Showing results by author "Di Morrissey" in All Categories

When people die, are they ever truly gone? I had heard the saying "pennies from heaven" before, but my coins from heaven seemed to be dimes. Was my father actually sending me dimes to show me he wasn't really gone? My mother seemed to be sending pennies all the time, but my dad was pretty clever.

It is 1953 in a small country town in Australia, a time of post-war prosperity and hope. The Holtens are wealthy austere graziers who have lived on the land for generations. The McBrides are a large and loving shearers family who are new arrivals to the district. When the McBrides eldest daughter falls in love with the Holtens only son and heir, the barriers to their love seem overwhelming. But in the end, their love triumphs even over tragedy and hope and joy are their enduring legacy.

A new story in an ancient landscape from Australia's favourite storyteller. In The Red Coast, Di Morrissey returns to the red earth of the Kimberley with a passionate story of resistance and resilience under its soaring blue skies. After the upheaval which separated Jacqui Bouchard from her beloved son, she has finally settled in Broome, a magical remote town on the northwest coast of Australia.

Kate: a strong-willed heiress determined to defy Edwardian convention. Odette: a fiercely independent and idealistic young journalist. Years apart yet inextricably linked by Zanana, the magnificent mansion they both love. From turn-of-the-century India to contemporary Sydney, The Last Rose of Summer is a spellbinding saga of love, possession, and intrigue; a story of bitter struggle and jealousy. Of two women connected across the decades by the men who love them and the magic of Zanana.

It seemed like a good idea.... Genetically engineer a species of humanoid workers - strong, tireless, minimally intelligent - to become laborers for humans. What could possibly go wrong? For a thousand years, humans have had to fight for their survival against the mute, feral “Ants”, created as workers but now gone rogue, scavenging and slaughtering everything in their path.

Gone...Fleeing the last Ant-War, Anna of Evergreen goes with a party of Foresters, Men, and Ants to seek sanctuary on an island. None of them are ever seen again. Twenty years later, the launch of the Muriel, the first steel-hulled, powered ship built since ancient times, offers Anna’s friends a chance to discover what happened to the lost colonists - if they can persuade River, the Muriel’s designer, to lead an expedition to find her. Exiled from the forest, estranged from his family, and crippled by rage and guilt, River agrees to the plan.

After an election upheaval, Dominic Cochrane decides it's time to leave his 20-year political staffer career behind. He opts to stay in a friend's converted waterside boatshed in a quiet Sydney backwater. The long-time neighbours take Dom into their fold, but his peaceful retreat is quickly upended as he becomes embroiled in a tragic mystery a family has never solved – 25 years ago a schoolteacher, husband and father, beloved by all, disappeared without a trace. Was it a walkout? An affair? Or was it foul play?

Kerrie, in her 40s, has just lost her famous sculptor husband who had been the centre of her existence and for whom she made many sacrifices and she now finds her life has lost direction. Shirley, approaching 80, was betrayed by her lover many years before and has retreated from the world, becoming a recluse living in an underground dugout. Anna,19, has a promising athletic career but is torn between the commitment to her sport, which could carry her to the Olympics, or enjoying life like other young people.

In 1962 Cindy drops out of college to impulsively marry an Australian grazier, moving from the glamorous world of Palm Springs, California, to an isolated sheep station on the sweeping plains of the Riverina in New South Wales. Cindy's new life at Kingsley Downs station is not what she'd imagined, as she is flung into a strange and challenging world. Natural disasters and the caprices of the wool industry shape her destiny and though she tries hard to fit in, she finds she is always the outsider.

Natalie is a young Gold Coast mother with a loving husband, two small children, and a happy lifestyle. While helping her mother move house, she finds a little box containing a Burmese artifact. When Natalie learns its unique history through a letter left by her great-great uncle, it ignites her interest in its origins and her uncle’s unfulfilled plans for this curio. Her investigations collide with her own dramatically changing circumstances and create a dilemma that challenges the core of her marriage as she finds herself immersed in two very different golden lands.

From the mountains to the valleys, from big cities to tiny towns, to the outback and our islands, Di Morrissey knows this country. She's been there. In The Road Back, Di weaves a tale of reconnection and starting over. Journalist Chris Baxter is at a crossroads. Returning with his teenage daughter to his mother's house in the beautiful township of Neverend, Chris hopes to pick up the pieces after his life takes an unexpected turn. Sometimes taking the road back is the start of a journey forward.

In A Good Time to Be a Girl, Helena Morrissey sets out how we might achieve the next big breakthrough towards a truly inclusive modern society. Drawing on her experience as a City CEO, mother of nine, and founder of the influential 30% Club, which campaigns for gender-balanced UK company boards, her manifesto for new ways of working, living, loving and raising families is for everyone, not just women.

The Silent Country is a vast and beautiful wilderness, a place which holds secrets and stories that are rarely spoken. TV producer Veronica Anderson travels to the Northern Territory to retrace the journey of an expedition that had set out 50 years earlier to film the outback, but which mysteriously ended in tragedy. Of the group, led by the eccentric Maxim Topov, few are still alive and they are reluctant to talk about the intriguing events.

Helena Morrissey has run companies and campaigns and learned through both her own experiences and observing other successful women that confident and authentic style and presence is career-enhancing. Many women feel it's all a minefield, that they should just copy men or 'blend in', but Style and Substance explains why that's unlikely to be a recipe for success and shows how you can achieve that next career goal by developing your personal brand, building confidence and letting your personality shine through.

Darcy Keller, resident ray of sunshine and town spirit princess, loves every moment of Fableview’s fall festivities. But she’s also really ready to leave for college next year, even though her parents expect her to stay and take over their Halloween empire. Enter brooding new girl Anya Doyle, a real-life witch and almost a full member of her coven. In order to be initiated, she has to choose a mortal ally to act as her “protector.” But having moved around so much, Anya is completely friendless. So she does what any self-respecting teenage almost-witch would—she lies.

Early care and education for many children in the U.S. is in crisis. The period between birth and kindergarten is a critical time for child development, and socioeconomic disparities that begin early in children's lives contribute to starkly different long-term outcomes for adults. Yet, compared to other advanced economies, high-quality child care and preschool in the U.S. are scarce and prohibitively expensive for many middle class and most disadvantaged families.

Swept up by Hollywood in the 1950s, larrikin Australian actor Randy Storm had the looks, charm and talent to take on the world. But by the 1990s he's forgotten, burned out after a life of movie star excess. When producer Michael Matthews meets the once-great Randy Storm, he is surprised to find a man who is at peace with himself. Both he and researcher Janie Callendar set out to discover the source of this inner peace. Meanwhile his agent Ariel Margoles sees a chance for Randy to be a star once more in the hottest Hollywood film of the year.

The valley is nestled between rugged peaks, divided by a magnificent river. Within its peaceful green contours are held the secrets of generations of tribes, families and loners who have come under its spell.

Downtown New York City in the 1970s and '80s is a dark and dangerous place for Janie Thompson. Her indifferent parents give her little guidance, and leave her older brother, the only person who truly loves her, no choice but to run away. Her working-class Queens neighborhood offers too many opportunities to fail, and several of her closest friends fall victim.

It's the psychedelic '70s and social conventions are being challenged. When Catherine Moreland from rural Australia goes on her first trip abroad, a handsome American naval officer sweeps her off her feet and she goes to live in beautiful, romantic Hawaii with her new husband. At first, the magic and loveliness of the Islands lead Catherine to believe she is living in paradise.