in and that’s where Sarah Bailey comes in. Her crime fiction is the perfect balance of investigation, suspense, and the unexpected. The Housemate is her first standalone and it comes on the back of a very strong trilogy, so expectations were high. They were certainly met. This novel is just all shades of awesome. The main character, Oli, is an investigative journalist which ticks my boxes of interest since I am a journalist (even though I no longer work as one, I still have a heavy interest in the profession). I was so drawn into the daily grind of chasing the scoop with Oli and Cooper and I loved how Sarah captured that frenzied urgency that characterises live news. This, combined with the police investigation angle, made for an absorbing and gripping read from start to finish.
I like the whole cold case narrative of investigation, the new clue turning up that reopens an old case and turns everything from before onto its head. And wow, this case really got complicated, and the layers of intrigue just kept on piling up. I didn’t see the ending coming, I had one idea in my head, and while I was sort of headed in the right direction, I was also way off. That happens each time I read a novel by Sarah Bailey; there is never anything predictable going on! Both the characterisation and the story were excellent within The Housemate. It’s a big novel, both in length and content. There’s a lot going because we’ve got this cold case along with another cold case from the same era that warrants a mention from time to time, as well as another breaking case in the present day that is taking up airtime in the newsroom. Alongside all of this is Oli’s own personal life, which has changed rapidly within twelve months, leading to much introspection on her part as to whether she is on the right path, both personally and professionally. There is also some childhood trauma bubbling away in the background that has led to a fractious family dynamic. Definitely a lot going on in this novel, but the slow burn style and the length allows for a well-timed exploration of all these themes and topics, and really, when you write as well as Sarah Bailey does, everything just falls into place and it’s never too much all at once.
If you’ve never read Sarah Bailey before, The Housemate is an excellent place to start. I guarantee you’ll be immediately sourcing her trilogy as soon as you’ve finished reading it. Australian crime fiction is on fire at present, with so many truly excellent authors releasing high quality fiction. If it’s not your normal genre, it can be hard to know who to start with, but take my work for it, if you start with Sarah Bailey, you are starting with the best of the best.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
October 5, 2021
Book Review: Love and Virtue by Diana Reid
Sex.
Power.
Consent.
Whenever I say I was at university with Eve, people ask me what she was like, sceptical perhaps that she could have always been as whole and self-assured as she now appears. To which I say something like: ‘People are infinitely complex.’ But I say it in such a way—so pregnant with misanthropy—that it’s obvious I hate her.
Michaela and Eve are two bright, bold women who befriend each other their first year at a residential college at university, where they live in adjacent rooms. They could not be more different; one assured and popular – the other uncertain and eager-to-please. But something happens one night in O-week – a drunken encounter, a foggy memory that will force them to confront the realities of consent and wrestle with the dynamics of power.
Initially bonded by their wit and sharp eye for the colleges’ mix of material wealth and moral poverty, Michaela and Eve soon discover how fragile friendship is, and how capable of betrayal they both are.
Written with a strikingly contemporary voice that is both wickedly clever and incisive, issues of consent, class and institutional privilege, and feminism become provocations for enduring philosophical questions we face today.
Published by Ultimo Press
Released October 2021
My Thoughts:This was an intelligently delivered and impactfully thought provoking novel. There are many themes to wrestle with throughout this one, some more insidious and less obvious than others. The big ones are around consent and sexual humiliation, toxic masculinity and the use of wealth and privilege to ‘rewrite’ the rules. However, I found other aspects equally as concerning. The abuse of power in institutions where middle aged professors engage in illicit affairs with young and impressionable women who possess zero life skills in navigating such a predatory minefield. Also, our Australian culture of binge drinking that has persisted throughout the decades and the impacts this has on consent for both women and men. Above all, the theme of toxic feminism was screaming its way for airtime and when it finally found its voice, it was shocking and abhorrent. The biggest abuse of wealth and privilege within the novel and it was a woman who thought nothing of wielding it.
