In This Issue (April 2007)
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Table of contents
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Letters to the editor
Letter from the editor
Hard to believe, but it’s Mothers Day (or Mothering Sunday, as it used to be called) next month, so our hardworking advertising sales manager, Beth Parton, has put together a wonderful gift guide that’s sure to help you find something for your mum. Beth’s guide begins on page 10. And as so many women enjoy crafts, particularly needlecrafts, we asked Gill Souter to give us the lowdown on craft books. Her article begins on page 18, and contains a simple but attractive cross stitch project – appropriately enough, a bookmark. Jim Crace is one of those authors whose books are given admiring attention in the press, yet whose name is scarcely known outside his native Britain. Ben Naparstek spoke to him about his new novel, The Pesthouse, which is about to be released here. Let’s hope Ben’s profile, which begins on page 14, helps bring a wider audience to a writer who, according to Ben, ‘intoxicates the reader with his simple, rhythmic prose’.
I was delighted to interview our glamorous cover girl this month, Gabrielle Lord, because I’ve been a fan of her books since discovering them when I arrived in Australia. They’re gritty but also warm and human – and they’re fiendishly cleverly plotted, too. Her latest book, Shattered, is the fourth to star PI Gemma Lincoln, last seen in Spiking the Girl. My conversation with Gabrielle Lord begins on page 22.
Many of you, I know, will belong to one of Australia’s literary societies. The current president of the Jane Austen Society, Susannah Fullerton, introduces gr readers to a whole raft of societies that celebrate the life and work of authors whose writing continues to speak to us down the ages – Dickens, Kipling, GK Chesterton and the like. Take a look at her article on page 24 and see if there’s a branch of a society near you that takes your fancy.
As I can’t climb above the third rung of a ladder without feeling sick, I am constantly awed by the courage and hoyl of those who climb mountains. Our coffee table book this month (see page 48) salutes those who don’t let fear get in the way of facing challenges.
Something we’re all really excited about this month is the first of what we hope will be many extracts from 'the diary of an occasionally exasperated but ever hopeful reader': the one and only Nick Hornby. Read Nick’s review of a Victorian classic, Father and Son by Edmund Gosse, on page 53.
Finally – apart, of course, from our usual smorgasbord of reviews of books in all genres – you’ll find the second and final part of the spooky ghost story The Monkey’s Paw on page 50.
Happy reading!
If your letter is published, you will receive a MightyBright XtraFlex 2 LED Booklight vakued at $26.95! The wonderfully useful and stylish booklight has 2 LED lights on one head on a flexible arm. The manufaturer Arnott's of Australia (who's tagline is 'Not the biscuit co'), says the globes will never need replacing. |
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