Journal

I was thrilled to be long-listed for the ARA Historical Novel Prize, with such a fantastic collection of authors. 

I have a new short story in the Saturday Paper this weekend (3rd August 2024). It’s called ‘Freedom’ and it’s about an encounter Kitty Oppenheimer has with a spy. I came across Kitty when I was researching  my novel To Sing of War. The novel braids stories from New Guinea, the US (New Mexico), and…

Recently a reader wrote to me through the website and asked me to talk about braiding. This is how I replied: I talk about the braided novel a lot in my author talks or ‘in conversation’ discussions. Braiding is a little different to sub plots. For me a braided novel has distinct stories that connect…

When on a research trip in PNG (for To Sing of War), my partner and I both loved travelling by canoe. It was such a different experience to the way we travel, from one destination to another, in Australia. We canoed along the Sepik River looking for the village where (in World War Two) my…

I went with my partner, Gary Christian, to research in PNG. One of the first trips we did was to the village of Aitape. We went there by jeep from Wewak. The road was filled with potholes. Often, before we could cross, we had to stop to wait for a flooded river to go down.…