This is a novel that will have tongues wagging for a long time, I’d wager, and is an absolute cracker of a book club pick. I am filled with many opinions about it and after reading I immediately had a conversation with a blogging friend who read it days before I did. It’s that kind of book, the sort where you want talk about it, message about it, and pull it to pieces so you can examine everything at close range. I am predicting a cult following for this one. Love and Virtue is a novel worth reading and it will certainly inspire discussion and introspection. Brave and bold, an assured debut.
October 4, 2021
#BlogTour #BookReview: Echoes of War by Tania Blanchard
Set in Mussolini’s Italy amid great upheaval, this is the story of one woman’s determination to find her place in a world that men are threatening to tear apart. Another heart-rending novel inspired by a true story from Australia’s bestselling author of The Girl from Munich.
Calabria, Italy, 1936
In a remote farming village nestled in the mountains that descend into the sparkling Ionian Sea, young and spirited Giulia Tallariti longs for something more. While she loves her home and her lively family, she would much rather follow in her nonna’s footsteps and pursue her dream of becoming a healer.
But as Mussolini’s focus shifts to the war in Europe, civil unrest looms. Whispers of war are at every corner and her beloved village, once safe from the fascist agenda of the North, is now in very real danger.
Caught between her desire to forge her own path and her duty to her family, Giulia must draw on the passion in her heart and the strength of her conviction.
Can she find a way to fulfill her dreams or will the echoes of war drown out her voice?
Published by Simon & Schuster
Released 29th September 2021
My Thoughts:Set in Calabria (the tip of Southern Italy) and spanning from the mid-1930s through to the early 1950s, Echoes of War is an immense novel, a tribute to Italians and their cultural heritage, their bravery, and their determination to survive. Inspired by the author’s own family history, it tells the story of Guilia, an ambitious young woman determined to follow in the footsteps of her nonna and become a traditional healer. Guilia is the second youngest in a family of five and through her narration we come to know her entire family and its extended members as well as their neighbours and friends. Tania Blanchard writes in an effortlessly expansive way, weaving history, both social and political, with cultural traditions into her narrative and peopling it with characters that you can’t help but come to feel highly invested in. I am particularly interested in Italy’s experiences during and after WWII, so this novel was highly anticipated for me and it certainly exceeded my expectations.
Italy has such a complex history, particularly throughout the years of WWII where Fascism was overthrown partway through the war, with the resignation of Mussolini leading to a switching of sides, a distancing from Nazism in favour of the freedom that the Allies were fighting for. There was significant civil unrest throughout Italy preceding the war and continuing throughout, and Blanchard gives a good overview of the volatile political climate and the resultant social unrest, not just throughout Southern Italy and Sicily, but throughout Northern Italy as well. I appreciated the depth of her research and the precision with which she wove all these details into her narrative. She really is a terrific writer of historical fiction and knows exactly how to strike that perfect balance between telling a good story and sharing the history of a place and its people.
I enjoyed the family dynamics within this story, they were realistic and absorbing. Guilia was, for the most part, a great narrator. She frustrated me occasionally when she was a little too headstrong to see her way through, at times she seemed to be stubborn for the mere sake of it, but for the most part, I liked her a lot, admired her tenacity and championed her story. The practising of traditional medicine and herbalism as portrayed within this story was quite fascinating and when told within the context of the region, you got to see just how important traditional healers were to a village in Italy during and prior to this era. This is a novel of strong women, determined and brave, dedicated to their family and each other. It broke my heart many times, the struggles they faced, not just because of the war, but through natural disaster as well, given the volatility of Southern Italy topographically. It was very much a case of how much more can these poor people go through. It made me appreciate anew the bravery of those who lived through the world wars, and I gained a greater understanding about the motivations to migrate after the war for a better and more prosperous life. For those who were unable to afford to migrate or had no sponsorship to do so, they faced widespread hardships and poverty as their nation changed and their livelihoods were lost and redefined.
