Leaving behind everything we knew in the cities of England and Australia, we moved our family to rural Tasmania before it was fashionable to do so, and set ourselves up on five acres. The adventures of our first five years became the material for my first memoir, Apple Island Wife – Slow Living in Tasmania. … More Saddleback Wife – more slow living in Tasmania
I read numerous brilliant books researching Sissinghurst Castle Gardens and its creators Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. Here are ten random things I learned, and some I just thought about. As I read about the demise of wildlife in England since the dawning of the industrial age, it made me wonder what differences Vita and … More Ten things I learned while researching Sissinghurst and Vita Sackville-West
There comes a point in a person’s life where camping and outdoorsy pursuits must be compensated for. If I’m heading to Derby for a weekend’s biking with my son, hoisting my leg over a saddle during the day and sleeping under canvas at night, there will be no cooking on the camp-stove in the evenings. … More Where to eat in Derby, Tasmania
Being a woman and a winemaker can be a useful point of difference, says Fran Austin, owner and winemaker at Delamere Vineyards in partnership with husband Shane Holloway. While some people are cynical about it, she and many other women in the industry accept that it can generate marketing. The Fabulous Women in Wine Society … More Women in Wine
Ann Patchett is the kind of novelist we’d all like to be – successful, award-winning, a nice person by all accounts, and she writes a bloody good book. I read Commonwealth last year with no expectations, and found myself engrossed in a family saga. Well here’s another one – The Dutch House, every bit as … More The Dutch House by Ann Patchett – book review
Unbelievably, it’s fifteen years since we took the plunge and moved to Tasmania. We loved it from the moment we got here and haven’t looked back. Here are eight things we’ve loved the best. Gained a Sense of Space We’ve got five acres. That sounded huge when we first got here, but now we realise … More Eight things we’ve done since moving to Tasmania
Do your short stories consistently fail to hit the mark in competitions? When judging the Tasmanian Short Story competition, I found that many entries fell into the same classic traps, falling short of the mark and sending them to the bottom of the slush pile immediately. Here are my two top tips on how to … More How to begin a short story
Years ago, I saw a picture of Richard Burton sitting on a sunlit step at his house in Switzerland, reading. There was none of the posing of Insta-friendly celeb photos. He wore a warm, soft, creamy cardigan and his attitude was one of complete absorption in the book held loosely in one hand. Alongside that … More How Richard Burton made me want a library of my own
I wanted to do something a little different. We were asked to write a short piece introducing ourselves, for the second unit in my Masters of Creative Writing with Deakin University. So I ‘rang Martin Amis’ and had him interview me as we stood on the rooftops, he in Paris in the 1970s, and myself … More Martin Amis helps you get to know me
There are two points of the year when authors sink into a funk, and that’s March and October when we’re paid. Did you know that writers receive approximately ten percent of the Recommended Retail Price of their book? After publishers take off the costs of production, printing, distribution and marketing and a bit of cream … More The Constant Hustle of Publishing
Fiona Stocker - occasional blog 