Kimberley Sun

This is the second book by Di Morrissey set in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The first was Tears of the Moon and her most recent book is The Red Coast. Kimberley Sun is a continuation of the story that began in Tears of the Moon with Lily Barton deciding to spend more and more time in Broome. Lily hopes that her daughter, Sami, will also come to love Broome and want to learn more about her family ties with this remote area of Australia.

Sami does travel to the Kimberley as part of the research for her university studies. In this book we learn about Sami and her friends in the outback and also about Lily's new endeavour to become involved in the pearling industry. A subplot of the book revolves around the discovery of an old artwork which may be linked with robberies and assaults in the town and also a murder. Art is a theme throughout many sections of the book. The story is also about relationships, gaining confidence in abilities and learning to trust decisions and also trust other people.

Once again the setting of Broome and the surrounding area is a feature of this book which I enjoyed reading just as much the second time as I did the first time.

Ireland and the First World War

A photographic history compiled by Cormac O Comhrai. The experience of Irish involvement in World War I was further complicated by the increased drive for the country to become a republic, particularly the Easter Rising of 1916. The photographs and pictorial newspaper items and posters are used to portray this conflicted period of Irish history. Many joined the British Army while others took the opportunity to fight for their cause at home. Sections of the book include Ireland before the war, the outbreak of war, a soldier's life, impact of the war domestically, towards victory and aftermath.

Many books have been written about this period of Irish history and in 2016 I listed some of these books in another post, Ireland - Easter Rising 1916. For anyone interested in reading more about this topic, Ireland and the First World War, would be a good book to provide an introduction to the subject.

Tears of the Moon

Di Morrissey wrote Tears of the Moon in 1995, the first of three books set in the Kimberley. The star of the novel is Broome and surrounding area. In 2012 we visited the Kimberley, particularly Broome and then north to Cape Leveque. As soon as we returned I borrowed a copy of Tears of the Moon, from the library and loved reading it. After recently reading The Red Coast I decided to read this book again and enjoyed it just as much as the first time.

There are two time frames in the book, 1995, when Lily decides to investigate her family history, particularly attempting to locote information about her mother, Georgiana's, family. This leads her to Broome where she discovers family information in diaries and exhibits held at the historical society. The diaries commence in 1893 and continue to 1953.

The diaries tell the story of Olivia Hennessy who travels from Englnd to the area south of Brrome with her husband, Conrad, to start a new life. Life in the outback is much tougher than they expected and eventually they move to Broome, after meeting Captain John Tyndall, to become involved in the pearling industry.

This novel is largely a love story but part of the book also deals with how people adapt to life living in an isolated community. Olivia's story describes the impact of two world wars as well as the 1930s depression on Broome's pearling industry . The dangers of the industryfeature as well as the success stories which can occur in this mutli-racial and multi-cultural community. Race relations including the interaction of the lives of aboriginal communities with the white and Asian communities who also make Broome home form an imprtant thread of the book.

Read on a number of levels Tears of the Moon is an Australian book well worth reading.

Tears of the moon

In 1999 Nora Roberts wrote the first book in the Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy - Jewels of the Sun. This was followed by Tears of the Moon and Heart of the Sea. I came across Tears of the Moon by accident as I was really looking for a book with the same title by Di Morrissey. Having reserved the Nora Roberts title in error I decided to read it anyway, even though I am not really a fan of Romance novels.

The books are set in Ireland and throughout the three volumes runs the story of a Faerie Prince who has waited three hundred years to remove a curse preventing him from being with the woman he loved. Each of the volumes centres on a member of the Gallagher family as they choose life partners.The main characters are aware of this local story as well as of the ghost who inhabits a cottage owned by the family.

In Tears of the Moon the main characters are musician and co-owner of Gallaghers' pub, Shaun Gallagher, and Brenna O'Toole, a childhood friend who runs a business with her father building and repairing buildings and cars. The story revolves around the development of this unlikely relationship as the characteres eventually realise what they really want from life, often via intervention from the fantasy thread of the story. I would not rule out eventually reading the other volumes in the series - one day.

The Diary of a Bookseller

Shaun Bythell purchased The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland, in November 2001. From February 2014 the author decided to keep a diary for the year about life working in a second-hand bookshop. At the beginning of each month Shaun Bythell includes a line or paragraph from Bookshop Memories written by George Orwell in 1936. He then elaborates on Orwell's comments relating them to experiences in The Bookshop.

