Victorian Premier's Literary Award 2017: This Year's Winners!

I pinched the short list from the Wheeler Centre web site, after reading on the Age web site that the winner of the Fiction award had died and the prize was posthumous. The awards were only handed out this evening.

So much for my going on Twitter to find out these things in time. Sigh!

The only two judges I've heard of are the lovely Alice Pung and Marlee Jane Ward, though I've only heard of the latter because we were both on a panel at last year's Continuum. I did download her YA novel, but haven't got around to reading more than a page or two. I am such a greedy reader, I just can't read it all!

Of the books, I have The Bone Sparrow, which I really must read, because it's bound to be on this year's CBCA shortlist, and The Fighter, which is a wonderful book that deserves an award. But then, I haven't read the others on the list. To be honest I don't read much in the way of adult books.  Non fiction, yes, if it's about a subject that interests me. Genre fiction, yes. But not mainstream and certainly not a book about a woman who gets brain cancer. (The winner) Mind you, teenagers love to sob their hearts out over novels with dying protagonists. So maybe that one will have a new market in a few years, the theme is just not my cup of tea. Sad about the author, though! 

Anyway, here it is, in case you want to follow it up. Enjoy!

The Judges

Fiction: Stella Charls, Alice Pung, Jo Case (convener)

Non-fiction: Bruce Pascoe, Sami Shah, Jordy Silverstein, Michaela McGuire, Sharon Mullins (convener)

Drama: Jane Harrison, Emilie Collyer, John Bailey (convener)

Poetry: Samah Sabawi, Emilie Zoey Baker, Alicia Sometimes (convener)

Writing for Young Adults: Marlee Jane Ward, Davina Bell, Jess Tran (convener)

The shortlist

I've put the winners in bold.

Fiction

• Between a Wolf and a Dog by Georgia Blain (Scribe Publications)
• The Healing Party by Micheline Lee (Black Inc.)
• Wood Green by Sean Rabin (Giramondo)
• Waiting by Philip Salom (Puncher and Wattmann)
• The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong (Text Publishing)
• The Love of a Bad Man by Laura Elizabeth Woollett (Scribe Publications)

Non-fiction

• Songs of a War Boy by Deng Adut with Ben Mckelvey (Hachette Australia)
• The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke (Hachette Australia)
• The Killing Season Uncut by Sarah Ferguson with Patricia Drum (Melbourne University Publishing)
• Offshore: Behind the wire on Manus and Nauru by Madeline Gleeson (NewSouth Publishing)
• Position Doubtful by Kim Mahood (Scribe Publications)
• The Fighter by Arnold Zable (Text Publishing)

Drama

• Girl Shut Your Mouth by Gita Bezard (Black Swan State Theatre Company)
• Trigger Warning by Zoë Coombs Marr (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)
• The Drover’s Wife by Leah Purcell (Currency Press)

Poetry

• Carrying the World by Maxine Beneba Clarke (Hachette Australia)
• Painting Red Orchids by Eileen Chong (Pitt Street Poetry)
• Bull Days by Tina Giannoukos (Australian Scholarly Publishing)

Writing for Young Adults

• When Michael Met Mina by Randa Abdel-Fattah (Pan Macmillan Australia). Also won the People's Choice Award. 
• The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon (Hachette Australia)
• The Other Side of Summer by Emily Gale (Penguin Random House Australia)

Highly commended

Fiction
· An Isolated Incident by Emily McGuire (Pan Macmillan)
· Our Magic Hour by Jennifer Down (Text Publishing)
· After the Carnage by Tara June Winch (University of Queensland Press)

Writing for Young Adults
· Freedom Swimmer by Wai Chim (Allen and Unwin)
· Frankie by Shivaun Plozza (Penguin Books Australia)

Drum Roll, Please! Australia's Top Authors 2017

Again, I'm sticking to those who have written for kids, and there are several between 10 and 1.

#10: Marcus Zusak. Best known, these days, for The Book Thief, which has been translated into forty languages and been turned into a very good movie. But he has been on the CBCA shortlist for other books and that one works fine as a YA novel. I remember hearing him speak at a school library conference once, years ago, before he became an international bestselling author. He'd written his first novel and I swear, he looked about sixteen! He was young, though not quite that young, and I bought he book to support a new local author. He's come a long way since then. I doubt a local library conference could afford him these days. 

#9 Andy Griffiths. When I started my school library career, the big name in funny children's books was Paul Jennings. Paul was our Roald Dahl, but nicer. Nowadays, he has been more or less replaced by Andy Griffiths, who writes the Treehouse books, the Schooling Around series, the Just series and the series that began with The Day My Bum Went Psycho. (In the U.S., that's "Butt", as "bum" has a different meaning in American slang). He understands what makes kids laugh out loud and is rewarded every year when kids vote him their favourite in the Young Australian Best Book Awards. A delightful writer - and such a nice man! I have been lucky enough to meet him a couple of times. Once, when I mentioned my disadvantaged school, he gave me a signed set of the new edition of Schooling Around for the library, which was great, because the individual novels were always going missing.

#6. Anh Do. We have several of his  funny WeirDo novels for children. His autobiography,  The Happiest Refugee, is the class text for Year 9, and the kids actually like it. Given how many refugees we have at my school, I think they can relate. But in general, they enjoy it, even the EAL kids. 

#5. John Marsden. Best known for the YA series, Tomorrow When The War Began, but has written quite a lot more. There was a film made of the first one and one of the cast later went on to play the role of Phryne Fisher's maid Dot. It's a powerful series and at one time it was hardly ever on the shelves. Not as popular now, but a few years ago, when I took some students to the local launch of the National Year Of Reasing, he was the guest speaker and there were plenty of kids there. The author actually gave away copies of his books and signed them. Nice!

#3. This one is for my American librarian friend Pamela, who is a fan - Mem Fox! Mem is the author of the classic Possum Magic, about a little possum who has been turned invisible and who has to eat his way through Australian foods in various states to recover his visibility. 

#2. Tim Winton. Best known for his adult books, but also the author of the classic Lockie Leonard YA novels, set in Western Australia, with a surfing theme. The first was on our Year 8 list at one stage. A mother objected, because there is a scene where the hero has a wet dream. She withdrew her objection after one of our staff had a chat with her, explaining about the book. It is funny and sad and sweet and the sea is almost a character. 

#1. Matthew Reilly. I probably don't need to explain him. He is tremendously well known and popular for all those extremely violent books. I must admit, I'm no fan of his; I managed to get through about 250 pages of Temple. People were getting killed and things blown up on every page - and no one cared. When a character sacrificed himself for another character and she didn't even blink let alone mourn him, I threw my copy against the wall and never read anything else of his again. But teenage boys enjoy his work. The ones at my school who want to read his books tend to have their own copies, though I'd buy them on request. I am in a minority here, I confess. But this year, he is Australia's most popular author. Congratulations, Matthew! 

