John Boyne, Maggie Stiefvater and Laura Elvery on hope, enemy diplomats and Florence Nightingale
John Boyne is the prolific Irish author of over 20 books including The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, The History of Loneliness and The Heart's Invisible Furies. His latest writing project is a series of novellas called The Elements with the books Water, Earth, Fire and now, Air. The four books are all connected by the difficult theme of child abuse with the latest - and last - instalment ending the series on a note of hope. John shares why this is personal territory for him and why he's found strength in talking about it.
The Listeners is the first adult novel by American author Maggie Stiefvater who has made her name as a successful writer of young adult fiction. The Listeners is set during World War Two in the Blue Ridge Mountains in America's east, when luxury hotels were turned into detention centres for diplomats from Germany, Italy and Japan and where prisoners were cared for and served by American hotel staff. Maggie also shares her life as a rev-head!
In her debut novel Nightingale, Brisbane author Laura Elvery takes on the iconic 19th century figure of Florence Nightingale who revolutionised nursing in the blood bath of the Crimean War. Laura has fictionalised Florence on her death bed at 90 when there's a knock on the door. The novel follows Laura's award-winning collection of short stories called Ordinary Matter about the few women who've have won Nobel Prizes for science.
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Hamish Blake's cake night stuns fans once again
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News.com.au
9 hours ago
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Donald Trump claims Beyonce, Oprah broke law in Harris endorsement deal
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The Block 2025 Episode 1 recap: NSW snubbed with no applicants deemed good enough
The Block is back and, this year, the devil will be in the detail. For the first time in 20 seasons, every house on The Block is being built purely for the show. And every 365 sqm house has the same floor plan (meaning minor details like fittings and fixtures become major selling points). Each house sits on a 2000 sqm block in the Victorian township of Daylesford. Although identical inside, all five houses will have their own distinct exterior. Most notably, some have a gabled roof while others have flat tops. This meant the five teams had very clear ideas about which ones they wanted to renovate. So, who are the teams hoping to go big when they go home after renovating their homes in 2025? Emma and Ben, from Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula, are high school sweethearts. Ben is a civil engineer. Emma is a woodwork and textiles teacher who also moonlights as a pole dancing instructor. 'It's the best job in the world,' she smiles. The only tools that South Australians Mat and Robby have been on are the scissors. Mat is a hairdresser and Robby is a barber. Robby is a new dad to baby son Brooks, while Matt is a former figure skating champ. The duo has been best mates for 15 years. Alicia and Sonny hail from Queensland and have three children. He's a plumber. She works in a dental clinic. After a tearful goodbye to their kids — and promising not to embarrass them on national TV — the couple arrived in Daylesford to quickly clock they were 'the old couple on site'. West Australian couple Han and Can don't just have names that sound alike, they look alike too. They met on a dating app and hit it off talking into the wee hours about their shared love of dogs and wine. A geologist who once worked in the mines, Han is no stranger to gruelling hours. Can less so. She has worked in marketing and fashion and likes 'balance and harmony'. Taking one look at the lookalike blondes, the other teams assumed the pair are sisters rather than partners. The glamazon couple are not the only representatives from the West. Police officers and parents of two, Britt and Taz live in a dusty, outback town. That means in a Block first, no applicants from NSW made the grade this year. In good news, nobody must rough it in a tent this year. Instead, the teams all get their own caravan to live in (including host Scott Cam) during the three-month build. 'They are the duck's nuts,' Scotty tells them of their accommodation, (which provides yet another handy opportunity to plug a sponsor). Mat decrees their caravan will be a 's**t-free zone' explaining that otherwise, the confined environment would become a 'dungeon of stench.' His decree falls on deaf ears though and Robby's bowel motions and night-time rumblings quickly become a regular plot point. After touring their new digs, Scott reveals the first challenge will be a little different. The five teams will have to draw on all their creative skills and showmanship to create a float for Daylesford's annual Chillout Festival, which is a celebration of the town's LGBTIQ+ community. Judges Shaynna Blaze, Marty Fox and Darren Palmer would decide whose float performance made the biggest, sparkliest impact to determine house selection order. The event had special significance for some of the teams. An emotional Can said: 'We need to do the lesbians proud and make this big and amazing!' 