Echoes of War is top shelf historical fiction, an absorbing family saga that is well written, striking a perfect balance between history, dramatic storytelling, and memorable characters. Highly recommended.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
October 2, 2021
The Week That Was…
My African Violet is blooming its little heart out!
I finished with one job on Friday and begin with a new one on Thursday, so I’m currently enjoying a five day mini break. Bliss!
On Tuesday, school returns, and my eldest son goes back for only three weeks…then that’s it, year 12, and all of his schooling days, are over. There are assessment weeks after that until mid-November, but that daily grind will be all over for him. He’s been such a reluctant attender for years now, I’m counting down as much as he is. It’s definitely a victory though that he’s gotten to the end. I’ll be very proud (and relieved) to see him graduate. We went suit shopping last week and he’s completely outfitted for his formal now. That was a heavy moment, from boy to man in an outfit.
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Joke of the week:
This was a joke I shared with my two sons this week. They are banned from walking into any place that is called Fido’s as I’d end up with thirty dogs for sure.
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What I’ve been reading:
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Until next week… 
September 29, 2021
The Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy by Pat Barker
The greatest war story in literature, retold by our greatest living storyteller on war – in the voice of the forgotten woman who lived through it.
Queen Briseis has been stolen from her conquered homeland and given as a concubine to a foreign warrior. The warrior is Achilles: famed hero, loathed enemy, ruthless butcher, darkly troubled spirit. Briseis’s fate is now indivisibly entwined with his.
No one knows it yet, but there are just ten weeks to go until the Fall of Troy, the end of this long and bitter war. This is the start of The Iliad: the most famous war story ever told. The next ten weeks will be a story of male power, male ego, male violence. But what of the women? The thousands of female slaves in the soldiers’ camp – in the laundry, at the loom, laying out the dead? Briseis is one of their number – and she will be our witness to history.
Published by Penguin Books Australia – Penguin General UK
Released 30th August 2018
The Women of Troy:Sequel to critically acclaimed bestseller The Silence of the Girls, an extraordinary retelling of one of our greatest classical myths from one of best writers of war fiction.
Troy has fallen and the Greek victors are primed to return home, loaded with spoils. All they need is a good wind to lift their sails.
But the wind does not come. The gods are offended – the body of Priam lies desecrated, unburied – and so the victors remain in uneasy limbo, camped in the shadow of the city they destroyed. The coalition that held them together begins to fray, as old feuds resurface and new suspicions fester.
Largely unnoticed by her squabbling captors, erstwhile queen Briseis remains in the Greek encampment. She forges alliances where she can – with young, rebellious Amina, with defiant, aged Hecuba, with Calchus, the disgraced priest – and she begins to see the path to revenge…
Published by Penguin Books Australia – Hamish Hamilton
Released 26th August 2021
Thoughts on Both:These two novels are a victory for every person who was silenced by history, their story stolen from them and absorbed into the male narrative of war and conquest. The Silence of the Girls is the more powerful novel, it vibrates with brutality and is infused with fear; it is a deeply emotional story. The Women of Troy continues the story commendably, however, and this is just my impression, it didn’t offer quite the same level of intensity, but considered together, these are an excellent pair of novels. I read them rapidly and one after the other, unwilling to put them down. I would recommend reading The Silence of the Girls prior to The Women of Troy. There is key background information from The Silence of the Girls woven into the narrative of The Women of Troy, but this is very much a sequel, not a standalone, and to me, the emotional context was not there; you get that from The Silence of the Girls, plus, the whole mood of the Greek camp and their fractious relations is better understood if you’ve read The Silence of the Girls first. I am reviewing these two together as my reading of them, rapidly one after the other, makes it impossible for me to separate them. Also, I would really be repeating myself, to be honest, as the themes are the same as it is essentially the same story but just continued.
