A School for Fish

The sea folk have a wonderful plan to build a school for all of the reef-dwelling creatures, but although they have an amazingly fun time they forget all that they have learnt as soon as they swim out of the classroom door.

Read on to find out what happens next in this charmingly illustrated book for young children.

A Seasons' Treasury

Follow the changing seasons through all their wealth of growth and flowering, through autumn’s fall, the withering of winter and all the challenging varieties of weather that can accompany these changes. These poems, written over a period of 30 years, are essentially poems of celebration: of immersion in the seasonal round that ‘resonate with quiet joy’ as one reviewer observed. ‘To walk through its pages is to be touched and refreshed by the dew...’ To encounter ‘widths of sky, or mercurial, brimming weather.’ The author’s companionable sensibility brings us a welcome breathing space at a helpful distance from the overly ironic or overly cerebral poetry to be found, too often, in literary journals. A blithe purity ushers through it. And, as in its Midsummer Garden it extends a joyful invitation to re-enter that purity ‘like...a winged seed.’

A Selection of Short Stories with Unresolved Endings

It is a bright sunny morning, and a giant of a man is walking through bracken fern. Suddenly, he hears a voice from a tiny fairy down below: he's accidentally stood on her wing. What happens next is part of a collection of short stories with unresolved endings. 

These stories are based on fiction, although they could happen. With a little bit of imagination anything is possible!

Inspiration for these stories comes from thoughts and dreams and from his TAFE teacher Graham who encouraged him to write these stories.

A Simple Girl's Guide to Surviving the Realities

Would you believe if someone told you there is another reality? Would you believe me if I said there is another world out there, where people possess certain abilities enabling them to manipulate the weather, natural elements, and even human emotions? If your answer is not ‘no’ to those questions, you must be living an interesting life.

Not long ago I would have said ‘no’ too, without hesitation. It all changed, however, when a couple of weeks ago I was thrust into that very world, with having no clue how or why I got there, what I was supposed to do, or how to get back to my normal life. And there was no guide to help me manoeuvre through my suddenly upturned life, either. A nuisance, really. Complications didn’t end there, though. A good thing too, we wouldn’t want life to get boring.

So, on top of finding out about the existence of a whole new world, I soon found myself in the middle of an eight-month-long kidnapper case – yes, with real criminals, victims and crime scenes – alongside with new friends, new enemies, and a surly, mostly unwilling detective. Because apparently, letting someone with a day-long investigative career loose around a criminal investigation was completely normal only in some places. I’ve already seen a lot of crime scenes close up in front of my TV screen, though, so… what could go wrong?

A Small Tale of the Great Circle

While the First World War is regularly depicted by the nature of its horror, it was also a period whereby the excitement of inventions and the suggestion of an exciting time to come churned up the aspirations of some. Add to this the imagining of a treasure hunt in an exotic location and the excitement squashed fear.

All you had to do was survive, to learn how to sail. But there was the small matter of the interloper who could make the enterprise so much easier to accomplish. But that man was self-evidently unscrupulous, not to say demonic; it could all be sunk so easily by antagonism so hard to suppress. They all relied on the other and no one was being completely frank. They all lied, as we do.

A Soldier's Conscience

When a soldier has trouble accepting the acts of the regime he serves, how much can his conscience take? What should he do? Could he betray his comrades? These are the questions that faced a young Wehrmacht soldier, after being posted to a top secret base in France. After helping the civilian French resistance, the former soldier must reinvent himself and join the Italian partisans. If these resistance members found out his true identity, he could forfeit his life. With potential enemies all around him, can he betray his fellow countrymen and survive the war unscathed?