Australia's Favourite Authors 2017 - #50-11!

I've been following Booktopia's reader-voted "Australia's favourite authors." This week we have seen the finalists from #50 onwards. Each year, there are new authors and old favourites. People who were closer to the top last time may be a bit lower this year, depending on who voted - or maybe who wanted to give someone else a go this time. We all have our favourites and as we read we acquire new ones. 

Anyway, here are those who have come up so far. I have mostly stuck either to children's and YA authors or those I know have written for kids at some stage. They're all authors whose work I have read, including the two writers for adults I stuck in at the bottom. If you want to check out the rest, why not head over to the Booktopia web site? 

#46 - John Flanagan - the author of the wonderful Ranger's Apprentice series. Go read them NOW!

#44 - Garth Nix - author of the fabulous Old Kingdom series(Sabriel, etc.) and the children's series Keys To The Kingdom. 

#41 - Melina Marchetta - these days best known for Jellicoe Road, but her first, Looking For Alibrandi,  is my favourite. Also the author of the fantasy Lumatere series beginning with Finnikin Of The Rock.

#40 - Tara Moss - I admit I don't read the crime fiction for which she is best known, but her YA fantasy novels are a hoot! 

#37 - Kate Forsyth - the author of a lot of adult novels based on fairy tales, such as Bitter Greens, but also quite a few children's books, such as The Puzzle Ring. 

#34 - Shaun Tan - my favourite of his books is The Arrival, which is straight art, telling the story of a refugee's arrival in an unnamed country. Not a single bit of text, but utterly powerful! 

#30 - Isobelle Carmody - probably best known for her Obernewtyn books, but also the author of several stand-alone books. Personally, I am STILL waiting for the final volume of Legendsong, which stopped on a cliffhanger around sixteen years ago. Sigh! 

#26 - Ruth Park - mostly an author for adults, she also wrote two wonderful YA fantasy novels, My Sister Sif and the amazing Playing Beattie Bow, which was made into a delightful film. 

#22 - Morris Gleitzman - author of a LOT of amazing children's books. The most popular, for good reason, are the series that began with Once and most recently Soon. The hero is Felix, a boy who has a lot of adventures while on the run from the Nazis. He loses a lot of people he cares for. He is such a great kid! And in the third book, halfway through the series, the author flies into the present day and tells the story from the viewpoint of his Australian granddaughter. Lovely stuff! 

#20 - Emily Rodda - most famous for the Deltora series for children, but also writes mysteries for adults under her own name, Jennifer Rowe. At one time she was editor of the Australian Women's Weekly.

#17 - Jackie French - author of a huge number of historical novels for children, former Australian Children's Laureate, several CBCA shortlistings under her belt. Amazingly popular in my school, considering how hard it is to get our kids to read historical fiction! 

#16 - Graeme Base - fantastic artist and picture storybook author. One of his first books was Animalia, a wonderfully clever alphabet books with detailed paintings that invite the young reader to find all the pictures starting with the letter of that page. For example, "Diabolical Dragons Daintily Devouring Delicacies" has a background window through which you can see the Doctor and a Dalek. And a donkey. There's a background picture of a dagger hanging over someone. "Dagger" might be okay for kids, but as in the Asterix comics, there's a bit more for the adults reading with them - Damocles, right? It had a CBCA shortlisting, but didn't win. The book that did win is long forgotten. While Animalia has become a classic - I have the app on my iPad.  The kids at my school used to have it out every lunchtime, by the way. 

#15 - May Gibbs - author of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, classic Aussie picture storybook. Her home has become a museum. 

#12 - Paul Jennings - the predecessor of Andy Griffiths. His books are hilarious and some of the short stories were used in the TV series Round The Twist. He hasn't written much in recent years, alas. I think he's done one or two picture books, which I must check out. 

And adult writers I like are historical novelist Geraldine Brooks at #19 and national treasure poet Banjo Patterson at #11. He wrote all those bush poems, such as"Clancy Of The Overflow" and "The Man From Snowy River" and guess what? "Waltzing Matilda" is his too! 

Tomorrow we will know who are the top ten - stand by!

Halfway Through John Glenn: A Memoir...

I can't help feeling I'm learning a lot about John Glenn the person rather than what he did. I'm reading this side by side with The Astronaut Wives Club and it makes for an interesting comparison.

He spends a lot of time describing the various planes he flew - in great detail, what they could do, what the problems were, what happened with his next plane. I had a hard time focusing on all that and admit to sliding over some of the plane descriptions. 

But there's no question that he was a passionate flyer, that a lot of the stuff he volunteered for was because it was the only way he could keep flying instead of being stuck behind a desk. After World War II, seeing friends be killed, admitting that napalm was horrible and that maybe the bombs over Japan were not nice, he goes to Korea. The patriotism? Definitely, but mainly because it will keep him flying. He doesn't have the particular skills needed for commercial flight and anyway, people who do are applying for all the jobs available. In Korea he hopes he can do the Snoopy-Red Baron type of combat flying he wants so desperately, and he does, three times(five would have made him champion). 

I've just reached the bit where he has finally been accepted for the Mercury program. He admits to all the awful stuff the astronaut candidates had to go through in their medical tests. I read about that in The Right Stuff and other books on the subject. It was not only difficult, it was downright embarrassing!

Interestingly, that line about "sleeping under a Communist moon", which I have read elsewhere was spoken by LBJ, he attributes to Khruschev, as a sneer. You do have to wonder about this man...

But I'm finding that there was good reason for the fact that the astronauts were able to participate in the design of their spacecraft. They were all test pilots at this stage and it was something test pilots did. Even then, you really needed to have science and maths skills to be able to do the job. Glenn admits he had a hard time with the maths, though he eventually managed it, though he never quite got the hang of calculus.

Okay, on with the book and further comments when I've finished it. 

Australia's Favourite Author 2017: Final List

Once more, Booktopia is inviting readers to vote for their favourite local authors. You don't even have to stick to one person, as they recognise you have more than one favourite. I'm pleased to say there are several children's and YA authors on this short list. I've given them my preferences, though I've also voted for one or two writers for adults, who overlap. Do vote! Whoever ends up winning will not only be happy, they will have something to add to their resume and that's important when publishers make decisions(admittedly there are some "classic" writers on the list, such as May Gibbs and Banjo Patterson, who won't care if you vote for them. I stuck to live ones). You don't, I think, have to be living in Australia to vote, at least it doesn't say so, but there is a prize of $1000 worth of books if you give them your details - I certainly did! Why not wander over and see if your favourite Aussie author is there? (There is even a Kiwi, Juliet Marillier, but she lives here)

And here is the link.You have until January 20 to vote.
http://blog.booktopia.com.au/2017/01/16/vote-finals-favourite-australian-author-2017/

Now Reading...John Glenn: A Memoir and Simon Schama's French Revolution book!

