The Circle of Days

Once again Ken Follett tackles a family saga set in ancient times. This time it is the rebuilding of part of Stonehenge [the Monument] in 2500 BCE. Several communities live close to each other in the valley, plains and nearby woods. A group of priestesses operates at the monument, conducting services which allow for the understanding of the seasons and time in general. Few people can count but the priestesses have devised a system for recording the weeks, months and seasons as the sun rises and set throughout the year. The biggest festival is midsummer.

The monument where the services are held is partly stone with an inner circle made of wood. When some of the locals wreck the wooden structure, it is suggested that the large stones from the quarry should be transported to the monument to replace the wooden structure. It is many years before this plan can be eventually undertaken, especially as some of the male members of local communities do not like the priestesses taking a key role in the endeavour.

The Circle of Stones by Ken Follett Provides an insight into what life may have been like living in the farming, herder, wood-lander and mining communities of the time. Life is made more difficult during years of drought and other natural disasters. For some of the leaders force is the only way to gain ascendancy over other groups and this can lead to tragic results. Meanwhile Joia and her followers are determined to complete their mission.

Pix: the magazine that told Australia's story

In the 1950s and 1960s I can remember my father sometimes bringing home copies of the magazine Pix. I often enjoyed flipping through the pages to look at the wide variety of photographs. I therefore borrowed a copy of this book from the library as soon as the book was published.

Pix: the magazine that told Australia's story is a large book containing full scale photographs as they would have appeared in the magazine. The State Library of New South Wales has digitised many of the images (available on Trove) and recently held an exhibition showing a selection of the photos that portray everyday Australia in the past.

The first edition of Pix was  published in January 1938 and publication of the magazine continued until 1972. The book contains short essays on the publication of the magazine and making the exhibition but it is the images themselves that are the main feature of the book. Exploring the large sample of black and white images in this book is a great way of exploring life in part of the twentieth century.

Wild Dark Shore

The Salt family are caretakers of a small island, Shearwater, near Antarctica. Everyone else has left. The island is particularly important as it houses the world's largest seed bank. A ship is due shortly to remove the seeds from the island to deposit safely at another location. However a severe storm is threatening to destroy the island and only a selection of the seeds can be saved in time. Then a woman's body washes up on the beach. She is still alive but the Salt family wonder why she has come to this island in the middle of nowhere.

It is obvious that something sinister has happened on the island and secrets are being kept, but the new arrival has secrets of her own. As the storm makes life on the island more dangerous the island occupants must decide if they can trust each other. Is it possible for them to make changes in their lives?

However the fate of the environment is the main theme of the book as the effects of global warming impact severely on the island.

Wild Dark Shores  by Charlotte McConaghy is a tension driven novel as the extent of the danger to the island inhabitants becomes apparent and the island occupants must determine their future plans.

Wild Dark Shore won the 2025 Dymocks Book of The Year.

Last One Out

A new novel by Australian author, Jane Harper, is always something to look forward to. Last One Out is set in a New South Wales town that is rapidly being destroyed by a nearby coal mine. Many of the residents have sold their properties to the mining company and have moved elsewhere. But some are determined to remain. There is resentment from some of the remaining residents to those who have left the town. There is also resentment to the constant noise of the mining machinery and the dust that settles everywhere.

Each year Ro Crowley returns to the town to commemorate with family and friends the memory of her son, Sam, who disappeared on his twenty-first birthday, five years previously.  There are some clues to where he went prior to his disappearance but no-one appears to know where or why he is gone. Sam's father, Griff, still lives in the town but he is about to lose his job and has to decide what to do next. Sam's sister, Della also comes to the town to support her parents. A friend of Griff had committed suicide several years before Sam's disappearance. This therefore is not a happy time for the family or for the community.

However Ro feels that this year she may finally learn the answers regarding the disappearance of her son.

Last One Out is primarily a novel about family and community relationships that develop over time in an outback town. Like Jane Harper's other novels the environment is important. This novel is a study of how people cope with challenges in an outback community under threat. It is also a study of how people cope in times of difficulty plus the determination to discover the truth.

 As Ro investigates, a former friend of Sam makes this statement when talking to community members - 'When Sam asked me why I was still here, it was a bloody good question, and it's one maybe we could all do with making ourselves. ... And to honest about it. Because there's no prize for being the last one out.' (p 308).

King and Outlaw: the real Robert the Bruce

In the 1950s a cousin of my grandmother had a genealogist in the UK investigate the story that our family, like thousands of others, had a direct link to Robert the Bruce. The story was confirmed. Many years later I decided to check the theory for myself and discovered not only family links to Scottish royalty but also to English royalty in our family tree. These discoveries make reading British history more interesting.

In King and Outlaw the author, Chris Brown, has set out to provide an account as to who Robert the Bruce - King Robert I of Scotland - really was as a person, a leader and outlaw. The main chapters are A Man Who would be King, King Robert's War and King Robert's Scotland. There is also a useful list of the people who appear in the book, a timeline, a glossary and maps of Bannockburn.

The author has used the limited available resources from medieval times to provide this historical account of troubled times within Scotland as well as between Scotland and England. At the back of the book Chris Brown dispels some of the myths about Robert the Bruce. The chapter on King Robert's Scotland provides useful information as to how most Scottish people lived their lives while instability was occurring around them.

King and Outlaw is a readable account of this important period in Scottish history as well as an account of the life of a man who was determined to claim the throne that had belonged to his ancestors.

Five Found Dead

Agatha Christie wrote her crime novel, Murder on the Orient Express in 1934. The book has become a classic and the story has been made into films and television shows. Many authors have also used ideas from the book as a basis for their work. One recent example is Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Australian author Benjamin Stevenson. Another Australian author, Sulari Gentill has written a new book, Five Found Dead, which involves a journey on the famous train, the Orient Express.

Joe Penvale and his sister, Meredith, board the Orient Express in Paris for a well earned holiday. Joe, an author of crime fiction, also hopes that the trip will provide inspiration for his second novel. Little do they realise the drama about to unfold.

The first evening is spent meeting some of their fellow travellers but next day they discover that the cabin next to their cabin has become a crime scene. Shortly afterwards COVID cases are discovered in one of the carriages and part of the train is in lockdown. The passengers are not allowed to leave the train and there is a killer on board.

Several of the passengers have been involved with law enforcement and the manager of the train calls them together to try and solve who is behind the mounting deaths occurring on the train. But can all of these experts also be trusted? 

Sulari Gentill has written a humorous who-done-it with a large collection of suspects and many people trying to solve the case. Meanwhile Joe accumulates much source material for his next book. Five Found Dead is an entertaining crime fiction book with plenty of puzzles to solve.

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was first published in London on 19 December 1843. It has become a classic as a book and has also been produced as a play performed before Christmas. There have also been films based on the novel, including The Muppet Christmas Carol and television productions. Other authors have also based books on Dickens' work.

In A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by Marley's Ghost who warns Scrooge that he will be visited by The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present and The Ghost of Christmas Future. When each ghost appears Scrooge is taken to view events from his past, the present and the possible future if he does not change his miserly ways. Through these visits Scrooge learns not only the true message of the Christmas season but how life should be lived.

This novella of eighty-five pages includes a mixture of humor and compassion as Scrooge realises that he has to change his ways in order to live a good life. Two of my grandchildren have shared the reading of this book with me as part of their year seven reading.