'Having the chance to be out and proud means so much. 'For a lot of my teenage years I felt a lot of shame and insecurity around my sexuality. I have not professed that I have a girlfriend or that I am gay and I still hide it from certain people and in certain instances. So, to come on national TV is a big thing.' The challenge was equally meaningful to Mat who explained: 'High school was probably the toughest time of my life because I was a figure skating, gay boy at a private Catholic school with lesbians for parents, so s**t wasn't f**king easy in the late 90s, I'll put it that way.' The boys were perhaps a little too eager to make an impact with their float. And Scotty had to step in to gently remind them The Block was a family show upon seeing them turning an inflatable hammer into a large male appendage with the addition of two strategically placed disco balls. 'My mum watches the show,' Scott warned. The laid-back host wasn't concerned about the boys' wardrobe choices for the parade, assuring them the Block crew could find somewhere else to tuck the microphone pack when they stripped off their trousers and into budgie smugglers. The cops stole the official Block sign for their float as well as Mat's wardrobe choice, with Taz also donning a pair of tight-fitting swimwear for the parade. Judging the parade gave Darren the perfect opportunity to get the guns out. Again. Meanwhile Shaynna was visibly delighted by the sight of Mat and Caz in their togs. For Marty, it was business as usual with the eager real estate agent already focused on auction day. 'Unlike other seasons where we have been comparing apples with oranges, this season it's apples with apples, with apples,' Marty explained. 'So, it's important you understand what style you are going to go for and what the buyer in the Daylesford market is looking for.' The bedazzled Britt and Taz took out the win and chose House Three, distinguished by its timber frontage and pitched roof. The other teams were stunned that Britt and Taz had chosen the property in the centre of the street rather than what all other teams agreed were the more prized locations at either end of the strip. Emma and Ben came second and swooped on the dark and moody House One. Robby and Matt took the bookend property with House Five. With all the pitched roofs gone, a devastated Han and Can grabbed House Two, leaving losers Alicia and Sonny with House Four. 'I hate it. It's like letting go of my child,' Han moaned of missing out on their dream home (House One) and discovering their property had a retaining wall blighting their view. Han decided to have a long cry in the bath while Can got to work on Google looking for silver linings to their flat roof. The teams now have $20,000 to renovate their first room, a bathroom. With all the plumbing already in place, everybody will be using the same bathroom layout leaving the teams to distinguish themselves via their finishes. And it will be a case of first in, first served because nobody is allowed to have the same, tiles, fittings and fixtures. As usual, Scott urged the teams to hold some cash in reserve for landscaping week. And there's an added incentive to budgeting well this season. Every week, the team who is best at balancing their books will be gifted a $10,000 bonus. 'That's a massive incentive because, even if you don't win the room or finish you could still come out with $10,000,' Can said. Crunching the numbers, Sonny said the new cash bonus meant there was up to $50,000 up for grabs every week (if you factored in bonuses for perfect scores as well as room wins). Mat and Robby saw the additional prize money as a means to fund a wine cellar. If they can scrape together the cash to do it, the pair believe a cellar could be the thing that sets them apart from their neighbours. It also meant asking a very sun smart foreman Dan, if they could follow the fine Aussie tradition started by Dale Kerrigan on The Castle to dig a hole. Understanding that it was a big risk, Mat mused: 'If we spend money on a cellar and don't win anything, we could end up with a very big hole.' Although they've never renovated anything before, Mat and Robby have decided on a contemporary country look for their bathroom, with lots of dark timber finishes. Unfortunately, Alicia and Sonny had a similar brown aesthetic, prompting some friendly rivalry over fittings. Melburnians Emma and Ben — who have done the rounds of the kitchen with renovations — have gone for a mid-century modern vibe, with lots of green tones to reflect their surrounds. Britt and Taz liked a 'modern and organic' look and so have chosen bathroom tiles in soft pinks and natural-coloured stones. Can was hamstrung by Han's desire to micromanage all her decisions. Eventually, after some input from Han via phone, Can went with floor-to-ceiling tiles and with a green feature wall. 'In an ideal world we would be shopping together, always,' Can explained.
