July 2026

the great raspberry chainsaw massacre

The owls were hooting and the wombats prowling out in the garden. I’d been propped up in bed writing solidly for about an hour when I looked down and found that I was lying in a vast pool of red, drenching the sheets, my nightdress and dripping on to the floor.

I leapt up, trying to find the injury. Had a chainsaw murderer attacked me while I was absorbed in the story? How could I even stand with so much blood loss?

Meanwhile the gore dripped from my nightdress onto the floor.

That’s when I saw the bag of frozen raspberries. Or the now thawed and almost empty bag of raspberries. The juice and sludge had oozed out while I was writing. I’d wrapped the bag in a tea towel to use as a cold pack after an energetic day in the garden. They’d been frozen too long and were due to be thrown out anyway.

Never use a bag of frozen raspberries as a cold pack. You have been warned.

Meanwhile the juice had dripped from me and my nightdress into a new puddle on the floor. I grabbed what was left of the bag, spilling even more raspberry on the bedroom carpet, and raced the bag out to the garbage bin.

This was a mistake. Every door now had bloody handprints. Drips of blood adorned the bedroom, study and kitchen floors. If any police turned up, then they’d either have arrested me for murder and looked for the corpse or taken me to hospital as the victim.

It doesn’t look too bad now. Admittedly the bed protector is now vaguely pink instead of white, but bleach does an excellent job of removing raspberry juice from a white nightdress and sheet, and the mat already had a design with elements of red, so what was left after the carpet cleaner did its job is almost unnoticeable. But I will never freeze a surplus of raspberries again.

BOOK NEWS

In other news – none of which contain raspberries - The Diamonds of Tilly Devine has been released! May clouds of white cockatoos fly across Australia yelling out the news.

And it’s good, all modesty aside. I think I might finally be becoming the writer I want to be. It only took umpteen decades. The reviews have been fantastic, but even better, friends who are not book lovers have glanced at the cover, read the book, and complained they were up till 2 am because they couldn’t put it down. Everyone has strong opinions about the characters. Very strong, which they communicate at length to the author.

I’m not going to give you the plot, just that it’s set in 1932 Australia and while the title fits the book perfectly you won’t guess what it’s about till you read the blurb...and the book will keep you guessing who/what/how/why until the last page. And it will be fun, but also, just possibly, make you question your assumptions too, as there’s depth below the love and drama. I’m proud of it. I don’t say that often about my books.

I’m also proud of Cleopatra: the Girl Who Would Be King, the first in a new series for 10–14-year-olds. Angus and Robertson have finally let me loose in ancient history, which I have longed to do since I was ten.

Forget what you know about Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen with a fantastic hairstyle. That's only part of the story. Before she was a ruler, Cleopatra was a girl with a fierce ambition: to become pharaoh.

When twelve-year-old Cleopatra and her father, Pharaoh Ptolemy XII, flee to ancient Rome after Cleopatra's sister seizes the throne, they are in serious trouble. It's up to Cleopatra to raise enough gold to hire an army, gain the support of powerful allies, and take back her country’s land.

Three years later she had become the most famous pharaoh in history.

This is the story of how that year in ancient Rome might have changed Cleopatra's life, with daring escapes, crocodiles, pirates, shipwreck and encountering the intrepid Captain Fileas and Myra, the slave determined to be free.

Cleopatra has been mythologised for two thousand years. She wasn’t beautiful - she had thin, sandy red hair and a nose like an eagle’s beak. But she learned how to appear beautiful, in a black wig twined with silver, dramatic black and green eye makeup - an Egyptian tradition - and crushed pearls and egg white to improve her complexion. She mostly appeared on a high dais, dragged by servants, so few saw her up close, and rose oil scented the air around her.

She was a brilliant strategist, who kept her country independent of Rome for nearly 30 years. The myth of her charm and beauty was probably dreamed up to explain how a mere female - in a time when Roman women weren’t even supposed to appear in public by themselves - could out manoeuvre the Roman Empire, invent the modern system of coinage, pass laws giving women and slaves justice and endow the greatest library in history. Above all, she was ‘the girl who loved libraries.’