A Spoondrift of Pearls

This lyrical collection of poems is inspired by the tiny island of Eilean Bàn, lying off the Isle of Skye, the final home to Gavin Maxwell, author of Ring of Bright Water.
Lesley Kahney worked as a volunteer warden on the island for many months, observing the otters, seals and dolphins; absorbing the rhythms of the sea, clouds and nature.
Vivid and rich in description, the poems capture the detail in nature. We catch glimpses of a vanishing Scotland with bothies, otters and selkies. Using metaphor, symbolism, and mythology, her poems connect with the history and mystery of the island. Whether depicting seagulls, primroses or seals; the themes of life, death, hope, and impermanence linger at the heart of the poems.
With language that is both tender and raw, an emotional journey is taken through the ordinary and gilded with the microscope of the extraordinary. Here is an invitation to immerse yourself in the scent of sea mists and bluebells, and to give your attention in every moment to being part of nature. Whether a fan of Gavin Maxwell or not, these poems will speak to anyone who likes nature or to be by the sea.

A Spring Tale

With the cold and dark days of winter far behind now, the wonderful smell of spring in the air and the warmth from the sun’s rays, the first wild daffodils starting to unfold their bright yellow flowers, the smell of the primroses, the carpets of wood anemones, the bright yellow celandines, the smell from the wild violets to name but a few, just filled your heart with joy. Read on to find out the many wonders that spring time can bring.

A Squirrelly Tangle

A Rusty Tales Book

When a storm blows their tree down, our three young red squirrels are taken by one big mistake, far away from home. 

Join them on their journey back, leaping and flying from one adventure to another…and making new friends along the way. 

A Squirrelly Tangle is a poem for everyone who loves the wonderful wildlife we share our world with.

A Story of Hope and Happiness

This is a story of triumph over adversity – an absorbing, thought-provoking, sometimes amusing but often heart-rending account of British businesswoman Rosemary Bidwell’s struggles to set up and run an orphanage in Sierra Leone, West Africa, for orphaned street children – youngsters whose parents had been savagely killed in a truly awful civil war.

Read how, against seemingly insurmountable odds, Rosemary founded the Cotton Tree Children’s Trust charity in 2006 and set about raising thousands of pounds through donations, sponsorship, talks and myriad fund-raising events to give 20 African children a second chance in life.

Through her charity, Rosemary provided her charges not only with a roof over their heads, regular meals, clothing and general welfare and educational support, but love and affection.

Read, too, how Rosemary had to overcome all manner of obstacles on the way to achieving her goal: everything from corruption, bribery, fraud and interrogation by police for 11 hours without diplomatic representation to being falsely accused of child trafficking and suffering a suspected heart attack and having to be airlifted home.

Despite the trials and tribulations, Rosemary has overcome the many and varied setbacks she encountered over a period of 18 years. Today, thanks to her dedication, perseverance and Christian beliefs, the Cotton Tree children can now face the future with confidence and know that they have been given an opportunity to prosper in life that, sadly, has been denied to so many other Sierra Leone children.

A Story to Tell; A Secret to Keep

Family secrets are never a good thing – or are they?

A Story to Tell: A Secret to Keep is the compelling debut novel by Fiona Rich. This domestic noir is full of emotional depth, that slowly builds suspense leaving the reader hungry to delve deeper into the complex and challenging lives of Tim, Libby and Josh and learn more about the secrets that the family hold. It is a story full of intrigue and plot twists that will keep you guessing until the end.

Each of the main characters have faced something traumatic in their lives, they all have their own dark secret that impacts on them psychologically; a secret that could damage the relationships of those closest to them. But will the choices that each of them make to resolve their personal crisis and overcome their psychological traumas release them from their inner turmoil, or lock them in an endless conflict of guilt and deception?

A Strange Awakening

This is the story of a young boy growing up and how, although he is not aware of it at the time, he is destined for something beyond his wildest dreams. Since he was young, strange and unusual things have often seemed to happen to him: strangers who appear to know him; dreams and fantasies that merge with reality; and strange coincidences in which the events of his life draw in and interweave with the lives of many around him.

Torn between Australia and England, it seems as though the map of his life has already been laid out for him. But life has so much more in store for him than he ever imagined. Even if it lies beyond his understanding, he has no choice but to go along for the ride.