Sometimes you just have to have it in print. I had to order the John Glenn book because it wasn't on iBooks and it wasn't at Dymock's in Melbourne despite being on the web site. The staff member explained that the web site had a different warehouse; I'd be better off ordering on line and having it in ten days than waiting for the shop to get it from overseas. So I ordered on line and had the fascination of tracking it on the Australia Post web site. At one point it was actually in West Sunshine, where I work. If I hadn't been on holiday I could have had it that day! 

As it was, it arrived yesterday. My neighbour made sure it was on my doormat for me when I opened the door yesterday. I was utterly excited and delighted and, of course, started reading it right away. Only a chapter in, but interesting so far. He was of a working class family on his Dad's side(Mum was a primary teacher). His father started off working on the railroads, then became a plumber. 

And he started his passion for flying one day when his Dad was driving along and there was this man in a field offering rides in a biplane(this was only a couple of years after Lindbergh's flight). His Dad said he could come up with him or wait, but he was going to have that ride. The rest is history. 

I bought the Simon Schama book at Dymock's on Thursday. I'd gone there to meet my friend Bart, who had a birthday on Tuesday. We were going to have afternoon tea afterwards. He had hoped to do that at the elegant Hopetoun Tearooms, but the queue outside put us off. Amazing. The place is around 100 years old - you'd think by now it would be taken for granted! I'd never seen that before, either. So we crossed the road instead and had our tea and chocolates at Ganache. But the thing is, when I enter a bookshop I almost invariably leave with a book. Citizens actually is available in ebook, but... I just love anything by Simon Schama and, well, I couldn't leave without it. 

Anyone else like that about bookshops?

Two Troll Tales From Norway Retold by Margrete Lamond, Ill. by Ingrid Kallick. Armidale NSW: Christmas Press, 2016

Here's another delightful, beautifully-illustrated folktale volume from the amazing Christmas Press.

This time the theme is that Norwegian creature of mischief, the troll. Forget about the Tolkien variety which is a huge, not-too-bright peasant and turns into stone at sunrise. Forget even the Terry Pratchett variety, which has a silicon brain, can live in the city, work in the police force and needs the cold to be smart. 

The trolls in these stories can change shape if they wish and are closer to the Faerie folk than to the big, thick-as-two-planks version in fantasy fiction. They don't even live under bridges. 

The first story, "The Little Old Lady From Around The Bend", is about something that happened in  the old lady's youth. The girl in the story suffers the same fate as those folk in other stories who are silly enough to help out the ungrateful Faerie and then admit to having seen them afterwards. As if that's not bad enough, she doesn't even get to enjoy her official reward for having helped the trolls. 

In the second story, "The Golden Ball Of Yarn", yet again we are made aware of the problems of helping or even being involved with the Faerie. A young woodcutter hands back a ball of golden yarn to  a huldra girl and finds himself controlled by her for some time, till he finally manages to escape to the other side of the world. 

The huldra are Scandinavian critters that can help or punish mortals. The women are beautiful, except they have tails, the men are ugly. 

There is humour in both tales, which are lively and cheerful, though the second story could have been tragic. The author links them to her own family - the girl in the first story was a crazy old lady remembered by her great grandmother from her childhood, while the woodcutter is someone met on the ship  to the other side of the world(presumably Australia) by her grandfather. 

Both give the traditional warning to children: "Don't trust the Faerie folk!"

The artwork is stunningly beautiful and appropriate to the stories told. I especialły liked the first story's frontispiece which shows a young girl going down the hill from her cottage, which sits on top of a pile of rocks shaped like a sleeping old woman.

You can buy this book from the publisher's web site, from Booktopia and the Book Depository, or, if you live in Australia, you can just ask for it at your local bookshop! 

Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World by Kate Pankhurst. Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2016.

From Coco Chanel to Rosa Parks, Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World is bursting full of astounding facts and incredible artwork on some of the most brilliant women who helped shape the world we live in.

Kate Pankhurst, descendent of Emmeline Pankhurst, has created this wildy wonderful and accessible book about women who really changed the world.

Discover fascinating facts about some of the most amazing women who changed the world we live in. Fly through the sky with the incredible explorer Amelia Earhart, and read all about the Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole with this fantastic full colour book.  (Publisher's blurb from Allen and Unwin website.)

I did wonder when I read this book if the author-illustrator was any relation to the suffragette Pankhursts. Nice to know that their descendant is now able to do stuff like writing about women's achievements. Her other children's books are fiction.

The author has chosen a good variety of women who did different things. Of course, her ancestor is in there, but she is only one entry in a variety. There is also swimmer Gertrude Ederle, who swam the English Channel at a time when women just didn't do that. There's Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, with an easy-to-follow explanation of what was behind those colourful paintings. There's Mary Anning, a young girl who grew up in the Regency era, finding and collecting fossils. The family did it for a living, in their home at Lyme Regis, to sell to tourists, but when she made some major finds, they called in the scientists. It was fourteen year old Mary who discovered the ichthyosaur. As a young woman she discovered the plesiosaur. I had heard of her, but only briefly on a radio show on the ABC. I must look up more. 

Mary Seacole gets a page too. This nurse set up her own hospital in the Crimea during the Crimean War, because as a black woman she had been turned down as an official nurse(Florence Nightingale - remember? Although as I recall, she did say Florence Nightingale was quite helpful to her once she got there). Probably just as well, because she treated the wounded men of both sides of the conflict.

It's a charming book which can set children off in all directions, to find out more, and might make little girls feel better about themselves. The artwork is delightfully whimsical and suits the text perfectly.

Should suit girls from about seven upwards, or can be read to younger ones. There is a useful glossary at the back, to explain hard words. Not enough books have that these days!

Buy it at any good bookshop or online retailer!

Odd And The Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman. Ill. by Chris Riddelll. Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2016

Odd, a young Viking boy, is left fatherless following a raid and in his icy, ancient world there is no mercy for an unlucky soul with a crushed foot and no one to protect him. Fleeing to the woods, Odd stumbles upon and releases a trapped bear … and then Odd's destiny begins to change. The eagle, bear and fox Odd encounters are Norse gods, trapped in animal form by the evil frost giants who have conquered Asgard, the city of the gods. Now our hero must reclaim Thor's hammer, outwit the frost giants and release the gods …  (Publisher's blurb)

When you see a new children's book that combines the talents of the amazing Neil Gaiman and Children's Laureate, artist Chris Riddell, you know you're in for something special. I have been lucky enough to read and review previous collaborations by these two, Fortunately, The Milk...  and The Sleeper And The Spindle and there is no question in my mind that as creators they belong together. Each of them is excellent alone, but together? Something very special, strengthening the work of both.

