One of Australia’s favourite novelists Kate Forsyth, author of The Impossible Quest, Bitter Greens, The Wild Girl and now The Beast’s Garden, continues her monthly blog with us, giving her verdict on the books she read in October. My son – like so many others his age – sat his HSC last month, and so I spent lots of time waiting for him outside exam halls and libraries. This meant lots of lovely... Read more

People often ask me if it was weird to grow up in Manhattan, to take the subway to school, to trade in backyards and bicycles for sidewalks and Razor scooters. It wasn’t weird. It was the only thing I knew—growing up in New York felt like the only way anyone could grow up. I couldn’t imagine driving to the grocery store, or driving anywhere for that matter—I still don’t know how to drive. Or ri... Read more

Writing is a socially accepted form of schizophrenia.—E.L. Doctorow Some people say life is the thing, but I prefer reading.—Logan Pearsall Smith It is essential when writing fiction to enter the world of your characters. But what if they begin to enter yours? The first time this happened was with Guillermo Garcia, Jude’s sculpture teacher in I’ll Give You the Sun. Guillermo is a tall, imposing... Read more

I’m one of those mums who don’t like a fuss on Mother’s Day. An extra hour in bed, a full ‘Irish’ breakfast, no squabbling children in my immediate vicinity, and I’m content. Being a mother is relentless, and all I ask for is a small reduction in pace. Yup, that’s all I want on Mother’s Day (but if there are chocolates and presents on offer too, well, I’m not going to say no!) I am the CEO of o... Read more

Judging a literary prize is the one thing that no algorithm, no matter how sophisticated, can do. It is an intensely human and subjective endeavour. Now that the winner of this year’s Stella prize has been announced, I can say with complete honesty that this was the hardest prize I have ever judged: partly because of the sheer volume of books that we five judges had to read, in a relatively tig... Read more

Jimmy B Prince, author of the For Dummies Guide to Tax for Australians, shares his 5 best tips for a stress free tax period... Read more

‘Can you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be?’ That’s a quote by Danielle LaPorte and it’s one of my favourites. You know why? Because it resonates with me. There are times I think as women (and possibly men too, but since I’m not one, I can’t judge!) that our true selves get lost. Not intentionally. But we become busy being ‘someone’s daughter, someone’s girlfrien... Read more

I wrote All the Bright Places the summer of 2013, following the death of my literary agent. The last time I saw him, I was nearing the end of a series of books I’d begun writing in 2008 and was feeling depleted. He told me, “Whatever you write next, write it with all your heart. Write it because you can’t imagine writing anything else.” Years ago, I knew and loved a boy, and that boy was bipola... Read more

Peter Sheridan is a man possessed by a peculiar but persistent affection for bakelite – the world’s first synthetic plastic. To some, this material may appear unlovely and charmless, but to Sheridan it is the stuff of poetry. As a result, he has become one of the world’s foremost collectors of objects made from this versatile and resilient man-made resin. A genial enthusiast, the curator ... Read more

When I first sat down to chronicle the past two decades of our lives creating our garden at Wychwood, it never occurred to me that the actual routine of writing would weigh more heavily on my mind than the words themselves. I’ve never been short of words. More often than not I am the person who fills awkward silences with an excess of them for fear of losing the company of the person next to me... Read more