Greek mythology is very in vogue in fiction at the moment but there is nothing formulaic about Pat Barker’s work. She breathes life into these forgotten women of Troy, all of them, from the highest station to the lowest, all suddenly on the same level playing field as slaves to the Greek men. The fear that ruled their days can be felt in every scene but so too the rage, at losing everything and being at the mercy of the men who had murdered all the men in their families, including babies in the womb, desecrated homes and sacked all the Trojan cities. There were times when the women would recognise items being worn and used by the Greeks that came from their own homes. The obscene violation of this seemed to reflect the loss with so much impact, as Briseis notes, the Greeks were erasing a nation. Killing all of the men and boys, impregnating the women with Greek stock so that Trojans would no longer exist. Along this thread, one thing that stood out from The Women of Troy was how the Greeks did not rate the women as Trojans after Troy fell. They were merely the spoils of war and they didn’t consider for even a moment that the rage these women felt would spill over into acts of rebellion. The shock when it did was almost comical. This need to believe that a man must have been influencing them because women had no functioning brain, no ability to act upon their own will. The politics amongst the women themselves was intricate, driven by past resentments as well as former statuses and current placements. One thing they were all united over was their hatred of the Greeks and their need to hold on to their heritage as Trojans.
I loved the writing style Pat Barker used throughout these two novels. There was a dark comedic edge to the brutality, internal sarcasm and a scathing assessment of the Greeks from the perspective of the women. The language was contemporary but such is her skill as a writer that it worked so well within this ancient setting. Her portrayal of Achilles was intensely compelling; such a complex warrior, part human, part celestial. Even after death he was like a puppet master for the events that immediately followed the fall of Troy. He was dead all throughout The Women of Troy, but still very much a major player. Neither of these books are love stories – thank goodness, at last. There is nothing more distasteful to read than about women enslaved falling in love with their captors. Rest assured, there is none of that here. The relationship between Briseis and Achilles was complex and went beyond master and slave, but theirs was not a love story written in the stars and immortalised for all time. It went beyond that. This complexity was something I admired about the story. It would have been all too easy to just turn this into a love story and I appreciate Pat Barker resisting that and digging deeper to examine the intricacies of what can develop between a master and a slave, particularly when that slave is expected to lie with and serve the man who she watched slaughter her husband, father, and brothers. As far as narrators go, I loved Briseis and never once tired of her across both books, reading them back-to-back. She was formidable, smart, and honourable. A true heroine.
The Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy is now my favourite ‘series’. I’m not sure if there is more to come, I’m going to say probably not as the ending to The Women of Troy read very much like a finale, but you never know. I highly recommend both novels; they are truly remarkable and inspiring works of fiction. Intensely emotional and thought provoking. They make you really consider history and all that has been written before about war and conquests, male victory, the ‘spoils’ of war, and female servility. There is always more than one side to any story, even the famous ones that have been handed down through time.
September 25, 2021
Submissions Opens for Heroines Anthology Volume 4
The 2022 Heroines Anthology is now open for submissions of short fiction and poetry. The Heroines Anthology is a collection of stories of women written by women. Works with a particular focus on telling lost women’s history, untold stories, and reimagined myths, fairy tales, folklore or legends, or speculative fiction, are particularly encouraged. The 2022 Heroines /Joyce Parkes Women’s Writing Prize will award two of the works selected for the anthology: 1st prize Short Fiction $1000 & 1st prize Poetry $1000.Read about our prize patron Joyce Parkes here.
Guidelines:
We only accept submissions from writers who identify as women.We accept previously published work as long as you retain the right to publish it and it has not previously won an award.We expect all work to demonstrate respect for others.While we accept submissions of work for publication in the Anthology from outside of Australia, the prize will only be awarded to someone residing in, or a citizen of, Australia.Preparation:
This is the Heroines Anthology’s fourth volume. We suggest that you read our previous anthologies to get a feel for what we are looking for (and what stories and myths have already been covered those years) before you submit. You can order a copy at a 10% discount with the code SUBMIT2022. Please note that we do not generally publish memoir unless it is exceptional and has a strong link to our preferred themes.