Neil Gaiman has shown that he can write both for adults and children. And this is one you can confidently hand to the eight or nine year old in your life, or read to them.  It has just a little bit of information about Norse society at the start, without making the young readers feel they're in the classroom - perhaps just enough for them to go and look up more. Odd's late father is only a part-time warrior, as are all the other Vikings; his day job is a woodcutter. In fact, Odd becomes crippled due to trying to use an axe that's too heavy for him. And his father didn't die in battle, he died on the way back, of cold and wet, after rescuing a packhorse fallen overboard. That adds a touch of reality to the fantasy world, in which you might wake up and hear animals talking without wondering, What the heck! and then find a way to Asgard, without thinking, Hey, I'm talking to Thor and Loki! There's humour, too, with the quarrelling gods, a bit of genuine Norse myth and Odd using his brains to solve the problem, not suddenly picking up an axe and wielding it. (Well, the ice giant is just a bit too big for that, even if he wasn't crippled).

Chris Riddell's artwork is breathtakingly beautiful, as always. He could make a living just from illustrating fairytale re-tellings, and be counted among the great fairytale illustrators.

Another book you will need to buy two copies of, if you are to part with one. My young nephew is getting this one when this review is up.

Buy it from the publisher's web site here. Or from Booktopia, here.  In fact, you can buy it pretty much anywhere, including your local good bookshop, which will order it in for you if they don't have it. Why not try there first and keep bricks and mortar stores in business?

Dear "Head Of Library" Reposted From My Livejournal

Dear "Head Of Library",

I read your article in a school library journal. It was about improving schools' perceptions of teacher-librarians.

Which is absolutely fine, I'm all in favour of getting some respect from the administration. It's when you spent your entire article giving advice to "library teams" to remind everyone that they are teachers as well as librarians that I started to wonder what kind of schools you've been working in lately. I looked you up and found you'd been "head of library" at a couple of private schools and were now working part time at another private school and enjoying the break from being in charge. You did say you'd worked at some state schools, though not which ones, and I suspect they were nice middle-class ones in areas where the parents can afford private education but have chosen to send their kids to a state school. They're the kind of schools where you can put a laptop computer on the book list and know parents will buy it.

Well, I'm head of library too, as I'm the only teacher-librarian on my campus. My team consists of me and a two-day-a-week library technician and I'm lucky to have her. If she retired or left, I would be alone. It saves money. They don't cover her any more when she has to take time off. They used to.

And I don't have to remind anyone that I'm a teacher, because, despite being the sole TL, I also have to teach classes. For that matter, so does a friend of mine who is now working at a private girls' school, who is only a little better off than me in staffing, though I bet her budget is better.

What I really want is to have my job as a librarian recognised, stuff the teaching side of it! I'd like to have a support team like yours, Head Of Library, to be able to get together and do great things that cost money, then pat ourselves on the back for being terrific librarians and also teachers(don't forget!)

But you do what you can. I haven't had time to do things like Readers' Cup, though I probably should invite kids to do the Premier's Reading Challenge. It's better if you have support from the English staff, but it can be done informally. You do need to have the books in the library to be borrowed, though, and I'm not sure I have everything on the list. 

I have been able to do book launches and get in the newspapers for those events. I'm running a student book club, which helps choose books for the library and goes on excursions when I can arrange something cheap for them. I write a book blog and occasionally invite students to interview authors, said interviews going on to my blog.

I've been lucky, as a writer, to have some fellow writers offer us a freebie(they get fed and gifted and newspapers are called, the best I can do, since I can't pay them). We're members of YABBA, which offers the occasional freebie too.

I've done virtual readouts with the kids for Banned Books Week. Hey, it's free and they love it!

My colleagues and the kids know what I do. I wish the admin did.

But please, Head Of Library, stop giving advice to people who have had greater challenges than you.

Thank you.
Sue

Now Reading...The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel

And thoroughly enjoying so far! 

When you do the whole "sensawunda" thing about the early space program, you think about the magnificent men in their flying machines zooming off into space. You don't think immediately about the women who had already spent years as the wives of test pilots, more or less bringing up the kids alone, wondering every day if their men would ever come home. The women who often worked at low-paying jobs to help their husbands finish their degrees while giving up their own education. 

And suddenly they were in the spotlight, with journalists and photographers camping out in their gardens or out in the street, and there was a deal with Life Magazine, so you had to be available for family shots and interviews. It wasn't all bad, of course. The pay was a lot better. They could afford stuff they hadn't been able to afford before, maybe even go out for a night on the town and to pay a babysitter! 

What I hadn't realised was that they were important to NASA too. The astronauts were not just chosen for themselves. This was going to be huge publicity. They had to be married - happily married. The wives had to be respectable - and patriotic. A man's chance of getting the astronaut gig actually depended on his wife. In one case, that of Gordo Cooper of the Mercury Seven, his wife had left him, taking the kids, and he had to go after her and beg her to return. Trudy Cooper was a strong woman, herself a qualified pilot who flew a lot. She was persuaded to return.The whole space thing was irresistible. 

I haven't read far, but I think this is going to be a fascinating book! 

Finally Got Around To Seeing...Rogue 1!

I missed the first few sessions. I think these days I don't feel that I simply must see a film on the first day/night/midnight. I'd go, I suppose, if a friend wanted to go together. It is a good idea, though, to go soon, because very few films last more than a couple of weeks nowadays. And I'm on holiday now, so this morning I went off on time for the 11 am session.

I've been a Star Wars fan since I first walked into that cinema on Bourke St, Melbourne, and saw the word crawl and the spaceship zooming overhead. I thoroughly enjoyed The Force Awakens, which was in the true spirit of the original trilogy. 

Now there is Rogue One, which is the buildup to the events of ANH. You see the various races mingling in the streets of the cities and on the Rebel Alliance Council. You see storm troopers in grubby armour because they're in charge of labour camps instead of on the villain's ship, where they would be expected to keep their gear clean. No cantina scenes, alas, except very briefly. And you find that even the good guys are willing to do unpleasant things to win.

I like the fact that this is the second Star Wars film in a row to have a female protagonist. And Jyn is a good, strong character, and brave. 

It was interesting to find out just why the Death Star had that weakness for the rebel fighters to exploit. There have been arguments about that over the years, with many people finding it just too convenient . But there's a reason! A very good reason. 