And this was begun when she was 12, a younger daughter no one had ever heard of. She was extraordinary, fabulous… and a lesson to us all: never underestimate a twelve-year-old girl, especially if she has her own pool of crocodiles.

AWARDS

The Drought Kangaroo (with the wonderful Danny Snell) has just won the ACT Book Award for Younger Readers. Thank you to everyone! The Sea Captain’s Wife won the adult category last year, so I’m feeling very chuffed indeed.

The Mushroom in the Sky has also been shortlisted for the Book Links Historical Fiction Award - exciting!

SOME GARDENING STUFF

What to do in July if you have the time and energy:

Ø  spray 'Stressguard' on frost sensitive plants to help protect them. I put plastic tree guards on some youngsters - many plants become more frost resistant as they grow older

Ø  clean up dead palm fronds; chop them up for mulch

Ø  keep camelias well watered till they finish flowering, then mulch and feed

Ø  divide clumps of perennials, for lots of free new plants

Ø  spray bright green frothy patches of young bindii eyes with bindii killer, or use almost boiling water leftover from your next cuppa tea! Pour it on and watch the bindiis shrivel.

Ø  plan the flowers you'll plant in spring, so you don't just grab the first few punnets of seedlings you see. plant deciduous trees, rhubarb crowns, asparagus.

Ø daydream through seed and fruit tree catalogues planning for next season

Ø clean up garden rubbish and make a final winter compost heap

Ø and take a break.

Useful tip: if you want to feed the small native birds but don't want to encourage mynas, sparrows, feral pigeons, starling and blackbirds, take Bryan's tip- tie a wide ball of wire netting around your bird seed balls. Small native finches can get in, but larger birds can't. And you can have a lot of malicious pleasure watching them try...

How to prune a bush, standard or miniature rose

 Ø  use sharp secateurs dipped in Dettol or bleach

Ø  cut out any dead, spindly or grey barked wood; then

Ø  remove about half the top growth and half the centre growth

Ø mulch with lucerne hay or other good mulch; scatter on Dynamic Lifter or other good organic plant tucker

Ø don't prune roses in frosty areas till next month; don't prune climbers till after flowering; don't hard prune shrub roses, just tidy them a little if necessary.

What to Plant in July

Cold/ temperate areas: don't plant veg and flowers unless you're absolutely longing to get your fingers in the dirt! Seed may rot in cold ground, veg and flowers won't grow much before they bloom and die. Stick to onion seedlings, rhubarb, strawberry, asparagus and artichoke crowns, bare rooted trees, shrubs and roses.

Frost free areas: plant just about anything and keep watering! Pop in some of the new spreading petunias too, for a touch of colour.

HOW TO CREATE A PASSPORT TO READING

Kids need more than dedicated teachers to discover the joy and power of books.  But too often parents are tired, overworked. They may also not know how to even begin sharing books with their kids.

So this is a passport for parents; a Passport to Reading. Teachers could photocopy the ‘passport’ and give one to each kid every month. Librarians could give a Passport to Reading to families, too.

Parents tick each box when the activity is completed, and at the end of the month, those with every box ticked get a prize. It needn’t be large - a gold bordered certificate ‘To a Wonderful Mum/ Dad/ Auntie (whoever signed the passport); a chocolate frog, a framed piece of their kid’s artwork, or a photo of them and their child with ‘congratulations’ on it. It can even just be a photo taken on the parents’ phone with the teacher or librarian and a sign saying, ‘Congratulations to a Great Reading family.’

A Passport to Reading

o   Every night: read a story at bedtime. (28 boxes to tick)

o   Every dinner time: ask your kids what they’re reading, and why they like it, or suggest ways they might find a book they like more.  (28 boxes)

o   Once a week: share a household chore like unpacking the dishwasher or tidying bedroom: one person works while someone reads to them. (four boxes)

o   Once a week; visit the library together and hunt for books you might like to read. (You don’t have to read them all!)   (four boxes)

o   Every weekend: share what you’re reading with your kids. Share an item in a newspaper or magazine, or a text from a friend, or an online article. (four boxes)

o   Every weekend: find a new way to share a book or a poem or a story. Get Grandma to skype reading a story. Tape up a poem in the loo. Read the dog a bedtime story. Tell the kids a funny story about your childhood, or their grandparents. (four boxes)

o   Every week: lend a family friend a book you love. (four boxes)

o   Every month: give a book (a second hand one you no longer want, or a new one) to a charity or school or library. (one box) This one should be optional, however. In disadvantaged areas a book may be too precious to give away, and simply ‘sharing’ may be better.    

