Entries by Debbie Worgan

The Good Wife of Bath: A (Mostly) True Story 

reviewed by Wendy Tucker

The Good Wife of Bath: A (Mostly) True Story

Karen Brooks 

This is Karen Brooks’s fourteenth novel of historical fiction with a focus on women’s work, ranging from chocolate makers to brewers and bawds. Her novels have often been assigned to the romance genre and this does both the author and the novels a disservice and has excluded the wider readership they deserve. 

But not so with The Good Wife of Bath that has been widely reviewed … Read more »

Judi Hearn: not a person who rehabilitates goldfields

by Jen Severn

It took Judi Hearn a few years to realise she was living in Bermagui. She and Bob were still on their cattle farm near Echuca on the Murray River when they bought the house in Bunga Street in 1989. At first, they’d head to Bermi for a couple of weeks at a time to give their sons, Jamie and Donald, some rein to run the property. Then it was a few … Read more »

Sea of Tranquility

Emily St. John Mandel
Reviewed by Wendy Tucker

Emily St. John Mandel is a Canadian novelist and essayist now living in New York. She has written six novels and came to fame in 2014 with her post-pandemic, prize-winning novel Station 11, published and widely acclaimed well before the real COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. It has now been translated into thirty-three languages and made into a mini-series by HBO (available on Stan in Australia). Both … Read more »

A south coast version of Ottolenghi’s chicken with clementines and fennel

by Angela Marshall

This is an adaptation of a recipe by Yotom Ottolenghi whose recipes are a byword for fabulous flavours and very long, involved and often unobtainable ingredient lists – but at this time of year we have a bounty of citrus and fennel bulbs as well as thyme and parsley. And the rest of the ingredients are pretty common pantry items.

Ingredients: 

1/3 cup of dry vermouth (ouzo is even better if … Read more »

West African Peanut Soup

by Bhagya

Ingredients:
4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 tablespoons peeled and minced fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 bunch collard greens (or kale), ribs removed and leaves chopped into 25 mm strips
¾ cup unsalted peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
½ cup tomato paste
hot sauce, like … Read more »

Food for our friends


Keith Mundy

With winter well and truly with us, thought should be given to not only brightening up your garden with some winter-flowering shrubs but also providing some plants to provide food for our native birds. In most cases, Australian native plants will provide most of the requirements to sustain our birds
through the harshness of winter. There are many genera of … Read more »