Christmas is a time I think a lot about my mother, who died on Christmas Eve 8 years ago, the year I came back from Geneva. She made sure that she would never be forgotten at #Christmas time. There were many reminders of her after she died, many strange ‘coincidences,’ like an old lady whom for a couple of years after mum's death would ring the ‘wrong number’ of my niece (who shared a birthday with my mother) and say uncanny things. These calls would frequently happen around

So much has happened since the last blog I wrote in November 2019. Writing for my latest book, #TheRhyniePoisoningCase, a sequel to #TheSecretArtofPoisoning, has been slow and the last time I worked on it was over 2 months ago in February 2020: it seems to have been stuck at ‘half way through’ for a while. My writing has been mainly focused on my journal. But since it is a cold, windy and wet autumn night under #COVID19 restrictions, I thought it would be a good time to write

What an amazing month! This month 'The Red Devil: The story of South Australian #Aviation #Pioneer' was launched at the #Minlaton Town Hall, with 350 attending (officially launched by Professor Peter Monteath). Les and I gave a presentation on #HarryButler, with audience members including SA Governor Hieu Van Le and state and federal MPs, Fraser Ellis and Rowan Ramsey. Also launched was a children's book about Harry Butler ('Born to Fly' by Bev Williams, beautifully illustrat

Back on the 23rd May, the #Melbourne launch of #TheSecretArtofPoisoning was supported by #SistersinCrime Australia with #crimewriter #DrLucySussex the launcher, and was held at #ReadingsStKilda and went very well. The book is now available in a number of Melbourne bookshops including Dymocks (Collins St & Richmond), Readings St Kilda, Avenue Bookstore Richmond, the Royal Historical Society of Victoria and the #OldMelbourneGaol. #MarthaNeedle is one subject for the current #

The month of May has been busy! I've been doing a few radio interviews lately, speaking with Jules Schiller’s on his ABC Adelaide 891 Drive show about #TheSecretArtofPoisoning book on 8/5, as well as with Tim Ross on Myf Warhurst's ABC Melbourne show on 17/5 and to Lucille Hughes on 96.5 'Readings and Writings' show today (22/5) on InnerFM Melbourne. Les Parsons and I also spoke at the Adelaide Airmail Society 1/5 during the SA History Festival on Narelle Graham’s ABC Statewi

I had a good chat with Nathan Davies at the Sunday Mail about #TheSecretArtofPoisoning book and the tragic tale of #MarthaNeedle a couple of weeks ago. This story appeared last Sunday, 3rd March 2019 and well summarises the book. I mention that the case is not 'cut and dried' and Martha Needle was considered a 'psychological enigma' at the time . The handling of evidence in the case also left much to be desired and the judicial processes of the 19thC were interesting and very

I have finally #published my #truecrime book #TheSecretArtofPoisoning The #MarthaNeedle book is available both as an ebook (see books2read.com/secretartofpoisoning) and paperback from many sources (e.g. Booktopia, Amazon, Kobo, Google, Applebooks). It would be great if you could provide a review from where you purchase or on Goodreads! I am taking questions about the book on #Goodreads over the next week. For more information, also please listen to my podcast on the book at

Welcome to my #newwebsite which I have established in the lead up to the publication of two non-fiction historical books I have been working on: #TheSecretArtofPoisoning and #TheRedDevil (with Les Parsons). These are very different tales: one about an anti-heroine from the #19thCentury and one about a #heroic #PioneerAviator from the #WW1 era. I came to the first book to be published via the second. When researching pioneer aviator #HarryButler, I came across a tragic #truecr