Byrskiblog

Yesterday ABC Radio replayed my Literary Lunch talk from last year. If you missed it and would like to listen you can find it here.

http://www.abc.net.au/nightlife/stories/3221831.htm

Happy New Year

No, I didn't stay up and I didn't see the fireworks.  I thought I'd be better placed to start 2012 with 8 solid hours sleep behind me.  But I'm looking forward to a great year and wish you all peace, happiness and good health.  Hopefully it will be a year in which we can all try to do a few things to make the world a better place.

This is a picture of Pollocks Toy Museum in London.  It's well worth a visit and you can read my story about it and about the Cartoon Museum here:  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/world/all-dolled-up-with-plenty-to-enthral/story-fn302659-1226233423039

 

Merry Christmas

Well it's almost upon us so Merry Christmas everyone.  I wish you a day of joy and relaxation with family and friends, and lots of turkey and pudding all of it cooked by someone else.  

If you've got time to relax with a good book over the holiday try Started Early Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson, My Dear I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young is a beautiful love story set in the Great War,  and Caroline Overington's Matilda is Missing is an intruiging and compelling read.  I also loved David Lodge's A Man of Parts which is a fictionalised biography of HG Wells, and Frank Moorhouse's novel Cold Light - the third and final book in his League of Nations Trilogy - fascinating if you are interested in politics and social issues in Australia from the 1950s onwards.  And for some  fifties and sixties British nostalgia Nigel Slater's memoir in food, Toast, is an absolute delight.  Phillips Henscher's King of the Badgers won't appeal to everyone, but I really loved it.

And don't miss Mr. Chartwell - a hilarious and moving story of Churchill's Black Dog in which the Dog is a larger than life characer.

I also loved Frances Osborne's biography of Idina Sackville - The Bolter -  the woman whom Nancy Mitford used as a model for her character 'the bolter' in Love in a Cold Climate. And Evelyn Juers's House of Exile is a fascinating  biography of  Heinrich and Nellie Mann in the south of France and later in California, from the mid-1930s until 1950, and features others such as Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Franz Kafka and Nettie Palmer.

My favourite re-reads this year have been Winifred Holtby's -  South Riding which is now also a stunning 3-part series available on DVD, and Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac.

Of course you could always doze in the sunshine or have an early morning swim at the beach instead, and frankly that takes a lot of beating over the holidays.

  I'll be making some changes to this blog in the New Year which (I'm told) will make it easier for me to use and will encourage me to post more often ...  stop laughing, I know you've heard that before but people can change you know.

Thanks to you all for your wonderful support of my books during what has been a hard year for many writers and the book business generally, I am very fortunate.  There will be a new book in the latter half of 2012 -  I'll tell you more about it nearer the time.

With warmest wishes for Christmas and the New Year

Liz

 

Last month I was invited to speak at the national conference of the Older Women's Network.  It was a great evening in the glorious setting of the Point Walter Conference Centre, and it was terrific to spend time with such interesting and dynamic women who are all involved in this important and valuable network for older women.

The WA organisers this year had gone to great lengths to provide an evening of friendship and entertainment.  L-R  Eileen Ward wo horganises publicity, Sue Ash former CEO of WACOSS,  OWN President Ruth Kershaw, Irina Cattalini current CEO of WACOSS, and Sally Jones, OWN National Convener.

And here I am with OWN President Ruth Kershaw.

June and Lou Smith and their band were such a delight playing plenty of old favourites and everyone was up on their feet and dancing.  A great night thanks OWN -  it was lovely to meet such inspirational and entertaining women.

Back to Life

I feel as though I am coming back to life now.  I was so sorry to have to withdraw from the Get Reading! tour, but I hope you took the opportunity to look at and buy some of the books that were included in this year's Get Reading! program and enjoy the free book of short stories that was included.  

