‘Daisy and Woolf’ book launch – Better Read Than Dead

Goodness what a big evening for me, I’m usually in bed by eight o’clock but last night I was traipsing around Newtown. I left home too early as usual so I was the first person seated at the book launch, right next to the kids’ books so I spent a bit of time reading the spines. The room was full when the right time for the opening arrived and I learned a lot about Michelle Cahill, the author, that I didn’t know before. The book part of a PhD done with the University of Wollongong.

Michelle has written a lot of poetry as well, and she also runs a literary magazine called Mascara. I’d known about the novel, ‘Daisy & Woolf’ and I have a review copy the publisher kindly sent me but I haven’t read it because of Putin and his dreadful crimes, it’s been so distressing to think of the waste of life and treasure Russia is perpetrating in the name of some old grievance. Regardless of my ongoing distraction – which has brought me back to creative activities myself – I did enjoy listening to the panel, including the author, talk about the gestation of the book. Michelle did a short reading from one of the sections in it, so I had a taste of the prose, which seemed on hearing it to be poetic and rich. I’ll reserve my judgement about the whole until I can summon up my powers of concentration

I had coffee next door in the cafe just before the launch. The coffee was very good and I sat for about 30 minutes by myself watching the world go by.