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The Old Balmain House

Author : Graham Wilson

Publisher : Graham Wilson

Page : 205 pages

File Size : 35,62 MB

Release : 2011-10-05

Category : Fiction

ISBN : 0987197118

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Book Description

Sophie vanished - where did she go? For 100 years nobody knows. A photo of 8 year old Sophie and an antique perfume bottle are found in the fireplace of an old house. The story of a Balmain family over 170 years. Finally they uncover what happened. Set around beautiful Sydney Harbour this is a story of this place and its people, an imagined history from early Australia to the present day. Who was Sophie and what happened to her? On buying an old weatherboard house in Balmain, Sydney, we discover her photo, dated 1900-1908, long hidden, along with a small perfume bottle in an old fireplace. Then we discover that Sophie disappeared with a childhood friend in 1908 and was never seem again, leaving a trail of sadness through generations of her family. This book tracks the journey of the discovery of Sophie and her family, from their first arrival in Sydney, over five generations of the family, until the mystery is finally laid to rest. It is a story of loss and grief, mixed with joy, which passes through the successive generations of a family. The way the family deals with unresolved tragedy and finally the the way their love transcends time is the story from which the real Sophie emerges. Graham Wilson, the author, lived in the house in Balmain around which this story is based for seven years, before moving to Millers Point. This is his first novel. Graham has previously written a family memoir, “Children of Arnhem’s Kaleidoscope” which describes his childhood, growing up in a aboriginal community in Western Arnhem Land. This is also available from this site.





The Empty Place

Author : Graham Wilson

Publisher : Graham Wilson

Page : 211 pages

File Size : 31,36 MB

Release : 2014-08-19

Category :

ISBN : 0987197177

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Book Description

An English backpacker is on trial for murder in Australia . The tabloids say she killed her lover and fed his body to crocodiles.She refuses to say what happened. She is trapped inside her mind in a place of horror and emptiness. Only one person knows and can help her. But he and his helicopter have vanished in the place that the locals call The Empty Place. Her only escape is to end her life. Is there any way out for Susan - charged with murder, alone and pregnant in a jail cell? She is determined to plead guilty to protect her child from the deeds of the father. She will kill herself before she reveals what occurred. She awaits conviction and sentencing, expecting to spend her life in jail. One person has the knowledge that may help her - it is the contents of Mark's diary. But he and his helicopter vanish. Everyone thinks he is dead. They were last seen heading into "The Empty Place" - a remote part of Australia's Northern Territory, a place where no one lives and very few have reason to go to. But the detective who discovered Susan's identity continues to seek the truth. He knows there must be another story to explain why. He must discover this man's past to unlock the secret. The rest of officialdom just wants to lock this girl up and throw away the key. As time ticks away towards the trial, Susan's sanity is falling apart - guilt for what she has done, lonely depression at the prospect of years in prison without her child. She loses hope when the helicopter vanishes and lives inside herself in her own empty place. Yet she must still keep alive the fathers good legacy for the sake of the child. In her mind she sees an escape, she will return to her lover and his crocodile spirit - end it all and be free of this misery. Her friends and the detective suspect the intentions. desperate to help her but powerless to protect her from herself. They must keep seeking truth. It is a race against time. Can the truth be uncovered before the trial ends. Susan is increasingly desperate too. She wants her escape, she must keep the truth hidden, the investigation is closing in. She must divert them. She has a plan, her own death will be the diversion and will bury the secret forever.



Little Lost Girl

Author : Graham Wilson

Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Page : 200 pages

File Size : 31,27 MB

Release : 2016-12

Category :

ISBN : 9781541269286

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Book Description

A little girl vanished 100 years ago. Her name was Sophie. Where did she go? An old house in Balmain. A portrait and perfume bottle hidden in a chimney. Unknown and untouched, while a century passed, their memory slowly fading. Glimpses of an eight year old girl and her school friend, missing, never found. The grief of those left behind, those who searched, those who yearned. So begins a journey to discover an Australian family, five generations, from 1840 to today. Buried in their past is the story of a long lost girl and the pain her vanishing left behind. Fragments slowly emerge from within the walls, stories of those who built and lived in this place. Her identity is revealed but her disappearance remains a mystery. A chance discovery gives a vital clue. Set around beautiful Sydney Harbour, this is the story of people and place, from early colonisation to the present day. This book is the first in the Old Balmain House Series.