Shaun Bythell comments (makes observations) about his staff, customers, people wanting to get rid of book collections and Kindle which he dislikes intensely. Throughout the book there are interesting observations about the current state of publishing, viability of bookshops such as his and the inroads being made via the digitisation of books. He is definitely not impressed with people who spend time in the shop examining his stock then leave without purchasing any items. He is well aware that they are going to look for a similar item online. On one occasion he also make an 'observation' about librarians.

Wigtown is renowned for its bookshops. Currently there are 14 bookshops in this small town and the owners work together as the Association of Wigtown Booksellers.  The Wigtown Book Festival is held in September each year and Shaun Bythell describes his involvement in this annual event.The Wigtown Spring Festival is also held in May. Having just read the novel, The Red Coast, where many of the characters are involved in organising the Broom Literary Festival, it was interesting to read about the work involved in organising an actual book festival.

The author is not always polite about some of the characters who enter the shop but he defends himself by saying that he is just 'making observations'. Many of the observations are amusing and this work does provide a description of the state of the book trade today. For those interested in physical books, this work is well worth reading.

Bookshop Memories in Collected Essays volume 3 by George Orwell (Adelaide University ebooks).
[Librarians will recognise and sympathise with some of Orwell's observations.]

Wigtown Book Town

The Bookshop also has a page on Facebook

The Red Coast

In August 2006 we spent time in Broome, Cape Leveque as well as Lake Argyle and surrounding areas. We returned to Melbourne knowing that the Kimberley region of Western Australia is a special place.

This is the third book set in the Kimberley by Di Morrissey. The other two are Tears of the Moon (1995) and Kimberley Sun (2002). When I saw that a third book set in the Kimberley was published last year I just had to read it. I was not disappointed.

Jacqui Bouchard owns the bookshop in Broome, Red Coast Books. Although she has only lived in Broome for a few years she has made many good friends and has become part of the community. She also loves Broome and the surrounding region. Jacqui is an organiser of the Broome Literary Festival and much of her time and energy, along with the efforts of other committee members, is devoted to seeing that the festival is a success including ordering extra copies of books to be sold at the event.

When Jacqui's son, Jean Luc, visits her from France for his annual school holidays in Australia, Jacqui's friends help entertain Jean Luc and introduce him to Australian life and culture, including indigenous culture. Meanwhile Jacqui meets Cameron, a childhood friend who is secretive about why he has appeared in the region, and Damien, who is shooting a documentary film about the area.

The calm of living in Broome is broken when it is discovered that an off shore gas mining project is planned 60 km from the town. This creates division among friends and family as some support the project as it may provide economic opportunities while others are concerned about damage to the land, including indigenous sacred sites.

Di Morrissey obviously has enjoyed visiting this special part of Australia and in her novel weaves a story of love for country as well as love of individuals. Jacqui faces many dilemmas as the story unfolds as she tries to understand how she really wants her life to be.

A book worth reading. I am now going to reread the other two books by Di Morissey relating to Broome.

NB: A Google search produces links to a number of articles relating to offshore gas mining in the region near Broome. Two are listed below:

Broome and the gas hub - a town divided

Proposed Kimberley offshore gas base could 'gut' Broome economy

Nine lessons

Nicola Upton includes real people as characters and places in her books. The author, Josephine Tey, regularly is a key character while in this novel the memory of M R James, Provost of Kings College, Cambridge, in 1913, and writer of ghost stories, also features.

In November 1937, Detective Chief Inspector Archie Penrose, from Scotland Yard, found himself in Cambridge investigating the deaths of members of the Kings College Choir who had performed in the 1913 Lessons and Carols Service.What is the connection between the men who are brutally killed and is there a link with the stories told by M R James? At the same time police in Cambridge investigate a series of rapes occurring in the city.

Although the investigation and resolution of the crimes plays a major part of the novel, the author is also concerned with the impact of crime on the victims and the families of victims. The author also uses the Armistice Day commemoration to illustrate the divisions within the community regarding war. For some, fears grow that there is about to be another war, while for many, issues from World War I have not been fully resolved. The relationships between Josephine, Marta, Archie and Bridget continue to  feature throughout the novel.

Like the other books in this series, Nine Lessons is a thought provoking, well written crime novel that is difficult to put down once you start reading it.

The University of Adelaide has made available free digital copies of books by Josephine Tey as well as ghost stories of M R James.