Cirrus@Austlit

'Its 1989 and a surf-loving Aussie teenager flukes a dream move to an English footballing giant. Problem is, its never been his dream, and in the brutal big leagues he has a fight on his hands to ensure his laidback life doesnt turn into one giant nightmare. Before Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka and Tim Cahill became household names in English football, and once Craig Johnston retired, there was another Aussie name on every football fans lips. Rippa - Joey Rippa. This 19-year-old high school drop-out wants to be on the waves or smoking pot and strumming his guitar in his small Western Australian beach town, instead of being on a football pitch. But the round-ball game is where his real talent lies and when he has the match of his life for the State team against a travelling West Ham United side in a glamour friendly, hes offered a pro contract with the English First Division side. With the bills mounting in his fathers bar, his beloved uncle facing homelessness, and his band needing a new recording, he reluctantly signs and heads over to the UK. But the dream move turns sour the moment he lands when he discovers that The Hammers manager, Bobby Noll, has been sacked and with no one at the club having any idea who this blonde-stubbled Kim Wilde-lookalike is, he's farmed out to Middleby United, a struggling non-league provincial outfit. And in the most landlocked town in Britain, and with its howling wind, never-ending rain and permanent grey skies, he feels a million miles away from his beloved sand and sun lifestyle. Rippa is faced with isolation, loneliness, terrible cuisine and a dressing room and stadium of home fans who think of him, at best, as a novelty, and, at worst, a pathetic joke. Still mourning his beloved English-born football-loving mother (who vanished six years earlier), he finds an unlikely ally in the clubs female physio and tries to buckle down and make it in the brutal sink or swim world of English football. And along the way, he makes his family and hometown back in Australia proud, reminds West Ham that he actually exists, and get struggling Middleby back to the big time.'  (Publication summary)

'Thomas 'Tam the Bam' Bamford is the most reviled football fan on the Isle of Guff, known for his disgusting manner and terrible attitude. However, when his mother dies and he comes into a small fortune, he buys a fifty-one percent share in the Guff Rovers and becomes their gaffer. Despite his lack of experience and incompetence, he has to shape up and improve the team, or they’ll be out of the league. But with a team that hates him and Tam’s terrible attitude, there’s a long road ahead.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Surrounded by this much sand and sea, in a city where stifling 40-degree days are considered the norm. And with an economy, infrastructure and political system which rests largely on the whims of eastern states' bureaucrats stationed 3,000 kilometres away - many of whom have never bothered to make the four-hour flight. All this can send a population literally to the edge. It can bring out the worst in people and, occasionally, the very best. 

'This collection of short stories from Perth, Western Australia, features a motley bunch of characters including bikies, FIFOs, murderers, adulterers, bigots, terrorists, lawyers, screw-ups, pro-surfers, a guy who defecates visions of Jesus, and some who make it in this Big Country Town, along with many more who fall between its cracks. 

'In the State of Excitement is a short story collection showing a side of Perth that even those who've lived here all their lives have never experienced, despite this madness lying right on their doorstep.' (Publication summary)

'Welcome to Cider Country - home to the apple orchards of Australia's Central Victorian region. Not only do they produce the nation's favourite fruit, it's also the main ingredient in one of our favourite summer drinks.

'But behind the apples is a myriad of twisted tales and an infinite number of colourful characters including racist supervisors, fugitive journalists, sexually promiscuous Muslims, concert promoters, Thai Princes, rabid dogs, aspiring models, failed writers, French musos, ex-cons, former triads, self-harmers, Jazz man Ryuichi Sakamoto and 'fucking Angus and Julie Stone (sic)'.

'There's also a mole who's about to blow the whole industry apart, along with a new blend of cider which might just save the world.

'This collection of comedically dark and interlinked tales will have you thinking about apples, cider and life itself in a whole different light.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.