SOUPS, SPUDS AND BISCUITS

Seven extremely easy but delicious ‘Bung it all in a pot’ soups.

Pea and Broccoli Soup

Bung about two cups of frozen peas in a large pot with two heads of broccoli and ten cups of commercial or home-made stock. Simmer till tender. Whizz with a hand blender…and it becomes magically sweet, creamy and impossibly ‘yum’.

Pea and Ham Soup

500 gm ham or bacon bones

6 large carrots

3 large onions

2 large spuds

half cup split green peas

lots of water

Bung everything in a saucepan; cover with water; put the lid on and simmer for two hours or so. (A simmer is where it is only just bubbling- very tiny bubbles. if it boils- large bubbles - things may stick and burn on the bottom of the pot. Stir with a wooden spoon every 20 minutes to make sure it doesn't burn on the bottom. Remove bones and large shreds of meat. Mash or blend. Put back meat. Give the bones to the dog or the kids if they're not splintery (The bones that is, not the dog or the kids). Reheat. Keep in the fridge for up to ten days, and eat it for lunch with toast, or dinner with even more toast and a salad.

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Note: do not give these bones to the dog, as they will be sharp and may hurt him.

1 kilo chicken legs

2 cartons chicken stock

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped

half a head of celery - throw out the tough outer stems and all the dark green leaves. Wash them chop all the rest of the soft pale green celery and pale green leaves OR three leeks, with all the tough outer layers thrown away and the tough green tops cut off. Chop up the white bits and pale soft green leaves. Wash well as they may be gritty.

10 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

Bung all this in a large saucepan. Put on the stove. Turn on to a low heat. Cook for an hour on simmer i.e. just tiny bubbles, not big ones.

Turn off the heat. Cool. Use your hands to take all the meat off the bones. Throw out the bones and any floppy chicken skin.

Heat the soup again to eat it.

or

Add 1 large can chopped tomatoes and half a bunch of basil chopped. Heat and you have a good tomato soup.

or

Add 1 tb curry paste; heat and you have curried chicken soup.

or

Add 1 cup of any kind of pasta or dried spaghetti. Simmer till the pasta is soft and you have chicken noodle soup.

Chicken and Corn Soup

 Check that everyone likes corn soup before you make this: some people don't. This is good if you have a cold or flu - very soothing and doesn't have a strong taste.

This serves 4 small bowls, or two hungry people if it's all you are having for dinner.

 You need:

1 can creamed corn. Don't use corn kernels or salt free: it must be creamed corn.

1 bunch spring onions, chopped into small pieces

2 large cartons chicken stock

1 or 2 chicken thighs, chopped into small pieces

Boil everything for 15 minutes. Serve.

You can also add:

 the juice of a lemon

or

2 teaspoons chilli sauce

or

or 1 teaspoon soy sauce...and then boil and serve.

Pumpkin Soup

This soup is creamy, without any cream added.

Bung in a pot:

1 hunk pumpkin - the chunks sold in supermarkets - peeled and seeds removed

2 carrots, peeled

1 potato, peeled

1 large box chicken stock.

Boil 10 minutes. Use a potato masher to mash, or a handheld blender.

To make it richer: add 6 tb butter

To make pumpkin/tomato, add 1 small can tomatoes

To make it even creamier, add half a cup cream and reheat just before serving, then sprinkle each serving with grated nutmeg or finely chopped parsley or coriander.

To make it meaty: add half a cup chopped ham

To make it spicy: add 1 chilli

To make it even spicier: add 1 chilli and 1 tb curry paste or Thai spice paste, then sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves just before serving. This version is possibly the best.

Potato and Leek soup

Again, creamy without cream. Also fast.

Bung in a pot:

4 potatoes, peeled and sliced

3 leeks, tough green bits chipped off and tough outer layers removed. If you have blender, don’t chop. If you don’t, chop as finely as you can

1 large container chicken stock

optional: 2 peeled and chopped carrots

boil ten minutes. Mash or blend.

