Words, writers and writing


I HAVE been renewing acquaintance with an old friend. As always, it was a rewarding and compelling page-turning experience. It was also thought provoking, making me wonder yet again why so few Australian crime writers make it on to the international stage. Rather than becoming household names they are too often relegated to being the hard-working lasses and lads in the backrooms. They are crime fiction’s equivalent of the supporting cast in Upstairs, Downstairs or Downton Abbey. Relegated to  the back rooms; the maids, cooks, grooms, servants, pot-washers, bed-makers and skivvies toiling away, unseen and disregarded by their alleged betters. Continue reading

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Picture: Emil Widlund, Unsplash BRITISH readers’ love affair with all things dark, murderous and mysterious shows no signs of waning. Crime continues to come first choice among public library users, with children’s books a valiant second and daylight to all other genres. Thrillers, mysteries and crime fiction take eight out of the ten top places in the British Library’s latest list (for the 2018-19 year) of the country’s most borrowed books. Continuing the trend of recent years, the list reflects readers’ enduring love of thrillers. Eight of the top ten are crime fiction. Lee Child, who leads the way with… Continue reading