This weekend my friend Jan and I drove down to the beautiful south west of WA to meet BevAinsworth who is the brains and the energy behind Cape Lavender.  The action of my next novel is set on a lavender farm and I wanted to find out more about the business of farming lavender and particularly about the process of producing lavender products.  It was fascinating to hear the story of how Bev started the lavender farm and built it into the business it is today, with the farm and production located between Margaret River and Busselton, and another retail outlet and restaurant in the Swan Valley.

Bev gave us lavender tea and lavender scones in the little cafe in the production area, and talked me through the process of making her moisturisers, body lotion, hand cream, healing balm, hair care products, air freshners and more.  It's a remarkable business and I'm  so grateful for the chance to get the inside story on lavender.  If I don't get things right in the book now it will be no fault but my own.  do have a look at Bev's website at www.capelavender.com.au  and pay her a visit if you're in the area or in the Swan Valley.    Here is Bev with some of her lavender products.

 

And here she is with Jan.  After this photo was taken Jan and I managed to mess up the display by scooping up some of the range of skin care products.

 

 

 

GET READING EVENTS

My apologies but I have had to withdraw from the GET READING tour which was scheduled for later this month.  I have had a few health problems in recent months and really don't feel well enough to undertake a speaking tour right now.  If you were planning to come along to any of the events in Gosnells, Rockingham, Melbourne, Geelong, Sydney, Launceston, Hobart, or Woollongong I'm afraid I won't be there but do check with the venues as they may organising different speakers whom you won't want to miss.

Apologies too to the librarians who had invited me and to the lovely and very hard working people at GET READING, I'm really honoured to have been included this year and very sorry to have to cancel.

Thank you all.

 

 

 

On The Road Again - with GET READING!

 

I'm really thrilled that Last Chance Cafe has been selected as one of the 50 Books you Can't Put Down  for 2011.

As well as being a great honour to be selected by GET READING! it also means that I get to go on the road again in September -  this time to Victoria, Tasmania, ACT and NSW.  Tasmania is a first for me as I've never made it there in the thirty years I have lived in Australia. 

 I'm really looking forward to talking to lots of people about the joys of reading, the thrills and terrors of writing, and about the themes in  Last Chance Cafe.

I'm putting a list of events and venues below in case you fancy coming along.  The tour starts on 21 September -  not long -  hope to see you somewhere along the way.
Download GRLiz Byrski event copy

Home Again

Back home again today after six weeks in England.  It was mainly a research trip for a book, but there was time for pleasures too -  the greatest of which was catching up with my grandsons Sam and Jamie  who will be fourteen next month.  Here are some pictures taken when I met up with them on a school trip to the Imperial War Museum, when we had picnic in the Forest of Dean and also one of Jamie playing the piano. 
 
 
 
 

In London

Is it actually summer here in London? It's hard to tell - the seasons seem to change hourly, but I guess that's nothing new and it is lovely to be here whatever the weather. I started my visit to England by falling over in the car park at Heathrow and ending up with a torn ligament in my knee, so I've been staggering around with a walking stick, taking lots of little rests on available park benches of which there are, fortunately, many. I wanted to post some pictures here, but I'm having trouble up loading them from my laptop so will have to wait until I get home.

In the meantime if you want to catch up on any news just click on the Facebook link because it seems that the computer doesn't mind me uploading pictures there. Gremlins or just incompetence of operator?

 

 

Winnie-the-Pooh

Here's a link to my latest article.  It's a travel story about Ashdown Forest in South East England -  birthplace of Winnie-the-Pooh, and one of my favourite places. 

http://www.news.com.au/travel/holiday-ideas/a-visit-to-winnie-the-pooh-country/story-e6frfqd9-1226048950359

The picture below is of 'the enchanted place' from where Pooh and Piglet looked out across the countryside from the top of the forest.  A.A. Milne named it Galleon's Lap.  The plaque commemorates Milne, and the artist E.H. Shepard.  Hope you enjoy the story.