Descended from Thieves

Coral Carter asked me to launch her new book of poetry in Port Augusta. The first launch was in Melbourne and the third in Perth. Coral spent her early years in Port Augusta and I first met her when we both worked at the Remote and Isolated Children's Exercise.

It was a bit daunting writing a speech for an audience of mostly writers ......

Decended from Theives

Here it is.... after much patient waiting by many of us..  Coral Carter's first BOOK of her written works !!    Yay!!

Coral has had work published on line and in journals. But this is the first of her books.

A little gem ....  And I have the honour of launching it here in Port Augusta..... Thank you For asking me  Coral.

I First met Coral As a work mate back in the days when we worked for RICE -The Remote and Isolated Children's Exercise. They were surreal days, larger than life, Full of interesting experiences .....

Coral contributing to many of them...... There are enough ex  RICE ies here this evening to recreate the old RICE BUSH BAND.... remember the days when we travelled to Kingoonya by train singing all the way.

Back in those days Coral made a statement with her  80s fashion flair....and the hair doos ...  ;-)) Red and purple with shaved zig zags.

It was evident even then that Coral had a view of the world that was intense, probing, and often confronting but laced with humour ...

Coral now lives in  Kalgoorlie but the Port Augusta connection  is … she is the daughter of Pat and Tom Carter  and spent quite a few years in this town before she headed off into the world.

Pat has kept us informed about most of Coral's adventures over the years..

AND...

According  to Pat ... Coral has always been a writer. It runs in the family...... Along with thieves and suffragettes.

For years she has kept notes ......  descriptions, conversations, expressions, the things we think are mundane are potentially subject matter for her work.  

As you read Decended from Thieves you will chuckle to yourself, or well up with tears or cringe with anticipation as you hear familiar turns of phrase from the parallel lives we all lead.

Coral engages in groups and forums surrounding herself with others of like interest and surfs the world of poetry. She practices her craft constantly, fine tuning it, building her repertoire and her skills.

And here we are today with this little gem. Decended from Thieves.

Here you will meet Coral and her friends and family; acquaintances; people observed from a distance and intimately.....

You will probably recognise yourself somewhere among the pages.

People ...... in   Places that seem familiar....   snippets of life... and death....  crafted expertly ...... leaving indelible images  ....  each verse begging to be read ..... just once more.

Thanks for bringing your work to your old home town Coral…….lets launch it and get on with the conversations….