Adult Fiction
A Terrible Paradise
The Pines Hold their Secrets
I found a voice for fiction on Norfolk Island where brutality turned a spectacularly beautiful patch of land surrounded by ocean into a hell on earth. The characters came rushing to be included in the story, commandants free to exercise their sadistic pleasure far from the eyes of the authorities, hardened criminals and convicts, mainly from Ireland who had stolen to survive the potato famine, along with a handful of wives and children of officers stationed in the settlement. The incomplete diary of a young woman who died on the island was the catalyst for The Pines Hold their Secrets. Part love story, part commentary about man’s cruelty to man and the heroism of a handful of decent men prepared to risk their lives to save the innocent. It was published by Indra Publishing in 1998
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Bridgid
Imagine finding the ghost of your great-great aunt sitting beside you on a plane carrying you to Ireland, the land of her birth. Her name was Brigid and she’d been a famine orphan, one of thousands of girls shipped to the Australian colonies from the workhouses of Ireland during the potato famine. She was sharp-tongued like my Aunt Kate, and it soon became apparent that she had unfinished business for which she expected my help. In return, she allowed me to delve deeply into what life for my ancestors had been during the potato famine. It was published by Indra Publishing in 1999.
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The Liberator's Birthday
By 1999, I was back in Ballarat with permission to present my PhD dissertation as an exegesis and a novel, which I called the Liberator’s Birthday because it was set in a pub on the centenary of the birth of Daniel O’Connell. Not that it had much to do with the Irish politician, but the date was significant because it allowed me to demonstrate that my Irish ancestors were still under the yoke of oppression, firstly the British Government, who had made life unbearable for them in Ireland, and then under the Catholic Church in Victoria, which demanded obedience to their draconian rule. It was published by Indra Publishing in 2002
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