This can be served hot or cold; each bowl can be sprinkled with finely chopped parsley; can also add a splodge of cream in the centre of each bowl just before serving.

Carrot soup

4 large carrots, peeled and chopped

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 large potato or two small, peeled and chopped

1 large carton chicken stock

'

Bung in a pot. Boil ten minutes. Blend. If you don’t have a blender, chop the onion finely; otherwise, big chunks are fine.

You can sprinkle the top with summer savoury - a great herb, but you need to grow your own, or chopped coriander.

Variation: add 1 tb curry paste: I prefer it this way, though I usually make my own curry mix. Coriander is especially good with the curry version.

Variation: add a splodge of cream in the middle of every bowl before serving, sprinkle with parsley.

Variation: toss in small squares of buttered toast just before serving.

The Best Recipes of all for Spuds

Potato Gratin

Time taken: 10 minutes to put together, 1 hour to cook.

1 large potato per person

1 carton of cream for every four potatoes

1 tablespoon cornflour (optional)

Peel the potatoes. Slice them thinly. Arrange them in slices in an oven proof dish. It’s best if there are only two or three layers, though I sometimes make deep ones.

Pour the cream slowly over them, so that they have all had some cream on them. Bake in a slow oven - about 150 C - till the top is brown and crisp, about 1 hour. Serve hot.

You can make this earlier in the day, or the day before and reheat it at 150C for 10 minutes.

A large gratin: if I am making a deep gratin for many people, I mix 1 tablespoon of cornflour with the cream before I pour it on. If I don’t do this the cream can separate into cream solids and butter during the long cooking. This is still delicious, but doesn’t look as good, even if you pour off the butter before serving.

Variations

Use half potato and half sweet potato slices

Add 1 teaspoon of chopped ham for every potato

Add a layer of defrosted frozen spinach between the layers of potato. (Only do this if you love spinach).

Mashed Potato

1 medium potato per person

2 tablespoons of milk for every potato, or 2 tb cream and 1 tb butter

The milk makes an okay mashed potato; the butter and cream a fantastic mashed potato.

Black pepper

Peel the potatoes. Cut into slices. Cover with water. Boil till the potatoes are soft - test by poking with a knife.

Drain off the water.

Add the milk, or the butter and cream. Press down with your potato masher till it’s all mashed, then whip the mix with the masher round and round a few times to lighten it. Add a grate of black pepper and serve hot.

This mashed potato can be kept in the fridge for up to a week and reheated in the microwave or oven. I usually make a big pot, mash it with butter, and let it cool, then heat it up with the cream when I want to serve it.

Other versions

Add half a carrot for every potato. They look great mashed together.

Add half a carrot and 2 tb of frozen peas for every potato, and mash together. Looks and tastes great and you only need one pot for your veg.

Use half potato and half pumpkin

Use half potato and half sweet potato

Add finely chopped chives or spring onion as soon as you have drained off the water, so they partially cook in the heat. I add about half a tb per potato.

Idaho Potatoes

Wash spuds.

Don’t wrap in alfoil…it just makes them soggy, and you lose the nice crisp skin. The foil idea was just a cunning marketing idea from alfoil manufacturers, and it has ruined 40 years of good spuds and turned a generation into eating pasta instead of potatoes.

Bake at 200C - 40 minutes for small ones, 60 minutes for large ones. Test by cutting one open if you're not sure if they're cooked.

Serve by themselves or open the alfoil and slice open the top and dab on light sour cream.

Oven Chips

Peel spuds.

Cut into slices one way, then cut those slices into chips.

Spread 1 tb oil onto a baking tray or spray with olive oil.

Turn the oven onto its highest setting.

Place the spuds on the tray. Roll them over in the oil or spray them well with olive oil.

Bake till golden brown in the oven. This will take 10-25 minutes depending on how hot your oven can get and what sort of spud they are. Check after 10 minutes and then every five minutes.

If you cook two trays at once wait till the top tray is brown then change places with the bottom tray, as things don't brown well on the bottom of the oven.

Use an oven mitt or folded tea towel and beware - hot chips and fat are easily spilt.

