
This Issue
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25 Years of Harry Potter!
It’s been 25 years since the publication of J K ROWLING’s novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first book in her critically and commercially acclaimed ‘Harry Potter’ series. In celebration of this anniversary, AKINA HANSEN looks back on its beginnings and legacy.
While sitting on a train travelling from the busy city of Manchester to London King’s Cross in 1990, J K Rowling had the germ of an idea for a novel. ‘The idea for Harry Potter fell ...
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Features

BRYDON COVERDALE, AKA ‘The Shark’, loves pitting his knowledge against contestants on ‘The Chase Australia’. In ...

Former magazine editor PHIL BARKER worked in the Australian magazine industry throughout the heady days of the ...

A round-up of some of the best non-fiction out recently.
HIP HOP & HYMNS Mawunyo Gbogbo • Penguin
Mawunyo Gbogbo ...

Every June, Pride Month celebrates the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community. In celebration, AKINA HANSEN takes a ...

LEE KOFMAN is a highly regarded memoirist, novelist, editor, and writing coach. Her latest book, The Writer Laid ...

FIONA MCCALLUM is a celebrated Australian author who was raised on a cereal and wool farm in South Australia and ...

MATTHEW SPENCER is a former journalist and editor of The Australian newspaper. His debut novel, Black River is a ...

CATHRINE MAHONEY is a writer, podcaster and publicist. In her book Currently Between Husbands she details the ...

ELEANOR LIMPRECHT is the author of The Passengers, Long Bay and What Was Left. Her latest novel, The Coast is ...
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Reviews

The title refers to a string which Dorcas’ brother, Caleb, threads beads onto. A bead for their mother, father and ...

The Troubles was a terrible time in Northern Ireland when the IRA, mainly Catholic, used violence to end British ...

Camilla has always been the good sister: the one with the stable job, husband, kids and organised approach to ...

It is 1856, San Francisco, a melting pot of cultures, a result of the gold rush of 1849. James ‘Yankee’ Sullivan ...

Well ... who would have thought death and dying could be such fun? Or the afterlife so mundane? Or that haunting ...

This is one of those engaging, all-consuming books that you’ll want to curl up with on a rainy afternoon. Fans of ...

Editor Lanie Bloom is thrilled to receive a provisional promotion as editorial director at Peony Press in New ...

Across the bay from the attraction of flowers-in-your-hair San Francisco, lies the less salubrious city of ...

lf Taylor is a proud Nyoongar man, stolen from his mother and raised on the New Norcia Mission, over 100 ...

French braids … that’s how families work …You think you’re free of them, but you’re never really free; the ripples ...

This novel is based on the real person, Anne Sharp, who had a close relationship with Jane Austen. We meet Anne ...

Many Western cultural institutions are grappling with history’s legacy. Over the centuries, art has been acquired ...

The Furphy Literary Award celebrates ‘Australian Life in all its diversity’. Over 500 entries were received for ...

The divided river in the title appears towards the end of the book and refers to the Río Negro and the Río ...

The one rule that should never be broken for time travel is that you should just observe the past, never change ...

With a secret society of magical academics and a competition that pits ruthlessly ambitious candidates against ...
The tension is palpable. The plot is twisted and claustrophobic. McKinty snatches you early and doesn’t let you ...

St Stephens is an old-style boarding school in Norfolk, where the dorms are spartan and the school prides itself ...

Sulari Gentill, has taken a break from her much-loved ‘Rowland Sinclair’ series to write this stand-alone novel. ...

There is a serial killer on the loose. Three victims in just two weeks. All of them shot with military precision. ...

The novel opens with the discovery of Esther Bianchi’s body. However, it is who is telling the reader of the ...

Natalie is a high achieving workaholic, always striving towards the next goal to be ticked off her list. Younger ...

The Bulgarian freighter, Bogdana, visited Heysham regularly. Detective Constable Harry Bristow was the port’s ...

Just how far would a mother go to protect her children? Sarah Calhoun lives with three kids in Sydney. After ...

Katherine Ryan is an audacious, fiery and hilarious comedian and The Audacity tells her story of how she became ...

Most Australians grew up learning that this country’s wealth from wool was the result of John Macarthur importing ...

Ah, the ‘good old days’ – when everything was always better, because the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia make it ...

Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward have known each other since they were four years old. That friendship would stick ...

The good intentions of For the Good of the World cannot be overstated. Grayling is a philosopher and like any ...

How refreshing it is to find a Buddhist monk who has trouble meditating. Björn Lindeblad is a Swedish ...

When I saw the title of this book my mind jumped to Samuel Beckett’s existentialist tragicomic play of the same ...

Most women at some point will have issues with their bladders, whether that is a urinarytract infection, ...

Proof positive that real life doesn’t wrap stories up with neat bows. If this was a 90s-era romcom, author Aimée ...

Pastry chef and food scientist, Ann Reardon, has been sharing the secrets and tricks behind her culinary creations ...

When Yotam Ottolenghi endorses a book, you know it must be a winner. Eleanor Ford’s The Nutmeg Trail is an ...

The Mediterranean, Middle East and Eastern Europe traditionally undertake nistisima which translates as ‘Lenten’ ...

The Gifts That Bind Us is the sequel to All Our Hidden Gifts, which enriches the first story and provides a much ...

Right from the outset, this novel is totally gripping as we learn that its young hero’s father is about to be ...

Inside all of us there are monsters, right? Okay, maybe only bits of monsters and they are not for real. Imagine ...

I had the pleasure last year of reading We Are Wolves by the same author. Once again, Nannestad has written a ...

I was first attracted to The Calling of Jackdaw Hollow by the cover; a young boy with large brown eyes, ...

Award-winning American author Gary Paulsen, best known for his YA novel Hatchet, sadly died last October so ...

The legend says the Woolington Wyrm likes children – and in Woolington village, many young children mysteriously ...

The Way of Dog is an exquisite verse novel, easy to read, full of wisdom, humour and pathos. Written by the author ...

If that is a big YES, then this is the book for you! We go to one of the most famous grasslands first, the African ...

On the rocky island in the middle of the sea, surrounded by crashing waves, Eva’s Grandad lives in the ...

Like so many other students I was introduced to Shakespeare in my first year in High School. Yes, I had read ...

Alfie was a fine-looking dog, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, the son of a champion mother and father. His coat was ...
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