Writing Portfolio
I write in a number of different formats, including short fiction, historical fiction novel-length pieces, as well as non-fiction essays and book reviews. Some are linked below.
More book reviews can be found here.
For progress on my historical crime fiction novel (a work-in-progress) and research articles associated with it, please read my blog or keep to date with my latest news.
Links to my previous work as a features writer are also available.
Short Fiction
Winner of the Historical Novel Society of Australasia’s 2019 Short Story Contest
Set in Parramatta’s Female Factory, the story explores the plight of female convicts in the early colony of New South Wales.
Specifically, it takes place in October 1827, centred around a riot at the factory which saw a number of female prisoners break out and escape into the streets of Parramatta, searching for food and supplies. But what were the consequences for the women involved?
Book Review
The Shape of Water
by Anne Blythe-Cooper
Reviewed for lip magazine
The historical record is loud on the life of Peter Degraves, pioneer of Van Diemen’s Land – now Tasmania. Probably his most remembered achievement is the Cascades Brewery.
But this novel is the story of his wife, Sophia Degraves, colonial wife and mother. The book’s title itself is suggestive of the elusiveness of Sophia’s life. History struggles to identify who she was, her thoughts and battles, her hopes and disappointments, much like attempting to capture the shape of water.
Book Review
The Secret Chord
by Geraldine Brooks
Reviewed for lip magazine
A review of an intriguing piece of historical fiction. Brooks’ novel imagines the life of the biblical figure, King David.
King David’s story of rags to riches to divine punishment as a result of an abuse of power is a compelling one in itself. But when told with Brooks’ beautifully crafted sentences and original approach to a three thousand year-old story, the result is an extraordinary exploration of timeless themes and motifs.
Book Review
Painting in the Shadows
by Katherine Kovacic
Reviewed for Sisters in Crime Australia
This second instalment in the amateur sleuthing career of art dealer Alex Clayton is an intriguing and highly enjoyable mystery. Alex and her art conservator best friend—and sidekick in solving crimes—John Porter, are working at the fictitious MIMA (Melbourne International Museum of Art). They are called in after the death of the museum’s chief conservator, Meredith Buchanan, whilst repairing a supposedly cursed painting.
Historical Research Article
Published by the Royal Australian Historical Society
Convict Love Tokens
This article was part of a series entitled ‘The Convict Experience: Love, Life and Liberty Beyond the Chains’, examining different types of primary evidence historians can use to hear convict voices telling their own stories.
Movingly known as ‘leaden hearts’[1] and ‘likened to portable graffiti’[2], convict love tokens have been described as ‘a unique chance to see the convicts as they saw themselves, with their hearts on their sleeves’[3].
Historical Research Article
Published by the Royal Australian Historical Society
Convict Tattoos
Literacy levels amongst transported prisoners were not as low as often assumed—many were actually quite educated and, as a result, considered even more dangerous by colonial authorities than those who were illiterate. But, while written records would be helpful, many convicts left none. So does evidence exist for us hear about individual convict’s hopes for a future, links to the past, their hearts missing another, and their passive—but dogged—defiance of authority?
Convict tattoos and markings go some way to providing a whisper of these.
Book Review
One Life: My Mother’s Story
by Kate Grenville
Reviewed for lip magazine
In One Life: My Mother’s Story, bestselling author Kate Grenville paints a sensitive and, at times, painful picture of her own mother, Nance Russell. Leading from Nance’s fragments of a memoir, the work is more than just a recount of one woman’s struggle against the conventions of twentieth century Australia. Throughout the layers of Grenville’s book we discover the story of a woman whose life was influenced significantly by the relationships she had with those around her.
Book Review
Second Half First: A Memoir
by Drusilla Modjeska
Reviewed for lip magazine
Writing a memoir is a monumental task. And I write that as someone who has never attempted to do so. Consolidating decades of one’s life into a work small enough to be held in one hand seems titanic, especially given the complexity of its primary source: memory. The subtle art of memoir has been beautifully handled by Australian writer Drusilla Modjeska in her own endeavour, entitled Second Half First.
Feature Article
Death in July – the festival of women’s crime writing (2014)
Women’s crime writing has come a long way, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing. Like walking in high heels, there have been moments of comfort and ease, a stumble here and there and the odd blister.
But central to the ongoing success of female crime authors is the support of fellow writers, providing an arm to lean on to prevent those stumbles when a stiletto heel gives way.
An opportunity to experience this support and celebrate women’s crime writing is The Death in July Festival of Women’s Crime Writing.