My mother was not one to suffer fools gladly. She had a caustic sense of humour and when she uttered one of her frequent sharp comments, Dad would say, ‘Ah, there she goes again with that Irish sense of humour.’ Mum was an observer of people and though she was not one...

Most school days, I’d arrive home on the hot afternoons with perspiration trickling down my legs and back. I’d run the cold tap for several seconds to drain away the hot water from the pipes and pour  a big glass of tepid, refreshing water. Whirring, banging and...

Covid-19 has a lot to answer for but one of its most remarkable side effects has been a tsunami of poetry that has emerged from the epidemic lockdowns. Award winning poet and author, Steven Herrick says: "I blame the recent lockdowns for my inbox being crowded with...

From before I can remember I wanted to be a journalist. No idea where that came from. My uncle Philip Wynter was a noted war correspondent in World War Two so maybe it’s genetic. Maybe it was American TV. As a child in New Zealand I watched the Mary Tyler Moore Show...

Most Australians may not heard of Gabrielle Carey, but many Australians have heard of Puberty Blues, the iconic book she co-wrote with Kathy Lette. It was a popular film in 1981 and a TV series in 2012. My teenage sister and I were captivated by the book and film,...

My earliest memories are of deep red earth and horned black beetles with spiky feet that clung to my fingertips. In the late sixties in Far North Queensland, Christmas beetles shone like baubles and cane toads leapt up the front steps onto the verandah of the family...

Getting to know a man who fulfilled most of his dreams and died with few regrets and bathed in love made me question the value of chasing great heights in my career. All my life, I wanted to be famous. When people asked child-me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the...