Geoff Barlow (Author of Moonlight Express)

Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing Clawhaven Cliff by Elizabeth Rimmington (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Choosing any historical novel from the prolific pen of Elizabeth Rimmington comes with a cast-iron guarantee – you will be transported instantly and seamlessly to far distant places and times, where a world of adventure awaits. Many writers of histori ...more
Jun 30, 2025 02:34AM · like · see review
Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing Stormy Normy and the Tom Quilty Gold Cup: Book Two in The Adventures of Stormy Normy by Leisa Fail (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A great sequel to the heartwarming opener of this series - Stormy Normy Finds his Forever Home. Like the original, Stormy Normy and the Tom Quilty Gold Cup is filled with an innate sense of optimism and important life lessons for young readers. The a ...more
Feb 22, 2025 08:54PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Stormy Normy and the Tom Quilty Gold Cup by Leisa Fail. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Stormy Normy and the Tom Quilty Gold Cup by Leisa Fail <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing Walking with Wildlife: Children's Book about Observing Wildlife (Australian Languages Edition) by Jenny Dyer	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This book is a truly wonderful resource to introduce young people (and even the not-so-young) to Australia's iconic wildlife. Filled with stunningly beautiful photographs taken by the author, along with text based on the author's first-hand observati ...more
Feb 22, 2025 08:29PM · 2 likes · like · see review
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Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing Stormy Normy Finds His Forever Home (The Adventures of Stormy Normy, #1) by Leisa Fail (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A wonderful, heartwarming story filled with great messages, a sense of optimism and important life lessons for young readers. The author has skillfully blended a tale of adventure and excitement in the great Australian bush with the need to face the ...more
Jan 30, 2025 03:14AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Stormy Normy Finds His Forever Home by Leisa Fail. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Stormy Normy Finds His Forever Home by Leisa Fail <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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Jun 04, 2024 08:50PM · like
Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing CHILL OF BLAME by Elizabeth Rimmington (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Chill of Blame is the latest in a series of meticulously researched historical novels from the prolific pen of Australian author Elizabeth Rimmington. Like its predecessors, the book is centred on the lives of people in rural and remote parts of Quee ...more
Jun 04, 2024 08:41PM · like · see review
Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing Chill of Blame by Elizabeth Rimmington (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Chill of Blame is the latest in a series of meticulously researched historical novels from the prolific pen of Australian author Elizabeth Rimmington. Like its predecessors, the book is centred on the lives of people in rural and remote parts of Quee ...more
Jun 04, 2024 08:35PM · like · see review
Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing News of the World by Paulette Jiles	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A literary tour-de-force. This is truly exquisite storytelling by author Paulette Jiles, with a mesmerising poetic quality that transports the reader directly into 1870s Texas, while offering so many lessons in coping with our fractured world of toda ...more
Jan 27, 2024 04:05AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of News of the World by Paulette Jiles. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — News of the World by Paulette Jiles <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing

Clawhaven Cliff
by Elizabeth Rimmington (Goodreads Author)

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Choosing any historical novel from the prolific pen of Elizabeth Rimmington comes with a cast-iron guarantee – you will be transported instantly and seamlessly to far distant places and times, where a world of adventure awaits.

Many writers of histori Choosing any historical novel from the prolific pen of Elizabeth Rimmington comes with a cast-iron guarantee – you will be transported instantly and seamlessly to far distant places and times, where a world of adventure awaits.

Many writers of historical fiction leave evidence of their scrambles into the past through passages that are almost info dumps – their forays into library catalogues and google searches have clearly taken a lot of these authors into their chosen setting, but the reader is often left behind. That is never the case with a Rimmington book. In stories such as “Clawhaven Cliff”, the characters march across the canvas of history and take the reader with them every step of the way.

Part of the secret is the author’s adeptness at “showing” rather than “telling”, so that the reader finds themselves dialled back into the late 19th and early 20th century, through both sensory and figurative language. The senses are employed to create vivid yet always relatable scenes – the crash of waves on a beach, the deep chiming notes of a hall clock; the chill of an English winter, the stifling heat of a North Queensland summer. The reader is taken straight into the scenes via sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feelings. Sparkling metaphors also do their job, their implied comparisons and apt word associations involving the reader more closely with the characters’ viewpoints and situations – “her thoughts swirled…a wave of hope rose up and up only to crash down onto the sands of rational thought and drain away into sorrow and compassion …” is but one fine example.

And always, without fail, the dialogue rings true to the more formal manners of the Victorian-Edwardian era, whether the setting is England or Australia. Unlike so many authors of historical fiction, Elizabeth Rimmington never jars the reader with modern catch-phrases or incongruous idioms but holds carefully to the language conventions of her book’s setting and time period.

