A European Travelblog – on the story trail
The view above is of the Danube Valley as seen from the exquisite Benedictine abbey at Melk, Austria. The abbey’s roots go back to the eleventh century. I visited the abbey as part of my tour of the autumn-coloured villages of Europe. It was a dual mission –...
New Release
I’m happy to say that I am starting 2025 with the fresh release of A Hospital in the Clouds – second edition. The novel takes place in the 1920s in Cairns, Far North Australia, and was inspired by two women, one of whom is remembered by her crime, but...
THE WEIGHT OF SECRETS
The attraction of the theme of secrecy in a novel perhaps is not just to do with the drama of whether it will be discovered, but more about how it is borne by the character.
Suffragettes and other Rabble-rousers
Emma Miller, suffragist and trade-union organiser, lived in Queensland, Australia, during the time set in my forthcoming novel, A Hospital in the Clouds. My story was inspired by women such as Miller and she is one of the best remembered suffragists of the early...
A Hospital in the Clouds
Reinventing herself as a nurse in the tropical frontier of Australia, healing her soldier-lover, raising her unruly daughter – these are just a few of the challenges Anna Sinclair, a young suffragette, faces whilst on the run from the law back in Scotland.
As she struggles to establish her own hospital, her past draws closer and risks exposure of her shameful secret, along with the loss of everything she holds dearest.