Cirrus@Austlit

'School mates reunited after forty years, each having spent the intervening time interpreting the world around them - Howard with his low key, whimsical eye, Tony in meticulously selected words, both acute observers of life and its many foibles. Sometimes echoing the other's thoughts, sometimes fiercely independent, both authors display a unique and distinct view, inviting us to share their vision.

'Unlike the modern tendency to shock and amaze, the photographs work quietly on the viewer, beckoning us to be a silent witness to a world we have been part of as they hark back to recent decades of Life in Australia. How things have changed, but how much they have stayed the same.

'London's poems likewise, have that uncanny knack of pinpointing those many thoughts we have but perhaps can never express.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Tom Raker flees any number of villains as they seek murder and mayhem. Part fact, part fiction, this novel is based on research into two quite separate phenomena. Over the last forty years Howard Birnstihl has discovered vulnerable age cycles within certain creative types, similar to those discussed by Gail Sheehy in her books Passages and Pathfinders. He has delved a lot deeper. Also, an avid film watcher, he slowly developed an awareness of a basic colour coding movie makers employ to which the general public is totally unaware. Over the years there has been hardly a word written on this subject. This colour coding has become entrenched in both mainstream movies as well as the majority of television dramas. It is about time the public was made aware. Included are details of the age cycle syndrome as well as 50 or so film reviews which illustrate the depth to which this colour code system is entrenched.' (Publication Summary)