And thanks to CGI effects we can have Grand Moff Tarkin back, though Peter Cushing has been dead for some years. There's also a young Carrie Fisher's face in the last scene. I know some people have said that it was creepy or disrespectful to do this to actors who have passed away, but I have to say I was quite impressed. Well, with Tarkin, anyway; I thought Carrie Fisher's face looked a bit plastic. Really, if you didn't know Peter Cushing was dead, you wouldn't think "creepy". I hadn't heard about this, so I thought, "Hang on, he's dead! This must be CGI." The film makers said they thought Tarkin needed to be in the film and they had no intention of doing this regularly. 

There were some other characters who returned. Darth Vader, of course, with James Earl Jones's voice. No Dave Prowse, but it wasn't necessary and maybe he had another job. Anthony Daniels appeared very briefly as C3PO; he had one line. 

There was a droid who was more than just a sidekick, K2. He was a fascinating character in this own right and not a fussy butler like C3PO. 

My favourite characters were the two warrior-monks who accompanied our heroine on her quest. One of them was blind, but still Force-sensitive and an amazing martial artist(the actor is well known for his martial arts skills). The other looked like a samurai. But they were both Chinese, not Japanese, though the characters had a definite Japanese influence. 

It was definitely darker than the other Star Wars movies, though it was dark enough when Han Solo was killed in The Force Awakens(and not even a heroic death, just a murder!). Maybe a bit too dark for me and I wondered how the children who were viewing it felt. 

Still, I'm happy I went and will probably go again or get the DVD when it's out.

Happy Birthday, Rudyard Kipling!

Portrait by John Collier, 1891. Public domain.

I was looking for some important things that happened on December 30, but most were horrible. And nothing writing themed. I did unearth a feast day of a saint called Abraham the Writer, but even Wikipedia only told us his name and the church that celebrated him On This Day. Sorry, Abraham the Writer!

So then I looked up the writers born On This Day. I'd never heard of most of them, though it was nice to know it was the birthday of Sol Saks, scriptwriter for the TV series Bewitched, which I enjoyed as a child, though I wanted to thump Darren most of the time. 

However, there was one major birthday - Rudyard Kipling! 

I confess I haven't read all his works, not even some of the famous ones, but then he was a pretty prolific writer and traveller, I just can't read it all - yet. There's a story that he simply turned up on Mark Twain's doorstep and knocked on the door, before wondering whether this was a polite thing to do. However, the wonderful American writer kindly invited him in and had a long chat. 

My American readers will be pleased to know that he lived in the U.S. for a while, with his wife and kids.

I have read Puck Of Pook's Hill and its sequel, Rewards And Fairies, which were utterly magical, linked stories about England's history and folklore. I've been making my way through Just So Stories - and I remember reading "The Elephant's Child" to my nephew Max when he was little(he's about to turn 19 now and start university!). They are wonderful stories to read to a child and put on the voices for them. I've read a fair few of his short stories, including his horror fiction. Bet you didn't know he wrote horror fiction - I didn't either, till I found a collection at my favourite bookshop. 

And the poems - oh, those poems! Beautiful stuff which refers to the sea as "the old grey widow maker" - "Harp song of the Dane Women" and "Song of the Men's Side" which made great filk songs by Leslie Fish and the wonderful late Linda Small. 

And there's "Tommy", a poem about the ordinary British soldier. "Oh it's Tommy this and Tommy that and Tommy go away, But it's thank you, Mr Atkins, when the band begins to play." A gorgeous poem, which has also had the filk song treatment, about how soldiers are treated well when they're needed to fight and like dirt when they're not. We had a student called Tommy Atkins at my first school and he must have wondered why I sang that line at him when he borrowed a book! He didn't ask, though. 

Apparently, Kipling had swastikas all over his book covers till the Nazis spoiled the old sun symbol for him and everyone else, when he stopped. He was no fan of the Nazis!  

I know he has been controversial both in India and elsewhere, but he did write some great stuff. 

Happy birthday, Rudyard! 

And... Kenny Baker!

From Wikimedia Commons, by Mean Mr Mustard

While we're all mourning Carrie Fisher, I thought I might mention another member of the Star Wars cast  who has left us, Kenny Baker, who was R2D2 in most of the films. I only learned about it a couple of days ago, though it happened in August. At least he made it to 82. Which doesn't make him less missed.

I had a chance to hear him speak at a science fiction convention here in Melbourne once. He was guest of honour, but at the last minute we also had Dave Prowse, who played the body of Darth Vader in the films(he didn't know about James Earl Jones doing the voice till after the first film was released!) So there they were, these two men, sitting side by side in the question and answer session, one very tall, the other very small, and I couldn't help thinking that they had both, over the years, been cast for size rather than acting. Dave Prowse was polite and mild-mannered; Kenny Baker was sharp in his comments about at least one fellow cast member. (I should add that the said cast member about whom he was rude came to Australia for another convention and, as well as his guest duties, he helped set up scenery for an event during the con and made sure that those of us who had volunteered were looked after afterwards.)

But he was straightforward about the matter of his height. "I know I'm never going to play Hamlet," he said. Which hadn't stopped him from getting plenty of work - and he had a cabaret partner, Jack Purvis, who was a Jawa in the first film. He mentioned another dwarf actor who hadn't been able to cope with his lack of major roles and committed suicide. That wasn't going to happen to him! 

In Return Of The Jedi, R2D2 was remote controlled, so he was going to play Wicket, the head Ewok, instead, but he got sick and the role went to a young boy in his early teens, called Warwick Davis. Heard the name? You should have. His career has gone very nicely, thank you, with roles from the title role in Willow to Reepicheep the Mouse in the TV version of The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader. 

However, this post is about Kenny Baker. You may think you haven't seen much of him, but just check out his filmography on Wikipedia and you'll find you have. 

Not at all bad for someone who knew he would never play Hamlet! 

***Update! Debbie Reynolds has died, only a day after he daughter, Carrie Fisher. Very sad, first to lose her child, then to follow her so soon! Especially sad for the family to lose two members in a row. Not a good time! ***

Too Many Losses To The World!

For me, at least, the latest round started with John Glenn, the Mercury Seven astronaut who swept around the world in Friendship Seven in 1962. That passing was December 8. My Mum says she remembers that flight, back when she was a young mother in Melbourne. One of the things that happened during his flight, as far as Australia was concerned, was that the people of Perth turned on their lights for him as he flew over.

