I am an author, illustrator, and award-winning creative director. I have loved to draw and make things since a young age, mostly wacky contraptions (inspired by my love of the Hanna-Barbera Wacky Races cartoons). I’m also passionate about mazes, having spent many family holidays drawing mazes on a small whiteboard for my two boys to complete.
Here’s another maze book by Usborne, Around the World Mazes by Sam Smith (as I mentioned previously, Usborne publishes great children’s books!). Unlike The Big Maze book this book has an overarching theme linking all the mazes, ‘places around the world’, also, each maze covers the entire double-page spread, so there are fewer mazes but with greater visual impact. While the delightfully illustrated mazes will appeal more to younger children, they do playfully bring to life the different locations they depict, whether that be the Australian Outback or coast of Vancouver, and so provide educational content along with oodles of fun!
Travel from the Amazon and the Antarctic to the Himalayas and Hollywood with this entertaining selection of mazes from across the globe. Each maze is more challenging than the last, from taking a ramble in Rio de Janeiro to touring the Norwegian fjiords or finding your way in a Moroccan market. All the answers are at the back of the book.
Constable Paul
‘Hirsch’ Hirschhausen is a whistle-blower. Hated and despised, he has been
exiled to a one-cop station in the middle of dusty nowhere. There are fugitive
killers on the loose, the body of a sixteen-year-old girl, grumpy locals, and
gun-toting landowners; more than one constable can handle, that’s for sure.
This book was everything I wanted from
an Australian crime novel: a stoic but scrupled cop, the baking Aussie landscape,
and a series of call-outs and crimes where everything comes together perfectly
at the end.
By the finale of this book, I was so caught up
with Hirsch and the atmosphere of this desolate Australian town I went
straight to the next book in the series and didn’t stop until I reached the
end. I recommend you do the same.
'Disher shows that he is a top-class writer' - THE TIMES
'Vivid and visceral, combined with Disher's usual deft plotting' - GUARDIAN
'One of Australia's most admired novelists' - SUNDAY TIMES ________________________________________
ONE DEAD-END POSTING. ONE DEAD BODY. A TRAGIC ACCIDENT? THAT'S WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK...
Constable Paul 'Hirsch' Hirschhausen is a whistle-blower. Formerly a promising metropolitan detective, now hated and despised, he's been exiled to a one-cop station in South Australia's wheatbelt. So when he heads up Bitter Wash Road to investigate gunfire and finds himself cut off without backup, there are two possibilities. Either he's found…
I have always loved horses and riding. My dream was to become a showjumper but, unfortunately, my opportunities in London were limited and although I rode a lot in Australia, my jumping was limited to the odd log in the bush. I’m an avid reader and particularly enjoy horse books written for adults, which is why I wrote a book for horse lovers. I have recommended books that gave me pleasure and which I am sure other horse lovers will enjoy.
Teenagers will love The Outback Riders series by Leanne Owens. An Australian author, Leanne is an English/History teacher who also writes freelance for horse magazines. Her experience with horses growing up in the outback is combined with stories about teenagers in her very popular Outback Riders series. She has also written the Dimity Horse Mysteries for readers who like mysteries, crime, romance, and horses.
The outback is burning and the Sunhaven teens risk everything to try and stop the arsonist. Between the fires, the mysterious white dog that appears out of nowhere, Amy's childhood friend who resembles the rock star adored by Lani, and organising a two hundred kilometre Longreach to Winton fund-raising ride, their holidays are jam-packed with excitement and discovery.
The teens of Sunhaven in outback Queensland are a year older and are home for the school holidays to face a wild ride of adventures. The outback has been burning and they are determined to find the arsonist, but the mystery becomes…
I am a woman and so like all of us who have lived long enough, I have been pushed to the edge. I’m fascinated with what society tells us we are and are not meant to feel or express. In part this is because I teach emotional intelligence and empathy, also because I am the mother of four and the more emotional literacy I have, the richer my life is. I’m not interested in having any emotions disavowed for anyone of any gender. I teach wholehearted leadership with my company Pilot Light and also speak to school students and other groups about feminism, gratitude, courage, pornography, creativity, overwhelm, and vulnerability.
This Stella prize-winning novel is so mysterious, the ominous atmosphere shudders off the page.
It’s a modern-day parable about ten women who are abducted and held prisoner in the Australian desert. Gradually they realised the common thread between them is they’ve all been involved in a sex scandal with a powerful man.
Wood ingeniously takes to the patriarchy with a blow torch. It’s breathtakingly powerful. Reading the final line, I shut my eyes and my heart hurt. In a good way.
"Would it be said they were abandoned or taken, the way people said a girl was attacked, a woman was raped, this femaleness always at the centre, as if womanhood itself were the cause of these things? As if the girls somehow, through the natural way of things, did it to themselves."
Winner of the Stella Prize Winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award Shortlisted Christina Stead Prize for Fiction Shortlisted for International Dublin Literary Award Observer Books of the Year 2016
'Beautiful and savage - think Atwood in the outback.' Paula Hawkins, Observer
She hears her own thick voice deep inside her ears when she says, 'I need to know where I am.' The man stands there, tall and narrow, hand still on the doorknob, surprised. He says, almost in sympathy, 'Oh, sweetie. You need to know what you are.'
As a full-time travel writer for 30 years, I’ve travelled all over Australia and am still constantly surprised and thrilled by new places. Ask me what my favourite place is, and it’s impossible to choose! From the grandeur of Western Australia’s Kimberley and the red ochre colours of the Outback to the deep blue of the oceans and lush rainforests...I love it all and I love sharing my discoveries – both in cities and on the long and winding roads – with readers. When I’m not travelling or writing about it, I’m usually planning the next trip!
The Australian Outback is a must for anyone who wants to see this country in all its diversity. Far from being just desert, the Outback is varied and fascinating. While this book only covers Queensland, it is a rich introduction to what the Outback offers. Photojournalist Danielle Lancaster knows it well, and the large-format images bring the scenery, wildlife, history, and towns of Queensland’s Outback to life. Whether you are interested in National Parks, dinosaur fossils, desert dunes, stunning gorges, or history, there’s plenty of interest here. As well as an introduction to places you may want to see, it’s also a beautiful souvenir.
