Cockatoo Creek (Book) - 10/27/2020 3:43:52 PM
Hello Baden.
We read Cockatoo Creek and found it to be a very captivating, extremely well written book. We actually finished it a few days ago, but we wanted to take time to review it.
I am French and I have been living in
Australia for nearly fifty years. I have the privilege of being married to a beautiful lady born in Adelaide but brought up and schooled in Renmark.
I love Australia and although we live in Perth, we both love the countryside, especially the river and the rugged plains.
We both think your description of the bushland regions is highly evocative and precise. We have enjoyed your choice of prose as well as the atmosphere and “feel” of a bygone era which in the eyes and heart of a European, such as myself, raises strong feelings of romantic nostalgia. These were nevertheless rough days when men had to be tough to survive and where women,and more particularly Aboriginal, had few rights and commended little respect. We think the way you portrayed Anna Cook and Jan Muller are very true to type. We fell in love with Anna but also with Isabella Montinari Nowadays, there are people in some political circles who are intent on promoting a false caricature of the “white man” and more particularly of any who have had the privilege of a good education. It is highly encouraging therefore to read how cleverly you destroyed by your pen that unfair portrayal and presented us, in contrast, with an Isabella and Michael Montinari who prove that good manners, compassion, love and respect can transcend all races, economic and educational status.
Truly, we loved your book and we think you are a leading author who deserves much greater recognition.
Meredith and I would love to meet you one day (or even chat on messenger) but above all, we would both love to read your next novel.
Please let us know if and when another of your fine works of prose is going to be published.
With much admiration and kind regards
Gérard & Meredith Goiran
Cockatoo Creek (Book) - 8/7/2019 7:32:01 AM
I see that you are a jack of all trades. But, as a first-time author, you tell a spellbinding tale. I like well researched historical fiction, and especially those that accurately point out that the, "good old days," weren't really so good. I recently watched a two year television series called, The Son, a composite of the way South Texas was in the bad old days around the turn-of-the-century. Comanche Indians, the U.S. Army, cattle ranching, Mexicans with land grants, and the discovery of oil. A parallel to Cockatoo Creek, would be the King Ranch, where King, a lawyer, came down from New York and basically took land from the Mexicans living there by killing them.
I read very few books. But I will keep Cockatoo Creek in mind when I stop writing so much and have time to read. Whenever I read a book, I give a thorough review wherever that book is sold. This is not a review of your book, but from what I hear, I'm very intrigued with the story that you have created from history.
I'm still enthralled with my one viewing of the movie, The Earthling. Will have to go back and see it again sometime.
Ron