How to submit:
Submissions must be made via our webform.The submissions must include your receipt number from the Prize submission fee.Submissions will close on the 28th February 2022Fee per submission of $ 15 (If you have financial issues & cannot pay this fee. Please contact us.)Short Story Entries
We accept submissions of short fiction of up to 3000 words (12-point standard font, 1.5 spacing)Only one story per entry. You may submit multiple stories however this will require separate entries.Poetry Entries
We accept submissions of up to 5 pages of poetry in a 12-point standard font & 1.5 spacing. This can be made up of several shorter poems, or one longer work.Separate the poems by marking the end of each piece. You may submit more than one entry; however, this will require separate entries.If you have questions, contact Prize Manager Lore White: heroinesprize@gmail.com
INFORMATION & SUBMISSION DETAILS
*Repost from Heroines Prize – all enquiries should be directed to them using the contact details above*
September 22, 2021
Book Review: Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan
A heartbreaking novel of an extraordinary lifelong friendship.
Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life.
In the summer of 1986, in a small Scottish town, James and Tully ignite a brilliant friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over and the locked world of their fathers before them, they rush towards the climax of their youth: a magical weekend in Manchester, the epicentre of everything that inspires them in working-class Britain. There, against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded, a vow is made: to go at life differently.
Thirty years on, half a life away, the phone rings. Tully has news.
Mayflies is a memorial to youth’s euphorias and to everyday tragedy. A tender goodbye to an old union, it discovers the joy and the costs of love.
Published by Faber
Released September 2020
My Thoughts:I enjoyed this novel immensely. I love the way that Andrew O’Hagan writes, effortless to read yet graced with a poetic beauty that would crop up at the most unsuspecting times. Mayflies is a novel of lifelong friendship, a group of young men on the cusp of adulthood, led by best friends Jimmy and Tully, all paving their way within working class Scotland against a background of ruthless Thatcherism. The atmosphere of the UK in the 1980s was recreated with such vigour and these young men, with their energetic youthful partying, their endless trading of insults, their obsession with music and movies, conversing in quotes from their favourite scenes and each of them knowing exactly what the other was referencing was just sublime. I will admit, half of the time, I had no idea what they were talking about, particularly with the music references more than the movies, but that really didn’t matter because it was the overall feeling of connectedness and friendship that drew me in and kept me reading. The bonds between these lads were strong and sure and their energetic banter honestly reminded me of my own 17-year-old son and his group of friends – they have that music and movie thing down pat as well. I found this first half entertaining and whimsical.
“Manchester was a byword for who we all were together, and who Tully was in particular, and it seemed easier to evoke him at his best than speak about the worst.”
The second half jumps forward thirty years, and the friendships are still real, although it is the bond between Jimmy and Tully that holds the strongest and remains the focal point of the novel. This second part was bittersweet. The humour was still there but the story takes a heavy turn that was both thought provoking and fraught with emotional intensity. There is something about being with people who have known you forever, who come from the same place and know all the same people as you that sets these relationships apart. The friendship between Jimmy and Tully was quite exclusive, the longevity of it and shared experiences created a closed circle of two that often excluded their wives.
“Men have a way of writing themselves into each other’s experience and placing it away from the women they love.”
I’m being rather evasive, I know, but I don’t want to spoil the story. I wasn’t aware of the direction the novel was headed in prior to reading and I enjoyed it even more for being in the dark. This novel has all the hallmarks of a cult classic, and I found it to be very enjoyable and deeply moving. Thought provoking themes were handled sensitively and objectively, and it’s the type of novel that offers a lot in the way of book club discussion. Above all, I just loved the way it was written, the beautiful passages interspersed with the humour and gritty realism, and in particular, I adored the ending scene; a brilliant and beautiful finish to what was all in all a pretty terrific novel.
“He wasn’t so much the butterfly as the air on which it travels.”