There were a number of glitches both before and during the flight, including some worries about his heat shield, which could have ended with Friendship Seven returning as a ball of flame, but he got through it and came back to Earth a hero.  Which was, in some ways, bad luck for him, because being a hero made him a sort of living national treasure and that kept him out of space until 1998, when he went up in the space shuttle, to test the effects of space on an older body. Yeah, sure. That was the only reason! ;-) 

He also appeared as himself in an episode of the comedy series Frasier, in which, while the main characters are quarrelling in the back room of the radio studio, he is recording, telling the world he saw aliens out in space and hadn't been allowed to talk about it. He acted very well. Mostly, celebrities who appear as themselves are not that impressive. 

Vale, John! 

And because this is a book blog, after all, not only the blog of a science fiction fan who loves her sensawunda, there's Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, who managed to convince generations of children and adults that rabbits can be epic heroes. A novel based on stories he had told his children was rejected about seven times before a small press took a chance on it and the rest is history. A million copy sales, a movie, a hit song...

He lived in Hampshire and when I was visiting a friend there we had a cold drink at the Watership Down pub - which, incidentally, kept rabbits in the garden. I was told - not sure if it's true - that the book was named for the pub. Anyway, a classic! 

His passing was on Chrismas Eve. Vale Richard! 

But at least John and Richard lived long lives and died peacefully. 

Carrie Fisher was only sixty. That's not elderly these days. And while she had never been out of work, as a well-paid script doctor as well as an actor, she had been in the middle of a resurgence as a Star Wars actor. 

I am old enough to remember when the original movie came out. I left school and slipped into a five pm session in the city. I was swept away by the adventure, the power of it. There was the Hero's Journey thing, of course, with Luke Skywalker. There was the beautiful fairytale princess appealing for help to Obi-Wan Kenobi, her "only hope." 

And when you met the princess, she was not the helpless sweet young thing the message had led you to expect. Her first words to the hero were, "Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?" And then she took over in the escape. Even when, in the third film of the series, she was wearing a slave-girl bikini and a chain, she used the chain to throttle the villain. And she was there in the first place because she had been caught rescuing her lover. 

Then you saw her again, an older woman and leader of another rebellion. Okay, the actor didn't write the script, though she did turn out to be a very good writer, good enough to make a living fixing other people's scripts as well as writing bestsellers, but I don't think anyone else could have played this role. And it was only her second film! 

Vale Carrie! 

And yesterday, the 28th of December, was my Dad's Yahrtzeit. It was the seventh anniversary of his passing. With respect to the celebrities above, this was the passing that meant most to me. In any case, Dad would have sneered at Richard Adams and Carrie Fisher as writers and said they were nowhere near being in my league!  Dad was my biggest fan. He was so proud of his gifted family - on his deathbed, he was promoting my books and my nephew Mark's music to his doctors and nurses. But Dad had gifts of his own. He had a glorious baritone singing voice - his son and two of his grandsons have inherited his singing talent, though they're basses. He was the family handyman, something he had to teach himself since he was in a concentration camp in his teens, with nobody to teach him these things. And when he came to my place to fix things, he would leave delightful little cartoons with his notes to say he had been there. 

I have a silver ring which he made for me, because he taught himself silversmithing, and a silver pendant shaped like an open book which I got for graduating as a librarian. 

In his old age, he taught himself to use a computer and discovered the joys of the Internet. Unfortunately that diverted him from writing his autobiography, but he had a wonderful time! 

My sister, brother-in-law and I went to the cemetery to clean his tombstone and say hi to him. I wore my Wolfborn t-shirt as it was published after he was gone, and told him all about it. And I couldn't help feeling he was listening with that delighted chuckle he always gave. I told my sister his classic joke which, for some reason, she hadn't known about. 

Sleep well, Dad! 

An Arvo In The State Library

A 1962 newspaper - what was on!

This afternoon, I went into the city to do some research at the State Library. It's amazing how many people were there, considering the time of year and that it's just after Boxing Day. I would have thought most students, even uni students, would be having a short break, but all the computers were occupied. I'd meant to spend some time on the National Library's Trove, which has a lot of digitised newspapers, but I ended up simply sitting down with my iPad and using the free wifi to do my looking up, and decided I might be best to do it at home, on my laptop.

Meanwhile, I used the resource for which I'd gone to the library: the microfilm newspapers. The year I wanted was 1962, the month February. I do love looking at old newspapers, though these were very dark and hard to read. I saved several pages to my USB stick anyway, at the cost of 10c a page. The newspaper I used was the Sun, whose descendant, the Murdoch paper the Herald-Sun, I don't much like. But the thing is, as I discovered when researching the Beatles visit to Melbourne in 1964, it did human interest stories, while the  broadsheet Age simply reported what had happened. I needed the excitement of that event, the pictures of girls swooning over the mop-top lads from Liverpool, girls kissing a disgusted-looking Ringo,  the letters to the paper declaring that the  Beatles would be forgotten in about two years. That made for good fiction.

But 1962 was also fascinating. I made sure that as well as my topic, I also saved pages with advertising of the time, pages with what was on at the movies and the theatre, pages with what was on TV.

At that time, the teachers' union was negotiating for a new agreement on pay and conditions. Those were the days, mind you, when most teachers were in the union and pay and conditions were better than they are now. But those teachers hadn't had a chance to see what was in the distant future, so they were protesting outside Parliament about their low pay.

Kids were being invited to enter a competition in which they had to do a Vegemite superhero comic strip, with the prize a Malvern Star bicycle.

On TV were such shows as the Loretta Young Show and Sir Lancelot, a children's TV series with William Russell of Dr Who fame. You know - Ian, one of the first Doctor's first three companions, an utterly gorgeous man with a lovely speaking voice. I remember Sir Lancelot, which he must have done a bit before Dr Who.  And you know how I feel about men with lovely speaking voices! I've acquired some of the William Hartnell episodes and decided that yes, I had good taste back then.

There was some footage of John Glenn's flight on TV too.

A jar of Vegemite was advertised for 1 shilling, 11 pence ha'penny. That would have been about eighteen cents in today's currency, though it bought more than eighteen cents buys today, of course.

At the movies, you could see The Sundowners, with Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum. Robert Mitchum did a very good Aussie accent, because he had lived here in his teens. Gidget Goes Hawaiian was on too, for the teen crowds. You could also see a documentary called Seven Wonders Of The World in a spectacular new thing called Cinerama, which was basically the Imax of its time. The very young Hayley Mills was in the touching Whistle Down The Wind with Alan Bates. If you wanted to go to the theatre instead of the movies, the National Theatre was performing Romberg's The Desert Song at the Palais theatre in St Kilda(still there, but now mostly only used for rock concerts) or you could see The Sentimental Bloke. And Victor Borge was in Melbourne!

If I hadn't been going cross-eyed with the darkness on the screen I would have looked up the letters column. Maybe next time.

