Cirrus@Austlit

'An anger tsunami often tosses and rolls the eccentric Aleph McNaught because he doesn’t have the means to compete or the gall to exploit others. Nor does he possess the nerve to take advantage of a situation, or the sense of self-worth to confront an adversary. 

'When he has endured enough torment and can take no more, he changes up a gear from a scream to something turbocharged to vent his frustration and help alleviate the pain.

'Disenchanted and exhausted by a dysfunctional government, social rejection and the economy and religion encroaching on his personal life, Aleph proposes an absurd other-worldly alternative government that ‘offers nothing but keeps its promises’.

'He invites the reader to participate in this love affair with his beloved crippled country on the promise that it will linger longer than the usual tryst and can last forever if the reader dares commit to it.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Two Australian country boys, born after World War II, lead parallel lives until late adolescence. Manfred takes up a trade in the local sugar mill while his friend Tony goes on to study at university. Life is good until Manfred is conscripted into the army and is sent to fight in Vietnam while Tony misses out on national service and becomes a student leader at anti-conscription rallies and anti-Vietnam War marches. Tony drops out of university and takes up the life of a hippie in communes, then continues his stance against the war as a leader of the Vietnam War Moratorium Movement. Manfred experiences hell both in the war in Vietnam and in Australia after coming home where he is relentlessly tormented by 'the stalker'. Their friendship is renewed but everything has changed. Manfred is now left wrestling with his conscience while Tony develops a new found social conscience. As a result, both discover a new meaning of mateship.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The second collection of poems following on from "Diary of a Devoted Poet". Explores a poet's thoughts on places, people, portraits, puzzles, phenomena and politics and power. ' (Source : Books from Our Backyard, 2014)

'A young Sicilian refuses to bow to the dictator Mussolini in the streets of Agira and is threatened with retribution by his Fascist thugs, the Black Shirts. He hides in the mountains near his home town and arranges for a passport to Australia in 1924. Twelve years later, when he returns to Sicily to visit his family, he discovers Mussolini's dictatorial regime is not only entrenched but also unforgiving. He could have had another life, instead he chose one of freedom as a cane cutter in the fields of Far North Queensland. This story is based on his life as a child and a fugitive in Sicily, as a cane cutter, a farmer with a young family in a foreign land and as a classified enemy alien. His stoic belief in the innate goodness of his fellow human beings and his faith in God are put to the test time and time again in his valiant struggle against adversity and the harsh contrasts of Australian life.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.