What do I and two-time winner of the Ned Kelly Award, recipient of a Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award and three-time winner of the German Crime Award, Garry Disher, have in common? Not a lot, except he does live somewhere on the Mornington Peninsula, I'm told. Peace was another very popular suggestion, not only via social media, but by a helpful librarian at my local (and very wonderful and much-appreciated) Mornington Library. A full-time writer since 1988, Garry Disher

Writing my blog with serious internet connectivity challenges today, but the view from my window is a stunning, very Australian landscape. Musing about the countryside, brought to mind a book that is high on my Christmas wish list. To some extent this book changes the diorama of the Australian historical landscape, there's been a shed load of discussion about it, and it's won a cart load of awards too: Winner of Book of the Year in the 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Winne

Love Emma Viskic's Caleb Zelic series and can't wait to read 'Darkness for Light'. If you enjoy crime writing (which I do) you really shouldn't look beyond the Australian authors. Australian crime writers are at the top of their game and being 4th December made me think of Emma and her crime-writing accomplices - Emma Viskic, Sulari Gentil, Robert Gott and Jock Serong - who recently took 'Noir Down Under' to America #writersontherun I would have loved to have been able to jo

When he's not writing or reading, you're likely to find Mark Smith in his element: the sea. Mark Smith has lived on the Aussie coast for more than 35 years and his work is strongly influenced by environmental issues, which are close to his heart, and the coastal region. Written in a similar vein as John Marsden's 'Tomorrow When the War Began', Mark has expanded his first very successful novel, 'The Road to Winter' into a popular trilogy. A teacher by profession (although curr

Much lauded and much loved, this was my sister's choice, and tbh, I could not, not include Tim Winton's 'The Shepherd's Hut'. Reading this novel, I was mesmerised at Winton's sleight of pen. Even my 87-year-old mother, who never swears (unless you count Schweppes as an oath), loved this book. Jaxie Clackton, the main teenage character, is on the run. Uncouth and uncut, this is a boy whose only compass is the love he has lost. This was my review back in June: This was my favo

My first uncovering is an easy choice: 'Skylarking' by Kate Mildenhall. I probably wouldn't have even thought of doing this 'Aussie Authors Advent' had I not been listening to The First Time podcast https://thefirsttimepodcast.com (which Kate co-hosts with another great writer, Katherine Collette, author of 'The Helpline'). The First Time podcast pitches itself as a podcast 'about the first time ... you publish a book'. It promotes a bright and brilliant array of Aussie autho