Cirrus@Austlit

'Join bestselling Australian storyteller William McInnes as he reflects on Australia's way of life and gives us his own take on our colourful and colloquial way with words. Whether we are bunging it on or behaving like a drongo, Australians have a turn of phrase for every situation that helps us.

'Our lingo helps us through life's landmark occasions. It's there in our fatalistic humour at moments of drama or heartbreak. It's there when we cut through the media hype, call out self-important BS or reflect on the ways our sporting heroes behave both on and off the field. And it's also there in the quiet conversations we have with ourselves. We use it to mark the ups and downs of our friendships and to navigate our relationships with our kids and families. Our love of plain speaking, of calling a spade a bloody shovel, communicates the essence of the thing to our mates, to those in the know - and to those at the top who should know better.

'Part memoir, part manifesto, this warm, witty, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny collection will have you thinking about what you say, how you say it and what that really says about us as a nation.' (Publication summary)

'I can't help it if I'm a boring conservative dag, but I love Christmas, always have and hopefully always will. Whatever brand of faith you fly under, even if you proclaim you don't have one, Christmas is a time of generosity, good citizenship and decency.

"William McInnes, one of Australia’s best-known storytellers and actors, has turned to a subject that is close to his heart. Fatherhood is about family, about memories of his father and the memories he’s creating as a dad himself, with his own son and daughter.

"Warm, witty and nostalgic, these tales are just like a friendly chat over the back fence, or the banter of a backyard barbecue. They will stir your own memories: of hot summer days and cooling off under the sprinkler while Dad works in the garden with the radio tuned to the sports results; that time Dad tried to teach you to drive – and then got out of the car and kissed the ground; or taking your own kids on a family road trip."

Source: Publisher's blurb. 

'He hated the word ‘retirement’, but not as much as he hated the word ‘village’, as if ageing made you a peasant or a fool. Herein lives the village idiot.

'Professor Frederick Lothian, retired engineer, world expert on concrete and connoisseur of modernist design, has quarantined himself from life by moving to a retirement village. His wife, Martha, is dead and his two adult children are lost to him in their own ways. Surrounded and obstructed by the debris of his life – objects he has collected over many years and tells himself he is keeping for his daughter – he is determined to be miserable, but is tired of his existence and of the life he has chosen.

'When a series of unfortunate incidents forces him and his neighbour, Jan, together, he begins to realise the damage done by the accumulation of a lifetime’s secrets and lies, and to comprehend his own shortcomings. Finally, Frederick Lothian has the opportunity to build something meaningful for the ones he loves.

'Humorous, poignant and galvanising by turns, Extinctions is a novel about all kinds of extinction – natural, racial, national and personal – and what we can do to prevent them.' (Publication summary)

'William McInnes, one of Australia's best-loved entertainers and authors, takes a look at the Aussie obsession with sports and pop culture.

'A chance encounter in an auction house is the jumping-off point for William's inimitable take on our sport-obsessed nation, Australian popular culture and the artefacts and memorabilia that both make us cringe with recognition and laugh with warm affection. His trademark humour and anecdotes litter this collection, making it a true delight.

'These are truly Aussie stories: about us, and about the things - and the people - in our lives.' (Publication summary)

''A holiday is a time when you do lovely things that you never get a chance to really do otherwise.' So Iris McInnes told her youngest son, William, as she tried to explain the meaning of a holiday.

This book is about the Australian love affair with holidays. It's about going away and staying at home. It's about the relaxing times you had as a kid, escapes you have with your children and the stories you hear from your friends. It can be about a romantic sunset, the spare seat at breakfast being taken by an attractive stranger, a miraculous airline upgrade - or missing bags, unfortunate rashes and wrong turns that lead to places you definitely did not intend to go. But most of all it's about being in your backyard in an above-ground pool, floating in circles, staring at the clouds as you go round and round, and knowing as you float that life is sweet because you're on holidays. ' (Publication summary)

'Buying a bed is important. You'll spend a gret deal of time in it, so best get it right'

'This is a story about birdwatchers. David is one, and Clare's father was one. David has a bad history with girlfriends as he is a 'twitcher'; he spends all his time and money chasing birds around Australia so he can add them to his list. It's not a hobby that attracts many young and desirable women, and over the years David's girlfriends have grown more interested in buying houses and having babies than spending days bogged in mudflats waiting for an unlikely sighting of the storm-tossed vagrant bird, which normally lives in Papua New Guinea. Clare, divorced and mother of a teenage daughter, has sworn off men completely and is reasonably happy with her decision. It's not through any bitterness from her failed marriage, but because she had breast cancer five years ago and has found relationships difficult ever since. Clare never expected to meet someone like David. They try to stay apart, but like a pair of birds dancing around each other they might have to give in to their feelings.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Peter Kennedy is a very large man who is remarkably happy with his life. Yet somethin' s not quite right, and it started with a dream that smelt of luncheon meat.

'Peter is successful at what he does, even though he's not sure what that is anymore. When Titan Development contracts him to go to Queensland to assess a prime piece of real estate, the Pickersgill Peninsula Showgrounds, he jumps at the chance. It will give him time out from having to be with the family he loves. And it will take him back to the home where he grew up; to his parents, who are members of the Show society, his twin sister Pearl, a bingo caller and foster mother, and his brother Gary, the TV weatherman.

'Over these few days, he will come to realise that sometimes when you go back to where you came from you find out how much you actually have, and how much you could lose.

'All he has to do is make his mind up, and listen to the advice that's given by, of all people the King of Hot Dogs.

'But will he?' (Publisher's blurb)

'Worse Things Happen at Sea is about families, suburbs and homes, friends, love and day to day life written by bestselling author William McInnes and award winning filmmaker, photographer and animator Sarah Watt.

'In William's first book A Man's Got to Have a Hobby he wrote about family life in the 1960s with humour, affection and honesty. Worse Things Happen at Sea does the same for family life in 2000s; written by William and Sarah in a way that many Australians can relate to and enjoy.

'This book celebrates the wonderful, messy, haphazard things in life -- bringing home babies from hospital, being a friend, a parent, son or daughter, and dog obedience classes. It's about living for twenty years in the family home, raising children there, chasing angry rabbits around the backyard, renovations that never end. It is also about understanding that sometimes you have to say goodbye; that is part of life too.

'Illustrated throughout with Sarah Watt's photographs of family life and beautiful, everyday objects.' (From the publisher's website.)