“Clawhaven Cliff” also demonstrates the way authors of today can blend and bend genres to better illuminate the lives of past generations. Literary categories such as family saga, romance and adventure have always “crossed over” to a greater or lesser degree, but as this new novel from Elizabeth Rimmington shows, there is scope to introduce mystery and edge-of-the-seat thriller elements into the mix as well. As it traces the lives of three courageous women from successive generations, this narrative highlights the levels of criminality which are often resorted to by powerful men in order to retain their own dominance. When threats, intimidation and harassment fail to achieve the control these bullies desire, they will clearly resort to physical violence and perhaps even murder to achieve their ends (a situation sadly repeated all too often, even today). The crime thriller sub-plot in the novel sees the two main female protagonists escaping from England to far off North Queensland, but will Australia be far enough away? This premise becomes a driving force in the novel, promising and delivering a thoroughly suspenseful and deeply moving outcome.

My advice is to get hold of a copy of “Clawhaven Cliff”, settle back in your favourite chair, and join the Mayford women on their journey. You will be well rewarded.
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Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing

Stormy Normy and the Tom Quilty Gold Cup by Leisa Fail

Stormy Normy and the Tom Quilty Gold Cup: Book Two in The Adventures of Stormy Normy
by Leisa Fail (Goodreads Author)

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A great sequel to the heartwarming opener of this series - Stormy Normy Finds his Forever Home. Like the original, Stormy Normy and the Tom Quilty Gold Cup is filled with an innate sense of optimism and important life lessons for young readers. The a ...more

Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing

Walking with Wildlife: Children's Book about Observing Wildlife (Australian Languages Edition)
by Jenny Dyer

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This book is a truly wonderful resource to introduce young people (and even the not-so-young) to Australia's iconic wildlife. Filled with stunningly beautiful photographs taken by the author, along with text based on the author's first-hand observati ...more

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Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing

Stormy Normy Finds His Forever Home by Leisa Fail

Stormy Normy Finds His Forever Home (The Adventures of Stormy Normy, #1)
by Leisa Fail (Goodreads Author)

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A wonderful, heartwarming story filled with great messages, a sense of optimism and important life lessons for young readers. The author has skillfully blended a tale of adventure and excitement in the great Australian bush with the need to face the ...more

Geoff Barlow joined the group Goodreads Librarians Group

Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing

CHILL OF BLAME
by Elizabeth Rimmington (Goodreads Author)

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Chill of Blame is the latest in a series of meticulously researched historical novels from the prolific pen of Australian author Elizabeth Rimmington. Like its predecessors, the book is centred on the lives of people in rural and remote parts of Quee Chill of Blame is the latest in a series of meticulously researched historical novels from the prolific pen of Australian author Elizabeth Rimmington. Like its predecessors, the book is centred on the lives of people in rural and remote parts of Queensland over a hundred years ago, revealing in rich yet always accessible prose just how difficult life was for the average person in those far-off times. Chill of Blame is also set partly in the Middle East, where it highlights the heroic efforts of the Australian Light Horse during the First World War.

Each turn of the page shows a novelist in full command of both craft and subject matter. The depth of research is stunning. In this author’s hands, the characters march across the canvas of history and take the reader with them every step of the way. From the streets of Townsville to the bloody battlefield of Beersheeba, from the delta of the Nile to droving camps on the dusty Diamantina, the story sweeps us along at a pace redolent of Wilbur Smith, Peter Watt or Colleen McCullough at their best. All this, while retaining its thoroughly unique and clear authorial voice, its conciseness, its empathy.

Elizabeth Rimmington is particularly adept at “showing” rather than “telling”, transporting us seamlessly into the social settings and landscapes of early 20th century Australia, Egypt and Palestine. A demonstration of this occurs early in the book, when the sights, sounds, tastes and even the feel of a busy Townsville street bring the scene vividly to life – the clatter of horses’ hooves; the rumble of cartwheels; the swish of long skirts; manure, urine, leather, dust; flowers at a flower stall; the perfume of lilacs on a handkerchief – the scene is as real for the reader as it is for the protagonists.

And then there are the brilliantly realized battle scenes. Many of today’s authors are inclined to run into trouble when conveying those savage moments of cut and thrust and frenzied action. The tendency with many writers is often to provide too much description, where every rifle shot, or slash of a sword, or shift in the saddle is rendered in fine and gory detail: either that, or the writer pares down and minimizes so much that the inherent drama of the scene is lost for the reader. None of that here! In this area once again, Elizabeth Rimmington’s word choice, pace and balance are sure and precise : the actual charge of the Australian Light Horse on Beersheeba is a tour de force of description, bringing home the sheer adrenaline-fueled recklessness, the inordinate bravery, the danger and the pathos of a now legendary event.

