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A unique literary experience curated in partnership with Writing WA. The 4-Part Book Club Series celebrates local West Australian Authors.
Each Series will host a remarkable WA Writer and provide up to 40 guests the opportunity to engage, discuss and divulge in the detail and insights of the featured books.
Tickets are on sale now from $29 per person. Book your seat at https://cathedralsquarebookclub.eventbrite.com.au
Cathedral Square’s 4-Part Series of Writers will include:
- Sue Boyd, Not Always Diplomatic – Thursday 25th March, 6PM.
- Colin Falconer, Angels Weep – Thursday 22nd April, 6PM.
- Alf Taylor, God, The Devil and Me – Thursday 27th May, 6PM.
- Victoria Midwinter Pitt, Women of a Certain Rage – Thursday 24th June, 6PM.
Further detail on each Author has been provided below.
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Part 1 – Thursday 25th March, 6PM
- Author: Sue Boyd
- Title: Not Always Diplomatic
- Genre: Non-Fiction
Sue Boyd’s whole life has been international. In her 34-year career in the Australian foreign service she was head of Australian diplomatic missions in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Fiji and worked in other roles in Portugal, East Germany, the United Nations in New York and DFAT offices in Canberra and Sydney.
Blurb – Not Always Diplomatic chronicles the life of a pioneer in international diplomacy and a career that has spanned the globe.
Sue Boyd has been the head of Australian diplomatic missions in Fiji, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Bangladesh. She shares an account of her life from her formative years in India, Germany, Ireland, Egypt, Cyprus and Britain through to her years at The University of Western Australia.
She then explores her life as a high-flying official firmly ensconced in the ever-changing diplomatic landscape of the 80’s and 90’s.
“An engaging account of life at the coalface by one of Australia’s most active and effective diplomats – and real pathfinder in leading our diplomatic establishment out of its sexist dark age.” – Gareth Evans, Foreign Minister 1988-96
More information on: “Not Always Diplomatic: An Australian Woman’s Journey through internation affairs.”
Part 2 – Thursday 22nd April, 6PM
- Author: Colin Falconer
- Title: Angels Weep
- Genre: Fiction
Colin Falconer is an internationally best-selling English-born Australian author who has published 26 novels that have been translated into 24 languages. He is well known for his historical fiction novels including incredible commercial successes such as Silk Road, Harem and Aztec.
More recently Colin has come to love writing crime fiction and Angels Weep is the third book in his incredibly popular ‘DI Charlie George series’.
Blurb – When two women are snatched off the streets of London in one weekend DI Charlie George and his team get to work. The lives of these young women – one of them a mother – are on the line, and the clock is ticking. When they catch a lucky break from a CCTV camera, Charlie is sure they have their man. And that’s when he gets his first surprise. Because nothing about this case is simple and not everyone is quite what they seem.
“Falconer’s grasp of period and places is almost flawless … He’s my kind of writer.” – Peter Corris, The Australian
More information on: “Angels Weep”
Part 3 – Thursday 27th May, 6PM
- Author: Alf Taylor
- Title: God, the Devil and Me
- Genre: Autobiography
Alf Taylor spent his childhood growing up in New Norcia Mission, Western Australia, and upon leaving, he worked around Perth and Geraldton as a seasonal farm worker before he joined the Armed Forces. After a marriage, seven children and a divorce, Alf found his voice as a writer and poet.
Blurb – In this unique and highly entertaining autobiography, Alf Taylor chronicles his life growing up in the infamous New Norcia Mission, north of Perth in the fifties and sixties.
At once darkly humorous and achingly tragic, “God, The Devil and Me” tells of the life and desperation of the young children forced into the care of the Spanish Nuns and Brothers who ran the Mission. Their lives made up of varying degrees of cruelty and punishments, these children were the ‘little black devils’ that God and religion forgot.
Written with an acerbic and brutal wit, Alf intersperses dark childhood memories with a Monty Pythonesque retelling of the Bible, in which Peter is an alcoholic and Judas is a good guy.
“At once horrific and hilarious, this “little black devil” has created a work unique not just in Aboriginal writing, but in Australian literature altogether.” – Dennis Haskell, Australian poet, critic and academic.
More information on: “God, the Devil and Me”
Part 4 – Thursday 24th June, 6PM
- Author: Victoria Midwinter Pitt
- Title: Women of a Certain Rage
- Genre: Non-fiction
Victoria Midwinter Pitt is a film and theatre-maker. Her work (including Frontier; Rampant – How a City Stopped a Plague; Surviving Mumbai; Leaky Boat and Afghanistan: Inside Australia’s War) has won Walkley & AACTA awards, been nominated for Emmy Awards and screened across the world’s major film festivals and broadcasters.
Blurb – This book is the result of what happened when Liz Byrski asked 20 Australian women from widely different backgrounds, races, beliefs and identities to take up the challenge of writing about rage.
The honesty, passion, courage and humour of their very personal stories is energising and inspiring. If you have ever felt the full force of anger and wondered at its power, then this book is for you.
“A great read. Rage has never been this compassionate, absorbing and thought-provoking. When do I get to party with these smart, talented, wonderful women?” – Judith Lucy
More information on: “Women of a Certain Rage”
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Tickets are on sale now from $29 per person. Book your seat at https://cathedralsquarebookclub.eventbrite.com.au