Sara McDonald The hand of friendship can span a thousand miles…
Pakistan Among the almond orchards of the Swat Valley, Zamir tends goats with his son, Raza. He must make a heartbreaking decision if he is to protect his youngest child from the Taliban.
Afghanistan On a military base in Lashkar Gah, Ben lives on edge, wondering if his family will be the next to receive life-changing news from the front line.
Cornwall And in a ramshackle house on the Cornish coast, Ben’s mother Delphi, an artist, offers a refuge to her grandson Finn, as he retreats from the changes he senses in his family.
When Raza and Finn, two boys from impossibly different worlds, meet, they are united by their loneliness. But will their unexpected bond be enough to save not just each other, but also their families, just as all their lives are about to change forever?
Andrew Moreton In this entertaining and insightful biography of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, award-winning writer Andrew Morton, author of Diana, Her True Story, takes you behind the scenes to uncover the woman and her world. For years she prayed for her mother to give birth to a son. She longed to be spared her destiny as Britain’s future Queen. Her dream was to live in the country surrounded by children, dogs and horses.
But Elizabeth did her duty, the young princess pledging before her people that she would dedicate her whole life to the service of Britain and the Commonwealth. She hoped that that day would be a long way off. It was not to be. Only twenty-five when she became Queen after the premature death of her father, King George Vl, Elizabeth has become the stuff of superlatives: the longest reigning, most travelled and, for a shy woman, the Queen who has shaken more hands and made more small talk than any other monarch in history. She has been seen and believed by millions, either in person, on television or film.
Elizabeth was set firmly on the road to becoming sovereign because of the D word – divorce. In 1936, her uncle David, King Edward VIII, wanted to marry a twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson. When he couldn’t he abdicated. Since that national trauma, divorce and the fall-out from divorce has shaped her reign. She has witnessed her sister Margaret, three of her children and several grandchildren divorce. And she has lived long enough to see the wheel turn full circle, watching as another American divorcee, Meghan Markle, walked down the aisle with her grandson Prince Harry.
While her reign has been defined by divorce, her private life has been moulded by an irascible husband, an extravagant mother and a querulous eldest son. In the winter of her reign she refereed a war between two of her grandsons, brothers William and Harry who were once inseparable friends. As she celebrates her platinum anniversary, the first monarch to reign for seventy years, she has, during a once in a lifetime pandemic, become the reassuring face of hope and optimism, the grandmother to the nation.
Shelly Gare A charming story of a young woman who faces challenges and finds joy teaching in outback schools. The year is 1956. Sally Gare is twenty. She’s just out of teachers’ college, and has been sent to work at a two-teacher school more than 3000 kilometres from Perth. With the head teacher away, she starts out alone with a class of forty-five Aboriginal children, ranging in age from five years to thirteen. Thus begins the career of a remarkable teacher and a life-changing adventure in remote Australia.
Outback Teacher is the story of the challenges and delights of teaching in outback schools in the 1950s and 1960s. Sally’s interaction with her students and the local Aboriginal communities is affectionate and heart-warming, although it isn’t without its misunderstandings. But the tensions aren’t just confined to the school and the local community. Some of the characters with whom Sally shares her less than comfortable housing are as eccentric and as curiously interesting as any escapee to the outback.
Full of warmth, humour and kindness, this generous book reminds us how bush people have always found their own solutions to the problems isolation throws at them. But most importantly, and in the most personal way, it confirms how inspiring and passionate teachers can change lives.
Melody Horrill The compelling, heart-warming story of how a traumatised young woman found peace through her friendship with an injured dolphin called Jock. When Melody Horrill arrived as a student at the University of South Australia she was a troubled and lost young woman, hiding behind a carefully crafted exterior. She had experienced a childhood of emotional and physical trauma mainly at the hands of her violent father that was as damaging as it was brutal.
One day Melody volunteered to help her university lecturer monitor pods of river dolphins that lived in the waters of Port Adelaide. There for the first time she encountered Jock, a solitary dolphin with a maimed fin, who lived apart from the highly social pods. Melody was to form a bond with Jock that gave her the key to freeing herself from the demons of her own past, and their extraordinary friendship was the start of a long-term mission to try to save the river dolphins.