Sprinkle with salt before serving.

I use ‘rock salt’ - it’s a chunky salt that tastes even more salty. I often blend the salt with spices, but you can buy spiced salts too. Native Spice salt is one of the best, and so is Siam salt.

Vladimir’s Grated Potato cakes

These taste surprisingly meaty. I was given the recipe by an elderly man who had spent his teenage years shepherding refugees fleeing Hitler across a mountain and then swimming them across the river over the border. When he came home each morning his mother - who pretended she didn’t know what he was doing - always had these waiting for him.

Mix

3 large raw potatoes, grated. You can peel them - I don’t if by myself but do if serving to others.

4 chopped peeled cloves of garlic.

3 heaped tb plain flour.

3 eggs.

Optional: 1 grated red peeled onion, half a bunch finely chopped parsley or coriander, 2 peeled grated carrots, 4 tb grated raw yellow sweet potato, half a cup finely chopped small tender celery leaves, half a chopped, seeded red capsicum, 1-10 chopped fresh red or green chillies, seeds removed. NB: Wash hands after chopping or use gloves - the juice can seriously burn eyes, noses and other sensitive bits. Once used to torture captives, so treat it warily.

Heat a fry pan on high for two minutes; turn the heat down to medium and add 2 tb extra virgin olive oil.

Drop big spoonfuls of the mix into the oil; press down so they are about as wide as your hand. After 3 minutes wiggle a spatula or egg slice under them to stop them sticking, but if the pan is hot and oil covered they shouldn’t stick.

After 5 minutes turn them over. If they are brown on top cook the other side for five minutes then turn over and over, till both sides are brown. By then the inside will be cooked.

Serve hot but I also love them cold. Good with just about any sauce, even bottled tomato sauce or sweet chillis sauce.  Commercial chilli jam is excellent too.

Biscuits

The Ultimate Choc Chip Biscuit (These are a household standard at our place, known as ‘Grandma’s Cookies’ or ‘are there any spare biscuits left mum?’)

125 gm butter

1 egg

1 cup brown sugar

1 tb vanilla paste

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup SR flour

1 cup of small, good quality dark chic chips (You cannot have good biscuits with poor quality chocolate. If necessary, chop up a block of good dark chocolate)

3 tb grated dark chocolate

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar well, then add egg till well blended. Gently fold in vanilla, flours and grated chocolate, then the chips.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Line a tray with baking paper.

Make sure the tray will be in the middle of the oven or the tops or bottoms of the biscuits may brown before the other end is ready.

Roll mix into small balls. Flatten and place on the tray. Make sure the edges aren't too thin or they will blacken before the middle is done.

Bake about 10 minutes, till golden brown, NOT darker brown.

Remove tray from oven. Pull off the paper quickly so the still soft biscuits don't cook any more. Cool till crisp then store in a sealed container. They last for about three weeks but are best eaten within a week.

White Chocolate Oaties

250 gm butter

6 tb golden syrup

½ cups brown sugar

2 cups rolled oats

1 ½ cups plain flour

½ cup SR flour

1 ½ cups white chocolate pieces.

Melt the butter and syrup. Add the rest except the chocolate. Stir well, then leave to cool for 10 minutes. Add the chocolate. By now it will melt into swirls so handle gently - you don’t want it to amalgamate but stay swirly and slightly lumpy.

Place small balls on a tray lined with baking paper. Press flat with a fork. Bake at 150C till pale brown - not too dark. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin.

The kitchen will smell incredible.

Snickerdoodles (not just because I love the name)

150 gm butter

1 cup castor sugar

1 egg

1 3/4 of a cup SR flour

Rolling mix: 

half a cup cinnamon scented castor sugar, or use ordinary castor sugar mixed with 1 tbs ground cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar; mix in the egg, then mix in the flour. Take teaspoons of the mixture and roll into a ball with your fingers then roll in the cinnamon sugar till it’s well and truly covered.

Place each snickerdoodle on a greased tray, press them slightly flat with a fork, and bake at 225C for about ten minutes, or until just turning golden at the edges. Take from the oven and remove the snickerdoodles carefully - they'll still be soft but will turn crisp as they cool. Keep in a sealed container for up to three weeks.