Nineteen Eighty-Four or 1984 as it is also known, is one of the most famous books ever published. It has inspired countless imitations, cultural touchstones, and introduced language which has become part of our everyday speech such as 'Big Brother', 'Thought Police' and 'Doublethink'. It is even one of those rare books which is deemed... Continue Reading →
An unbelievable true story…
Helen Demidenko caused a stir in literary circles in the mid 1990s. I remember at the time wondering why there was such a fuss? After all, the crime she was accused of was that she had made up her family history (and surname) in order to promote her novel, The Hand that Signed the Paper;... Continue Reading →
Ditmar Awards 2022
It’s the time of year where the Australian Ditmar Awards are open for nominations - ie voting (lasting until August 7th). These are fan-voted awards where anyone active in fandom can vote. If you read Sci-fi/Fantasy/Spec Fic, you’re probably eligible to nominate. If you've been to a convention, even better. If in doubt, you can... Continue Reading →
Go Set a Watchman
Imagine you love writing and have managed to have a few short stories published and a friend says, "Here's a year's salary, take a year off and go write a novel." While it sounds like a fantasy most authors would have, it really did happen to Nelle Harper Lee. A family she was friends with... Continue Reading →
Sovereign Assassin Recognised and Reviewed
I'm delighted to share the news that Sovereign Assassin has been voted the Book of the Month for May at Read Free.ly. What makes this particularly pleasing is that it was a public/fan vote. However, this is not the only good news in regards to the novel. The paperback and ebook editions are now available... Continue Reading →
The Answer My Friends
What is literature? Most people would answer this with reference to novels or collections of short stories. The Nobel Prize committee took a different view in 2016, causing much debate about this topic. So what did they do that was so controversial? They awarded Bob Dylan the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created... Continue Reading →
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Poisons Himself.
On September 20th, 1879 the British Medical Journal published a letter entitled “Gelsemium as a Poison” in which Doyle recounts his use of gelsemium as a treatment for neuralgia (nerve pain). Gelsemium is also called Yellow Jasmine (or Jessamine). This was not something which had been prescribed for him. This was before he had invented Sherlock Holmes, so it... Continue Reading →
Rediscovering a “Lost Work”
The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. It is comparable to the Dead Sea Scrolls in terms of its literary significance, though less well known. Please note that what follows is a discussion of the texts and their... Continue Reading →
A Very Hungry Success Story.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a children's picture book designed, illustrated, and written by Eric Carle. The book features a very hungry caterpillar who eats his way through a wide variety of foodstuffs before going into a cocoon and emerging as a butterfly. It is one of the few childrens books I remember reading as... Continue Reading →
The Disappearance of the Best-Ever Selling Author
Agatha Christie is, perhaps barring Shakespeare, the bestselling author of all time. She has sold a minimum estimate of 2 billion copies of her books. Her characters are so famous that one (Hercule Poirot) became the first fictional character to have an obituary in The New York Times. Christie’s art is in the slow reveal... Continue Reading →
Robert New 