Cirrus@Austlit

'Four stories that draw upon both the author’s personal experiences and reflect his abiding curiosity about our social history and the manner in which people interact with each other. Here’s a transient bank clerk with a head full of statistics and a lot to learn about life in a country town. Here’s a storyteller living within his own narratives, a sleazy con-man worming his way into a family’s trust and a flood-bound illustrator whose unexpected talent has nothing to do with her art. They are stories of love and deceit, of murder and of brash self-assurance set in very Australian scenarios.

'‘When you read Colin’s stories you will soon see the depth of research, memory and lived observation that lies beneath their creation. The rescuing of Aussie vernacular that he aims for is a way of highlighting our fading yet resilient cultural protocols and values.’ - Geoffrey Kemp.'

Source: publisher's blurb

'Five stories to take you away from the anonymity of big cities and into the Mallee. Into communities where everyone knows everyone else’s business or, if they don’t know it, they invent it. Some of these tales begin in different times and faraway places such as Gallipoli or the wartime Blitz of London. They all have their conclusions in the goldfish bowls of small Australian country towns. There is humour here, and obsession, and bigotry. There is murder, mystery and a mother’s love. Five stories from an author who knows the mallee backblocks, who knows the close-knit communities and how lives may be played out within them.'  (Publication summary)