Great Sentence of the Week #11

This sentence comes from a poignant – and brilliant – short story in the 2012 Award Winning Australian Writing anthology. He walks along the fence line, the wired spine that fuses farmland with forest. The Nest (Sinclair)

Common Thread Anthology

Here's a little locally produced book you might want to consider as a stocking filler this festive season. I can recommend one of the stories in it...

http://www.pippakay.com.au/CTA2012Anthology.htm

Images of Never Learning

I took a break from writing at lunchtime. A short break. A refill. And I sat down to watch one of my favourite movies on DVD: Roland Joffe’s The Killing Fields. A sad, inspiring – and true – story. There’s an iconic scene at the start of the movie, which, even if you don’t recall the whole film, you will probably be familiar with. It lasts a few seconds. But it forced me back to the keyboard.

 
There’s a paddy field, dry now, but still as green as Eden, sitting under an upturned crucible of cloud unleashing hell. A small boy, maybe 5 or 6 years old, rides on the back of a barrel-shaped water buffalo. He is miniscule under the steel G.I helmet he now claims as his own. He holds it tight, stopping it from rolling off his head, as he gazes up into that dark grey forever and listens to an American jet shrieking like a winged dragon. And you just know the little fellow’s never going to make old age. And it strikes you that we’ve learned nothing from history.

Because somewhere there’s a poppy field, green and pink, and sitting under a sky of screaming blue. A small boy...

Best Australian Books?

From the ABC First Tuesday Book Club - the top 10 Australian Books of all time. I agree with some, but not all of these choices. How about you?

1. Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
2. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
3. A Fortunate Life - A.B. Facey
4. The Harp in the South - Ruth Park
5. The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
6. Jasper Jones - Craig Silvey
7. The Magic Pudding - Norman Lindsay
8. The Slap - Christos Tsiolkas
9. The Secret River - Kate Grenville
10. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Joan Lindsay