‘Ian Fleming was a friend of ours and he told me he was going to write a novel about “a spy to end all spies” and he went ahead and created James Bond, and I decided, “Right, then, if he can do it, so can I! I am going to create “the hero to end all heroes”.’Dorothy Dunnett, Sydney, 13 March 2000 And that was how Dorothy Dunnett (1923-2001) described to me the beginning of…

IT should have been a perfect evening for Estelle, wife of the new Governor of the Colony of Victoria. There was no talk of rabbits, Mr Lalor had been charming and none of the men had made foolish jokes about the university’s decision to permit female students. The world seemed to be making progress. And then with utter spitefulness, a haughty, loud voice had exclaimed:   “Good family! Pfaugh, nonsense. Married beneath him, didn’t he! An…

A damsel in distress meets a chivalrous knight in this medieval tale, originally commissioned for St Valentine's Day by The Australian Women's Weekly.

Georgiana Roe swiftly put up a gloved hand to check that her bonnet plume had not been blown askew by the brisk breeze from Sydney Cove and stepped into the offices of Blackthorne & Paris.   “I'm Miss Euphegenia Arbuthnott here to see Mr Richard Paris.”   With a sniff, a bald-headed clerk left his ledger to rap upon the inner door and escort her through.

Bill helped Phyllis off the ferryboat to Fig Tree and onto the wharf. He'd thought about taking her to one of the pleasure gardens in Middle Harbour, but this place, tucked up the Lane Cove river, was less showy, so with luck none of her family's highfalutin friends would be around. The gossips would have a field day. The daughter of one of Sydney's wealthiest men seen on the arm of a larrikin gardener!

Port Jackson, Australia, 1796     Robert hitched himself over the fence before the soldiers turned the corner, and landed clumsily on all fours in someone’s shrubbery. He froze, crouching within the shadow of a stocky, low-spreading banksia, head down, his lungs protesting mightily and heard the shouts as His Britannic Majesty’s human hounds came baying.