Taking the slow road

by | Mar 22, 2020 | Travel

By Chris Maher (Excerpt from the story in Snapshots of Sri Lanka) THIS was a first. Of all the places I’d travelled either by myself or with the family, I’d never hired a driver. I’d always believed that using local public transport was the best way...

Survival of the cutest

by | Mar 22, 2020 | Travel

By Chris Maher [This story first appeared in The Australian newspaper.] Calmed by flutes of chilled champagne, my wife and I felt highly privileged as we sat by ourselves on the white Heron Island sand, watching an orange sun slink beneath the shimmering waters of the...

TRENT DALTON Boy Swallows Universe

by | Mar 22, 2020 | Book reviews

Reviewed by Chris Maher Review at Newtown Review of Books Boy Swallows Universe is a first novel rich in adventure, description and plot. Mark Twain famously said that truth is stranger than fiction, and the parts of Boy Swallows Universe that draw on Trent Dalton’s...

Going global in Bellingen

by | Mar 21, 2020 | Travel

By Chris Maher [This story first appeared in the Sunday Telegraph.] OUR whole family loves music, the north coast and the great outdoors, so it seemed a brilliant idea to combine all three and take a campervan trip to the Bellingen Global Festival. We thought back to...