Clunes Booktown Festival

Once again I headed over to Clunes for this years Booktown Festival. It is always held on the first weekend in May and this year was once again brilliant. On the Saturday I headed over by myself (bliss). I looked at books, at some yummy food and heard a great range of speakers (notes below).

On the Sunday I went over with the family for a few hours. This involved Master 4 having his face painted like Spiderman, a visit to the lolly shop, a horse and carriage ride and a trip down the rabbit hole into Alice in Wonderland where we had stories, singing and dancing. There was also the hay bale maze which the kids loved.  It is such a fabulous event and the fact that it's less than 20 minutes from my door is great :)

Collaboration - Gary Crew & Ross Watkins (illustrator)

RW. As illustrator don't want to disappoint.
RW. Mixed digital media. Had to strip back to basics as ideas overwhelmed
GC. In awe of illustrators.
GC. Sometimes words change as illustrations come forth but not this book.
Collaboration extends to publisher, audience etc.

Everyones a Critic - Peter Rose (ABR) & Kerryn Goldsworthy

Pay for book reviews hasn't increased in 15 years (except at ABR)
Can no longer do as a full time job
Declining. Some papers share the same content
Internet now prolific
Blog - ANZ lit lovers
Many writers are also critics
Constraints with published reviews - ie. word counts

Kate Grenville

Secret River began with phrase "he took up land" and it went from there.
Her non-fiction research became fiction to fill the gaps
Glance on Sydney Harbour with indigenous lady that triggered memory
22 drafts before editor saw it
Lots of research in library first (yah for libraries)
Fascinating research that goes behind all the books
Praised archivists
Excellent speaker

Monday night bookgroup: Sarah Thornhill

Summary: This is the story of the youngest child of the family at the heart of The Secret River. Although this is a sequel to the earlier book, you don’t need to have read The Secret River to enjoy Sarah Thornhill – this is a stand-alone novel.  Sarah is born in 1816, her father an ex-convict who’s made good in the new colony of Australia. Three hundred acres, a fine stone house, the money rolling in – William Thornhill is a man who’s re-invented himself. As he tells his daughter, he never looks back, and Sarah grows up learning not to ask about the past.

Her stepmother calls her wilful, but handsome Jack Langland loves Sarah and she loves him. Me and Jack, she thinks, what could go wrong? But there’s a secret in the Thornhill family. It comes out, as secrets will, and draws everything into its tangles. It casts a long chill shadow over life in the Hawkesbury valley.

That secret propels Sarah backwards, into the darkness of her family’s past. And it propels her forwards, into a future very different from the one she’d imagined for herself. She travels across the ocean to the wild coasts of New Zealand, and among the strangers of that other place she sees the way things truly are.

What I thought: This was great. Not quite as good as The Secret River but much better than The Lieutenant.

Monday Night Bookgroup: The Lieutenant

Summary: Daniel Rooke, soldier and astronomer, was always an outsider. As a young lieutenant of marines he arrives in New South Wales on the First Fleet in 1788, and sees his chance. He sets up his observatory away from the main camp, and begins the scientific work that he hopes will make him famous. Aboriginal people soon start to visit his isolated promontory, and a child named Tagaran begins to teach him her language. With meticulous care he records their conversations.An extraordinary friendship forms, and Rooke has almost forgotten he is a soldier when a man is fatally wounded in the infant colony. The lieutenant faces a decision that will define not only who he is but the course of his entire life.

What I thought: I did enjoy this but not as much as The Secret River. I thought it was a bit slower. Still good though.