This took up a large chunk of my day. I did go to find a pouch for my "new" iPhone(given to me by a friend, because I needed to replace my old  2G phone with a smart one), but the Apple shop didn't have any(it's a very old model) or even something else that might fit it. After I'd basically been told to piss off and stop bugging the man, who had told me they had nothing, for goodness' sake, I went browsing in souvenir shops, bought a pencil case, too big, but light and brightly-coloured enough not to get lost in my bag. And then I found some make-up cases at Woollies, one of them just the right size to protect my phone, and bright orange in colour. I have no idea what I'll do with the other two cases, but I have something I can use now!

Anyway, I feel as if I've had a productive day, writing-wise, even if it was just research. Well done, me!

Off To The Boxing Day Sales!

mum and I used to go together, back in the days when stocktake sales were just that: sales of leftover goods from the Christmas sales, before they started getting in rubbish especially for Boxing Day. Mum can't handle the crowds any more. Even I only went to town because I needed a kettle to replace the old plastic one which has served me well, but is now pitted and dangerous to use. I checked out some reviews and nothing had a majority of positive ones. How can you decide when one review raves and gives a five star review, saying how durable it is and another says the same item broke down after a few months? In a couple of cases that it blew up or caught fire! In the end, I bought a kettle which was smaller than I wanted, but had reasonable reviews.

Now time to go to JB Hifi and see if they can sell me a cover for my new toy, an iPhone, though I may need to visit the Apple store. I have a new gift voucher, a Yuletide gift, so might as well see if JB has it and at the same time, maybe buy a DVD or two. I bought two seasons of Dr Who on my last visit. Maybe one of the older DW stories will be on special?

No Boxing Day blockbusters for me this year - the Dr Who Christmas special is on!

This morning on Radio National there was a debate between Team Literary Fiction and Team Genre Fiction, about whether literary fiction was better for creating empathy in its readers. I'm pleased to say genre fiction won - lit fiction got only one vote out of three and that was only because the judge said she felt sorry for that team and wanted to give them at least one vote. And listeners texted questions - one was used, asking each team to give their favourite books of the opposite type! It was a fun session.

So that's my Boxing Day so far - I stopped at the Emporium food court for a late lunch, I'm there now.

What has your Bocing Day been like?

An Appropriate Yuletide Reread: Hogfather

I love Terry Pratchett's books! It doesn't seem to matter what the occasion is, he wrote a book for it. This one, of course, is for Christmas. It has a lot of fun with Christmas issues, such as department store Santas and commercialism. It also does things with "Good King Wenceslas", showing him as an arrogant wealthy man trying to do "charity" for the peasant so he can get that wam, fuzzy feeling. This, of course, infuriates Death, who is filling in for the vanished Hogfather. 

In case you haven't read this, it's set at the Discworld's version of Christmas, Hogswatch. It's really connected with the agricultural year, the time when pigs are slaughtered for winter food. That's why the Hogfather  drives a sleigh  pulled by huge pigs instead of reindeer, and it's no glittery tinsel-covered contraption either and the hogs are real ones, apart from being able to fly. They do their business on the carpet of a department store. But for the Discworld people it's the time to go home, visit your parents, exchange gifts and cards and get into huge arguments with your family. Yep. Christmas all right. 

When the real Hogfather disappears. due to having a contract out on him by the Auditors of reality, Death takes over the round and it's up to his granddaughter Susan to find the real Hogfather.

This is the second Susan Sto Helit novel, the first being Soul Music, one of my favourite Discworld books, Pratchett's tribute to rock and roll. In that one she was a schoolgirl, who had to take over Death's round when he disappeared. In this one, she's a governess. The final Susan novel was Thief Of Time, in which she was a teacher, who got involved with the son of Time, the Auditors again, still trying to stop the world so they can get on with their filing, and the History Monks. 

I'm a fan of Susan. Because of her background, she's able to do things no normal governess could do, such as bashing up the monsters under the bed with a poker and stopping time. She gives her charges hard books to read, as a result of which the boy can now use words like "disembowelled" after reading a military history. 

It's a very funny book, with lots of laugh-out-loud, especially with Death trying to be Santa Claus, his companion Albert drinking all the sherry and eating all the pork pies left out for the Hogfather,  and there was one particular scene that poked fun at Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. I wished that the original fairytale had ended that way.

I think it was the best of the TV adaptations too. The others were just not as good, even though Terry Pratchett made a cameo appearance in them all. 

Anyway, hope you've all had a great Hogswatch - I went to the beach but it's been 37' most of the day and is still hot!

Somehow it's just not been a traditional Christmas card scene in Melbourne. 

All I Want For Christmas Tag

Hours of the Duc de Berry. Public Domain image. 

I don't actually do Christmas, which is not my holy day, but this seemed like a fun thing to do on a book blog, and I've seen it on others, so here are my answers to the questions below. Enjoy! And feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments.

1. What fictional character do you want Santa to leave under your Christmas tree? 

Faramir from Lord Of The Rings, with the address of his favourite Gondorian restaurant and a way of getting there for dinner. He is such a nice man, and intelligent with it. And he loves history - we'd have a ball!  

2. What character do you want to kiss under the mistletoe ?

The trouble is, all my favourites are taken. Perhaps Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan, who wouldn't be that much shorter than me anyway, who likes and respects women, and who'd be fun to kiss. After all, he doesn't get married until quite late in the series...

3. You write your Christmas list for Santa, what are the top 5 books on it?

These will all be Aussie/Kiwi writers, but you will have heard of most of them, wherever you live. I don't have any titles in mind - just whatever these fabulous writers produce next! 

- the next book by Juliet Marillier

- the next book by Margo Lanagan

- the next book by Sophie Masson

- the next book by Kate Forsyth

- the next book by Dirk Flinthart, preferably a collection of his Red Priest stories

4. It’s Secret Santa/Kris Kringle at Hogwarts, what do you most want to receive?

A gift voucher to Honeyduke's sweet shop! 

5. You get to the spend the day with the characters and movie adaptation actors from one fandom, what do you pick?

Lord Of the Rings characters and cast, and the day would be the day and night of Bilbo's party. 

6. What fictional animal would you like to replace Rudolph and be able to meet on your roof?

Shadowfax from Lord Of The Rings. He's every little girl's dream horse. Or Binky from Discworld, as long as he came without his master, Death. (Unless it's in Hogfather, but Death was driving a sleigh pulled by huge pigs in that... Susan was riding Binky.)