We can learn so much from good historical fiction, especially when it’s as clearly and concisely written as Chill of Blame. Soon after starting the book, I began to realize the vast gaps in my own knowledge of those long-ago military campaigns in far-off lands and what they mean for us still as a nation. In a short space of time, I was learning – marvelling, in fact, at the logistics of troop movements; marvelling also at the toughness of men living for weeks on tea and bully beef; all the while learning about saddles and bayonets and sabres; and learning, too, about extreme hardship met simply with stoicism and high spirits. Most of all, though, I learned so much about the sheer courage of these men that my already profound respect for them has become even greater. We should all be proud of the men and women of the Australian Defence Forces, and of their heritage and traditions, and this book does the legendary light horsemen full justice.

In summary, a richly-woven tapestry of life in the Queensland bush and the 1917-18 campaigns of the Australian Light Horse in the Middle East. Thoroughly recommended reading. Geoff ...more

Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing

Chill of Blame
by Elizabeth Rimmington (Goodreads Author)

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Chill of Blame is the latest in a series of meticulously researched historical novels from the prolific pen of Australian author Elizabeth Rimmington. Like its predecessors, the book is centred on the lives of people in rural and remote parts of Quee Chill of Blame is the latest in a series of meticulously researched historical novels from the prolific pen of Australian author Elizabeth Rimmington. Like its predecessors, the book is centred on the lives of people in rural and remote parts of Queensland over a hundred years ago, revealing in rich yet always accessible prose just how difficult life was for the average person in those far-off times. Chill of Blame is also set partly in the Middle East, where it highlights the heroic efforts of the Australian Light Horse during the First World War.

Each turn of the page shows a novelist in full command of both craft and subject matter. The depth of research is stunning. In this author’s hands, the characters march across the canvas of history and take the reader with them every step of the way. From the streets of Townsville to the bloody battlefield of Beersheeba, from the delta of the Nile to droving camps on the dusty Diamantina, the story sweeps us along at a pace redolent of Wilbur Smith, Peter Watt or Colleen McCullough at their best. All this, while retaining its thoroughly unique and clear authorial voice, its conciseness, its empathy.

Elizabeth Rimmington is particularly adept at “showing” rather than “telling”, transporting us seamlessly into the social settings and landscapes of early 20th century Australia, Egypt and Palestine. A demonstration of this occurs early in the book, when the sights, sounds, tastes and even the feel of a busy Townsville street bring the scene vividly to life – the clatter of horses’ hooves; the rumble of cartwheels; the swish of long skirts; manure, urine, leather, dust; flowers at a flower stall; the perfume of lilacs on a handkerchief – the scene is as real for the reader as it is for the protagonists.

And then there are the brilliantly realized battle scenes. Many of today’s authors are inclined to run into trouble when conveying those savage moments of cut and thrust and frenzied action. The tendency with many writers is often to provide too much description, where every rifle shot, or slash of a sword, or shift in the saddle is rendered in fine and gory detail: either that, or the writer pares down and minimizes so much that the inherent drama of the scene is lost for the reader. None of that here! In this area once again, Elizabeth Rimmington’s word choice, pace and balance are sure and precise : the actual charge of the Australian Light Horse on Beersheeba is a tour de force of description, bringing home the sheer adrenaline-fueled recklessness, the inordinate bravery, the danger and the pathos of a now legendary event.

We can learn so much from good historical fiction, especially when it’s as clearly and concisely written as Chill of Blame. Soon after starting the book, I began to realize the vast gaps in my own knowledge of those long-ago military campaigns in far-off lands and what they might mean for us still as a nation. In a short space of time, I was learning – marvelling, in fact, at the logistics of troop movements; marvelling also at the toughness of men living for weeks on tea and bully beef; all the while learning about saddles and bayonets and sabres; and learning, too, about extreme hardship met simply with stoicism and high spirits. Most of all, though, I learned so much about the sheer courage of these men that my already profound respect for them has become even greater. We should all be proud of the men and women of the Australian Defence Forces, and of their heritage and traditions, and this book does the legendary light horsemen full justice.

In summary, a richly-woven tapestry of life in the Queensland bush and the 1917-18 campaigns of the Australian Light Horse in the Middle East. Thoroughly recommended reading. Geoff ...more

Geoff Barlow rated a book it was amazing

News of the World
by Paulette Jiles

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A literary tour-de-force. This is truly exquisite storytelling by author Paulette Jiles, with a mesmerising poetic quality that transports the reader directly into 1870s Texas, while offering so many lessons in coping with our fractured world of toda ...more

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