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Picnic Races (novel)
''Picnic Races'' (1962) is a novel by Australian writer Dymphna Cusack. Plot summary Set in the fictional Australian country town of Gubba, the novel details the town's preparations for its upcoming centenary celebrations, the social and financial factions in the town and the discovery of something long thought lost. Reviews A reviewer in ''The Canberra Times'' praised its setting while being a little less impressed with its overall worth as a novel: "''Picnic Races'', Dymphna Cusack's latest novel, is as Australian as a yellow box tree. Her fictional town of Gubba, whose centenary is arranged and celebrated amid a welter of community rivalries, could be any Australian country town from Braidwood to Benalla, or Northam to Normanton....Picnic Races is more than merely evocative of the Australian countryside. The plot is well conceived, the characters realistically drawn, incidents abound including a boisterous near riotous race night ball, with to cap it all, a surprise ending. P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dymphna Cusack
Ellen Dymphna Cusack AM (21 September 1902 – 19 October 1981) was an Australian writer and playwright. Personal life Born in Wyalong, New South Wales, Cusack was educated at Saint Ursula's College, Armidale, New South Wales and graduated from the University of Sydney with an honours degree in arts and a diploma in Education. She worked as a teacher until she retired in 1944 for health reasons. Her illness was confirmed in 1978 as multiple sclerosis. She died at Manly, New South Wales on 19 October 1981. Career Cusack wrote twelve novels (two of which were collaborations), eleven plays, three travel books, two children's books and one non-fiction book. Her collaborative novels were ''Pioneers on Parade'' (1939) with Miles Franklin, and '' Come In Spinner'' (1951) with Florence James. The play ''Red Sky at Morning'' was filmed in 1944, starring Peter Finch. The biography ''Caddie, the Story of a Barmaid'', to which Cusack wrote an introduction and helped the author write, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinemann (publisher)
William Heinemann Ltd., with the imprint Heinemann, was a London publisher founded in 1890 by William Heinemann. Their first published book, 1890's ''The Bondman'', was a huge success in the United Kingdom and launched the company. He was joined in 1893 by Sydney Pawling. Heinemann died in 1920 and Pawling sold the company to Doubleday, having worked with them in the past to publish their works in the United States. Pawling died in 1922 and new management took over. Doubleday sold his interest in 1933. Through the 1920s, the company was well known for publishing works by famous authors that had previously been published as serials. Among these were works by H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, W. Somerset Maugham, George Moore, Max Beerbohm, and Henry James, among others. This attracted new authors to publish their first editions with the company, including Graham Greene, Edward Upward, J.B. Priestley and Vita Sackville-West. Throughout, the company was also known for its classics an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hardback
A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occasionally leather). It has a flexible, sewn spine which allows the book to lie flat on a surface when opened. Modern hardcovers may have the pages glued onto the spine in much the same way as paperbacks. Following the ISBN sequence numbers, books of this type may be identified by the abbreviation Hbk. Hardcover books are often printed on acid-free paper, and they are much more durable than paperbacks, which have flexible, easily damaged paper covers. Hardcover books are marginally more costly to manufacture. Hardcovers are frequently protected by artistic dust jackets, but a "jacketless" alternative has increased in popularity: these "paper-over-board" or "jacketless" hardcover bindings forgo the dust jacket in favor of printing the cover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paperback
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, leather, paper, or plastic. Inexpensive books bound in paper have existed since at least the 19th century in such forms as pamphlets, yellow-backs, yellowbacks, dime novels, and airport novels. Modern paperbacks can be differentiated from one another by size. In the United States, there are "mass-market paperbacks" and larger, more durable "trade paperbacks". In the United Kingdom, there are A-format, B-format, and the largest C-format sizes. Paperback editions of books are issued when a publisher decides to release a book in a low-cost format. Lower-quality paper, glued (rather than stapled or sewn) bindings, and the lack of a hard cover may contribute to the lower cost of paperbacks. Paperb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heatwave In Berlin
''Heatwave in Berlin'' part 1 Plot summary Australian Joy von Muhler is returning with her husband Stephen to Berlin, in the early 1960s, to visit his family. The pair have been married for 10 years after Stephen migrated to Australia following World War II. They return to a Berlin still struggling with damage caused in the war, and to a wealthy family still hiding secrets about their war-time involvement. Reviews A reviewer in ''The Canberra Times'' was not impressed with the novel: "Dymphna Cusack's new documentary novel, ''Heatwave in Berlin'', has the pace, the excitement and something of the basic hollowness of a thriller...What it makes as a novel, however, is something which cannot be taken very seriously. The characters have the larger-than-life quality of figures in a melodrama, and they speak with something of the same staginess." See also * 1961 in Australian literature This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian lite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Lightning (novel)
''Black Lightning'' (1964) is a novel by Australian writer Dymphna Cusack Ellen Dymphna Cusack AM (21 September 1902 – 19 October 1981) was an Australian writer and playwright. Personal life Born in Wyalong, New South Wales, Cusack was educated at Saint Ursula's College, Armidale, New South Wales and graduated f .... Plot summary Tempe Caxton is an ageing television presenter who is recovering from a suicide attempt following the end of her career and the breakdown of a love affair. In hospital she learns that her dead son has left a part-Aboriginal child in a north coast town. The novel follows Caxton's journey of discovery into her own family's past and the living conditions of Australia's original inhabitants. Reviews Writing in ''The Canberra Times'' Jean Battersby found that "Miss Cusack enters the fight with courage, sympathy and indignation, but without very much subtlety or skill...Art, properly exploited, is probably the most powerful ally of the social crit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1962 In Australian Literature
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1962. Major publications Books * James Aldridge – ''A Captive in the Land'' * Thea Astley – ''The Well Dressed Explorer'' * Martin Boyd – '' When Blackbirds Sing'' * Jon Cleary – ''The Country of Marriage'' * Dymphna Cusack – '' Picnic Races'' * Catherine Gaskin – ''I Know My Love'' * George Johnston – ''The Far Road'' * Elizabeth Kata – ''Someone Will Conquer Them'' * John Naish – ''The Cruel Field'' * John O'Grady – ''Gone Fishin * Nancy Phelan – ''The River and the Brook'' * George Turner – ''The Cupboard Under the Stairs'' * Arthur Upfield – ''The Will of the Tribe'' Short stories * Thea Astley – "The Scenery Never Changes" * Peter Cowan – "The Island" * John Morrison – '' Twenty-Three : Stories'' * Hal Porter ** ''A Bachelor's Children : Short Stories'' ** "A Double Because It's Snowing" ** "First Love" ** "Francis Silver" * Patri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1962 Australian Novels
Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 196 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus attempts to assassinate Clodius Albinus but fails, causing Albinus to retaliate militarily. * Emperor Septimius Severus captures and sacks Byzantium; the city is rebuilt and regains its previous prosperity. * In order to assure the support of the Roman legion in Germany on his march to Rome, Clodius Albinus is declared Augustus by his army while crossing Gaul. * Hadrian's wall in Britain is partially destroyed. China * First year of the '' Jian'an era of the Chinese Han Dynasty. * Emperor Xian of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