7. You invite 10 fictional characters to your New Year's Eve party, who do you pick?

Okay, I'm going to cheat by allowing some of these characters to bring a minder or a date. 

i. Halt from The Ranger's Apprentice, if I can have Will and Horace to keep him from embarrassing himself. He'd be good value at a party.

ii. Aubrey Fitzwilliam from Michael Pryor's Laws Of Magic steampunk series - he'd be fun at a party and could defend us from any evil magic or resurrected dinosaurs.

iii. Aubrey's friend George, who can cook and loves doing it, to man the barbecue (hey, 

I live Down Under, it's summer here!)

iv. Aubrey's girlfriend Caroline, who can do any physical ass-kicking if Aubrey fails with the magic and would be interesting to talk to. 

v. Miles Vorkosigan from Lois McMaster Bujold's Barrayar novels. He'd be great at a party, but we'll need his wife Ekaterin to keep him from doing anything too crazy. He and Halt could entertain us all. 

vi. Elizabeth Bennet from Pride And Prejudice to be witty and make sure the guys don't get too smug about themselves. 

vii Jo March from Little Women, to put on a play for us and to discuss writing with. 

viii I'm thinking of inviting Phryne Fisher, who always brings great booze to parties and is entertaining, but book-Phryne SMOKES! Like a chimney!  And would object to being asked to smoke outside. Maybe invite TV Phryne? She can bring her boyfriend Lin Chung.

viii Corinna Chapman, the baker from the Chapman mystery novels by Kerry Greenwood, who always brings great food to parties and is fun to talk to; she's a lot like the author! And her gorgeous boyfriend Daniel as her date - she wouldn't come without him.

ix from the same series, Mrs Dawson, an elegant, intelligent woman who would bring champagne to the party and help run it - she's a retired society hostess. 

x. Finally, from the same series, Professor Dionysius Monk, a really interesting gentleman who knows a lot of stuff and would be fascinating to speak to. 

And because it's my party, dammit, I'll also invite Gandalf, who could do all the fireworks for us! 

8. What character would make a good Santa? (Doesn’t have to be appearance, personality counts too)

Again, Gandalf. He'd know exactly what you'd like as a gift, and if you had been naughty or nice. 

Vale Gareth Thomas 1945-2016

Creative Commons image 

So, what is it with me that I only hear about these things months after the event? Like Parke Godwin, the wonderful American novelist who did British heroes better than many British writers? I only heard about his passing because I was looking up stuff for a post about his Arthurian fiction.

In this case, I only heard about it because I was at a Christmas party where someone mentioned it. It happened in April. 

Still, never too late. Gareth Thomas was, most famously, in Blake's 7, playing the title role. If you're not as old as I am, you may not have heard of it, though it does still seem to have a fandom, including young fans who have made their own episodes, with original characters, appearing on YouTube. Blake's 7 was a British TV space opera which started, in the best British style, on a dystopian Earth, where everybody lived under domes because of a nuclear war centuries ago. The air outside has long cleared up, but it's convenient for the government to keep everyone together, where they can be controlled. There are secret police, drugged food and water, a caste system and stupid piped music playing in the streets! There are also rebels, and one of them, Roj Blake, played by Gareth Thomas, had been captured, tortured and had his memories wiped and replaced, then released. When a former comrade persuades him to attend a secret meeting, he's captured again, accused of child molesting, to put his fans off him, and sent off to a penal colony, from which he escapes with a sort of Dirty Dozen in space. After that, it's space opera for the rest of the series. 

Blake was never my favourite character - that was his comrade Kerr Avon, a smouldering gorgeous anti-hero. But that voice! I have always said I'd have dated Quasimodo if he had a beautiful speaking voice and Gareth Thomas was no Quasimodo. 

He was a RADA graduate, England's version of our own NIDA, and you have to be the best to get into that, and once you do, they train you very well. 

And he had an impressive resume, including some Shakespeare and stage, screen and TV, mostly TV. He was working well into the 2000s. Really, Blake's 7 was only two years in a long career, and not even the beginning of the career, but somewhere in the middle. There were two more seasons after he left and he returned only to be killed off in the last episode. 

I remember him in The Citadel, based on a novel by P.C Cronin(I've read the book, lovely story). The lead role of a young doctor in a Welsh mining town was played by Ben Cross, another fine actor who has done quite a lot of good roles and, in recent years, played Sarek in the first new Star Trek movie. Gareth Thomas played his mentor, an older doctor.

And that's the thing. He didn't have to play young heroes. Even in Blake's 7, when he was in his prime,  he wasn't a dashing romantic hero, despite his green and brown Robin Hood-style costume. He was a veteran rebel leader who could always control his anti-hero sidekick Avon, get him to do what he wanted, kicking and screaming, but doing it. In later years he played older characters and they were memorable. 

He seems to have done quite a bit of children's TV too, including stories based on novels, such as some of Jenny Nimmo's beautiful fantasy novels; of those, he was in Emlyn's Moon and The Chestnut Soldier.  In Knights Of God, which was a sort of Arthurian story set in a future dystopian England, he played a Welsh fisherman who had brought up a boy who was the long lost heir to the throne - the rest of the royal family had been wiped out and replaced with a sort of Knights Templar order who were ruling with fists of iron. Gareth's character was the leader of the Welsh resistance and, good heavens, he fell comfortably back into that role, didn't he! In one scene he was disguised in what was definitely a trooper costume from Blake's 7. That mini-series also featured Patrick Troughton as a sort of wizard-like character called Arthur whose son was embarrassing him by being the country's dictator. I think that may have been his last role before he died. 

I once got to see Gareth Thomas at a science fiction convention in England, where he had been brought in to replace another guest who was sick. He signed a postcard for me, which was all I had on me and we chatted briefly. In England in those days, actors really earned their pay at media conventions - in Australia we only ever had one guest and they were guests. They had to do a speech, perhaps be on a panel or two and help to judge the masquerade. For the rest, they were treated as guests. (Those were the days before the big events they have now) 

In England they performed. They practically ran the events. So I saw him and his then-wife, make-up artist Sheelagh, and Paul Darrow(Avon)and his actor wife Janet speaking, running the charity auction and generally clowning around. And then they mingled with the attendees. 

He did a fair number of historical roles, including a Puritan officer in By The Sword Divided, and a policeman in a miniseries whose title I can't recall, which was about an event bs k in the 1900s where they were sent from London to break a strike in Wales. 

You know, I always thought he could have played Aragorn; the description of Aragorn in the novel Lord Of The Rings sounded a lot more like him than fortyish, sexy Viggo Mortensen, who played him in the film. Aragorn looked a lot younger than his real age - he was actually older than elderly King Theoden, whose childhood he remembered - but he was a grizzled fiftyish Ranger who had seen a lot of action. Don't get me wrong, I think the casting of the film was excellent and Viggo Mortensen did the role beautifully. But when I was re-reading the novel, it was Gareth Thomas's voice I heard in my head. 

Ah, well, too many have left us and here's another part of my younger years gone. Vale, Gareth!