Beautifully written and filled with insight and compassion, Melody’s memoir details her life-changing relationship with the river dolphins, and how Jock helped her to heal.
Frank Chalmers A town ruled by fear. A cop who won’t be broken. A pulse-pounding debut thriller that pulls no punches.
A STUNNING NEW VOICE IN CRIME FICTION
Queensland in 1976 churns with corruption. When Detective Ray Windsor defies it, he is exiled deep into the state’s west. It’s easy out there to feel alien in your own country.
Royalton is a town on its knees, stricken by drought, riven by prejudice, and plagued by crimes left largely uninvestigated by the local police chief, Kennedy, and his elusive boss.
Mutual dislike between Kennedy and Ray gradually turns ugly as Ray and his new partner, Arshag, uncover a pattern of crimes that no one seems concerned about solving. But when two girls from local immigrant families are found dead and another disappears, Ray and Arshag are forced to take the law into their own hands. Not knowing who to trust, nor how deep the corruption runs, how long will it be before their lives are also threatened?
A spare and uncompromising crime thriller that pulls no punches.
Steven Gray When Walter Watters—aka “Wattie”—finds out that the hiding place of gold from a major robbery is known to another, he’s instantly on the trail. As the sheriff of a small town, he knows that he has to uphold the law. But the two million dollars in solid gold is a tempting sum.
Soon he has to go into an area known as The Wilderness, riding through the monsoon with his companions to where their prize awaits. But can he trust them? Worse than that, he is being tracked by a ruthless ex-convict called Kurzwell, who was one of the original robbers. Now it is a race against time by both groups of men. Only one group can win the prize, but only one has a ruthless killer at their helm. With time and weather against them, Wattie and his companions face death far from home in a desperate struggle against man and nature.
Alex Frew When Walter Watters—aka “Wattie”—finds out that the hiding place of gold from a major robbery is known to another, he’s instantly on the trail. As the sheriff of a small town, he knows that he has to uphold the law. But the two million dollars in solid gold is a tempting sum.
Soon he has to go into an area known as The Wilderness, riding through the monsoon with his companions to where their prize awaits. But can he trust them? Worse than that, he is being tracked by a ruthless ex-convict called Kurzwell, who was one of the original robbers. Now it is a race against time by both groups of men. Only one group can win the prize, but only one has a ruthless killer at their helm. With time and weather against them, Wattie and his companions face death far from home in a desperate struggle against man and nature.
Frank Ellis Evans Marshal Reuben Kane is charged with finding the men who have spread terror and violence in an unprecedented bank robbing spree. It’s a routine, albeit dangerous, assignment. Routine, that is, until Reuben discovers Sal McIntyre, badly beaten and left to die by the men he is hunting.
Near to her is the body of her murdered husband. Reuben postpones his search in order to nurse the woman back to health, but from the moment she regains consciousness, vengeance is the only thing on her mind. Sal’s hatred is all-consuming and, against his better judgement, Reuben finds himself drawn into her ill-conceived plot to kill the men who murdered her husband. Reuben sets out to bring them to justice. But Sal McIntyre wants revenge—at any cost.
When his daughter Samantha calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it’s not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days.
Rebus fears the worst – and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect.
He wasn’t the best father – the job always came first – but now his daughter needs him more than ever. But is he going as a father or a detective?
As he leaves at dawn to drive to the windswept coast – and a small town with big secrets – he wonders whether this might be the first time in his life where the truth is the one thing he doesn’t want to find…
Evelyn Orange Arasay – remote Scottish island, wildlife haven, and home to Jenna’s ancestors. When she arrives to help out her great aunt in the bookshop, she’s running from her past and hiding from the world. What she isn’t expecting is to meet an attractive wildlife photographer even before she sets foot on the island.
But Jake too is using Arasay to escape from previous trauma. As Jenna embraces island life and becomes closer to Jake and his family, there are secrets lurking in the mists that could threaten their future happiness.
