Catherine Meyrick's Blog

Lines from the chorus of When Irish Eyes are Smiling are a motif in And the Women Watch and Wait, occurring at several points through the novel. The song is a romanticised tribute to Ireland and was written by Chauncey Olcott, and George Graff Jr, with the music composed by Ernest R. Ball. Olcott was an American actor, singer and songwriter with Irish ancestry, Graff an American songwriter and Ball, also American, a singer and songwriter.

First published in 1912, was written for the Broadway ...

My latest novel And the Women Watch and Wait is set in Coburg, a northern suburb of Melbourne, during the Great War and its immediate aftermath. The characters are, mainly, from the Australian-Irish community and, as with my other novels, music plays a part in their lives. Over the next few months I’ll post some of the music mentioned.

A city of tents. The Camp of the Australian Expeditionary Force at Broadmeadows.
Photographer: George Rose. c.1914
Courtesy State Library Victoria

Early in the...

William O’Brien
The Queenslander 3 Oct 1914 p.28

A bluish haze in the far astern
And galloping seas between,
The last-long look at one’s native land,
Where boyhood days we’ve seen.
For our bows are dipped in smothering spray,
Our course to the setting sun.
We’re bound for the front, with foot and horse,
And a-clanking steel and gun.

The transport reels in the battering seas,
All her decks with troops asprawl,
A foamy wake from her churning screw,
Where the billows rise and fall;
The wind in the shroud...

This is not a lot to show for five months reading. My excuse is that I have done a lot of non-fiction re-reading, and even more writing, re-writing and editing. Will try to do better in the future.

Time of the Child*by Niall Williams
This is what happened in Faha over the Christmas of 1962, in what became known in the parish as the time of the child.
To those who lived there, Faha was perhaps the last place on earth to expect a miracle.
*I did not have the quibble that the author of the r...

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Paul Rushworth-Brown’s novel, Outback Odyssey, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club.

Blurb

1950s Australia. In the wake of war and dislocation, young Yorkshireman Jimmy journeys to the outback, chasing escape but finding something far more dangerous: the truth of himself and the land he now calls home.

What begins as a story of survival becomes a profound allegory of belonging, silence, and identity. As Jimmy ...

Today I released a new novel, And the Women Watch and Wait. It is set in Coburg, in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, between 1914 and 1919 and depicts the struggles of ordinary women left to watch and wait and pray during the four long years that their men were away fighting a war on the other side of the world.

The novel is set within the Catholic community, most of whom had Irish ancestry at this time. The characters are from that portion of the Catholic community whose men did enlis...

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Judith Arnopp’s recently released novel, Marguerite: Hell Hath no Fury! as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Marguerite: Hell Hath no Fury! is another impressive biographical novel from Judith, this time telling the story of Marguerite of Anjou in her own words.

Blurb

Marguerite: Queen of England

From the moment Henry VI’s new queen, Marguerite of Anjou, sets foot on English soil she is despised by the Englis...

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Elizabeth St.John’s novel The Lady of the Tower as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. The Lady of the Tower is the first book in Elizabeth’s series The Lydiard Chronicles, a historical family saga which traces the lives of several remarkable women of the St.John family during the seventeenth century.

Blurb

Duty, passion, and power collide in The Lydiard Chronicles, a gripping trilogy inspired by true events. Foll...

The O’Connor children, like the children of any farmer, were well aware of the weather and the effect it had upon the family farm at Valencia Creek. In their letters to the ‘Young Folks’ page of the Weekly Times, they wrote of rain and dry spells, floods and fires. The two most prolific letter writers were Margaret (b.1894) and Hannah (b.1898).

The O’Connor farm at Valencia Creek
early 20th century

Margaret wrote in 1910 of a dry spell and the benefits brought by the arrival of rain.
The weat...

Today I’m delighted to be shining a spotlight on Tony Riches’s recently released novel, Bess – Tudor Gentlewoman as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Bess – Tudor Gentlewoman is book 6 in Tony’s The Elizabethans series.

Blurb

Bess Throckmorton defies her notorious background and lack of education to become Queen Elizabeth’s Gentlewoman and trusted confidante.

Forced to choose between loyalty and love, duty and desire, will she risk her queen’s anger by marry...