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Words and Nerds: Authors, books and literature Podcast

Episode 556: Christine Sykes and Dani Vee talk about: The Tap Cats of the Sunshine Coast.

Listen now on:

Words and Nerds Podcast is an entertaining and conversational podcast that aims to get inside a writer’s mind. We discuss books, the social and political influences of a writer’s work and how literature has the power to change the world.

New Book: “The Tap Cats of the Sunshine Coast”

The Tap Cats, a Queensland based tap dancing group face unexpected challenges when they enter the Seniors Superstar competition.

Through the observant eyes of Maude’s journalist granddaughter Melissa, we meet Carol, Sofia and Bonnie whose lives have been intertwined since primary school.

Their hopes, dreams, ageing, heartaches and heart mends have been woven together in a close web for decades. Bonds which are in danger of unravelling when long held secrets are revealed. Secrets that rock the foundations of their friendship and the destiny of the Tap Cats.

Set in the stunning landscape of the Sunshine Coast, the women tap their way through the competition, as well as trials and tribulations, all the way to New York and a Greek Island.

TAP CATS OF SUNSHINE COAST
By SYKES CHRISTINE
Publication date: 03/08/2022
Ventura Press

‘Have you met the Whitlams?’: growing up as Gough’s neighbour

She didn’t know it at the time, but an eight-year-old’s life was set to change irrevocably when Gough Whitlam moved into her south-western Sydney street in 1957.

The man who would become the most visionary and polarising political leader in Australia relocated his family from Cronulla in Sydney’s south to a four-bedroom, architect-designed modernist brick house in Albert Street, Cabramatta. It was 1957, and their house was on the part of the street where new houses with kerbs and guttering were replacing the vineyards and market gardens.

Read the full article here: Sydney Morning Herald – Good Weekend

When Gough Whitlam moved into my Cabramatta street, my life was transformed

The coming of Gough and Margaret made my life more complex and meaningful. I hope his vision of equality remains.

When Gough Whitlam moved to my street in Cabramatta I was eight years old. We lived in a two-bedroom fibro house built by my truck driver father and uncles, with a dunny out the back and a dirt road in front.

The Whitlam family moved to the other end of Albert Street into a four-bedroom brick modernist house with a flat roof. It was spacious and iconic.

My life was transformed.

Read the full article here: The Guardian

Gough and Me: My Journey from Cabramatta to China and beyond

About:

When Gough Whitlam moves into her street in Cabramatta in 1957, eight-year-old Christine has little idea how her new neighbour, one of the most visionary and polarising political leaders of Australia, would shape the direction of her life. Born to working-class parents and living in a fibro house built by her truck-driver father, Christine simply dreams that one day she might work as a private secretary like her aunt.

But when the reforms Whitlam championed give Christine the chance to go to university, her world expands. She experiences the transformative power of education, struggles to balance motherhood with being the family breadwinner, and faces her own mental health battles. She follows a path forged by Whitlam, from scholarships he fought for, to local community initiatives he generated, and even as far as China, where Whitlam crucially initiated Australia’s relationship when he visited the country in 1973.

Written with genuine heart and humour, Gough and Me is a nostalgic and deeply personal memoir of social mobility, cultural diversity, and the unprecedented opportunities that the Whitlam era gave one Australian working-class woman.

Pre-order now from Amazon

The Changing Room, shortlisted!

The Changing Room has been shortlisted for an award in the Society of Women Writers NSW 2020 Members’ Book Award in the category of  Fiction for your book. To learn more about THE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS NSW, visit: www.womenwritersnsw.org

New Book: Splash, Slither, Squawk!

Wombats, platypus, turtles, magpies, koalas, goannas, cockatoos, bilbies, kangaroos, banksias, flannel flowers, bushfire, rain, ferns, snails, spiders, glow worms, pelicans, flying foxes, cicadas, lyrebirds, butterflies, possums, owls, kookaburras . . .

In this varied collection, poems and stories about bushfire and resilience, surprising encounters with native wildlife, information about the natural world, together with articles about endangered species are complemented with drawings by young artists living in NSW.

Enjoy nature writing by SWW NSW members and guests, including: Michele Bomford, Jacqui Brown, Kylie Day, Carolyn Eldridge-Alfonzetti, Beverley George, Susanne Gervay, Samantha Goyen, Libby Hathorn, Pippa Kay, Colleen Keating, Dorothy Keyworth, Hester Leung, Sophie Masson, Sema Musson, Mary Anne Napper, Liz Newton, Vanessa Proctor, Susan Ramage, Joanne Ruppin, Pamela Rushby, Margaret Ruckert, Rita Shaw, Pat Simmons, Carmel Summers, Christine Sykes, Julie Thorndyke and Decima Wraxall.

Order your copy from SWW

‘Do we have heads so cockatoos have something to rest on? Are lyrebirds really trying to fool us? Why do we have Easter bilbies not bunnies? How are our coral reefs changing? What do birds pray for? Do you like poems and stories about the bush? I’d be surprised if you didn’t. Get yourself a copy of this book – if necessary find an adult to do it for you – and find somewhere cosy to sit. You won’t regret it.’

— Dr John Vallance, NSW State Librarian

‘Engaging young people in stories of our wildlife challenges them to become protectors of the world.’

— Susanne Gervay OAM