Mysteries

Author : Graham Wilson

Publisher : Graham Wilson

Page : 278 pages

File Size : 12,13 MB

Release : 2022-06-01

Category : Fiction

ISBN : 0648311228

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Book Description

An old house with a lost history Glimpsed lives from 200 years past. A mother and child missing for thirty years Buried secrets lie below the floor - if only the stones could talk. Now a new mystery - the mothers pendant is found. From the author of The Old Balmain House this is a story set in early Sydney Its consequences reverberate down through successive generations until today She bends forward. A silver pendant falls from her shirt, swinging free on a chain from her neck. The name ‘Cindy’ is in silver cursive letters. On its back is a heart symbol and, ‘From Jim’. I remember so clearly the day I bought it. I did not have money to buy my Cindy a wedding ring. But, with the twenty dollars I had saved, I bought this. I gave it to her with all my love. She hung it around her neck, where it stayed until she and our baby vanished. Now, after thirty years, it has returned.



Lizzie's Tale

Author : Graham Wilson

Publisher : Graham Wilson

Page : 170 pages

File Size : 40,20 MB

Release : 1901

Category : Fiction

ISBN : 1311406360

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Book Description

Raped and reduced to working in a brothel to keep her baby, unwed, teenage mother, Lizzie, forges a new life for herself and her child in the Kimberley region of Australia. But can she evade her persecutors and ultimately bring to them to justice? This is a story of a girl from inner Sydney. Her family is poor, her father dies when she is nine, life is hard. But her courage rises above adversity. It is story of her struggle to survive and make a life of her own, first as a prostitute, then with her child in a remote outback town. This is the second book in the series, "Old Balmain House" and begins in the same house as the first book and continues part of the story of Sophie, the girl who vanished half a century ago. Lizzie, aged eight, meets Sophie, the girl who lived in the same bedroom as a child. Sophie becomes her friend. When Lizzie turns fifteen Sophie tries to warn her not to go in a car with three older boys. Lizzie ignores her warning and is brutally raped by these three men. Lizzie becomes pregnant and is determined to keep her child. She leaves Sydney and goes to Melbourne, to have and keep her baby. Here, penniless and desperate, she become a prostitute the only way she can support herself. She is discovered and the authorities try to take her child. She flees to Broome, a small town in the furthest corner of of Australia. Here she assumes the role of widow with a small child and settles into this friendly town. Her life is good until a man from her former life finds her and threatens to expose her or harm her child. She runs again. On a remote desert road her car breaks down. Without water, with her six year old daughter beside her, they face death from thirst. Help comes in an unexpected way. She takes refuge in a local aboriginal community. Her school friend from Balmain, now a journalist, seeks retribution from the the men who raped Lizzie many years ago and have continued their ways with others. Now, as successful business men, they seek to use the law to deny justice.







Servantship

Author : Graham Joseph Hill

Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers

Page : 325 pages

File Size : 17,16 MB

Release : 2013-10-10

Category : Religion

ISBN : 1620328240

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Book Description

Servantship is essentially about following our Lord Jesus Christ, the servant Lord, and his mission--it is a life of discipleship to him, patterned after his self-emptying, humility, sacrifice, love, values, and mission. Servantship is humbly valuing others more than yourself, and looking out for the interests and wellbeing of others. Servantship is the cultivation of the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had: making yourself nothing, being a servant, humbling yourself, and submitting yourself to the will and purposes of the triune God. Since servantship is the imitation of Christ, it involves an unreserved participation in the missio Dei--the Trinitarian mission of God. In this pioneering work, sixteen servants describe the four movements of radical servantship. Servantship is the movement 1.from leadership to radical servantship; 2.from shallowness to dynamic theological reflection; 3.from theories to courageous practices; and 4.from forgetfulness to transforming memory. Servantship recognizes, in word, thought, and deed, that "whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."



House of Hollow

Author : Krystal Sutherland

Publisher : Penguin

Page : 337 pages

File Size : 14,68 MB

Release : 2022-03-01

Category : Young Adult Fiction

ISBN : 0593110366

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Book Description

A New York Times Bestseller! An Instant Indie Bestseller! A dark, twisty modern fairytale where three sisters discover they are not exactly all that they seem and evil things really do go bump in the night. Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. Ever since they disappeared on a suburban street in Scotland as children only to return a month a later with no memory of what happened to them, odd, eerie occurrences seem to follow in their wake. And they're changing. First, their dark hair turned white. Then, their blue eyes slowly turned black. They have insatiable appetites yet never gain weight. People find them disturbingly intoxicating, unbearably beautiful, and inexplicably dangerous. But now, ten years later, seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time--something her two famously glamourous globe-trotting older sisters, Grey and Vivi, never managed to do. But when Grey goes missing without a trace, leaving behind bizarre clues as to what might have happened, Iris and Vivi are left to trace her last few days. They aren't the only ones looking for her though. As they brush against the supernatural they realize that the story they've been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago, might just be calling them home.