Bøker av John Gardiner

Most know the story of Australia's First Fleet. But who were those convicts, sailors, marines and administrators who travelled to Botany Bay in 1787? And who orchestrated this ambitious expedition? In his meticulously researched new book, John Gardiner pulls back the curtain on the world from which the First Fleet emerged. Delving into English newspapers, official reports, and government documents from the era, Gardiner vividly captures the squalor of London's slums, the rotting hulks on the Thames where prisoners languished, and the hardscrabble lives of those who would people New South Wales. We meet real-life figures like Prime Minister William Pitt, Home Secretary Lord Sydney, and the Fleet's commander, Captain Arthur Phillip. And we discover a society rife with corruption, violence, and despair. Before the First Fleet to Australia paints an unflinching portrait of late 18th century England in all its vulgarity and cruelty. Gardiner's fearless account confronts historical truths often glossed over about the First Fleet's origins. Was this ragged band of convicts a collection of pathetic vagabonds or part of a strategically calculated colonial enterprise? Readers can decide for themselves in this absorbing and revelatory narrative history.

Colonnades presents as an existentially thoughtful True Romance style graphic novel (non-visual), à la 2022, with every page (frame) loaded with conflicting temporal-and-spiritual tensions the dramatis personae struggle to resolve.Being-and-Time, Being-and-Nothingness create impactful insights into the central protagonist's self-conscious apprehension of himself as Magnus Storey: why he discovers himself embodied in Australia's racial/cultural/social milieux. He occupies Time composing, illustrating in meditative thought, his own graphic True Romance, a dramatization for the stage, titled: Who Is My Playwright? Both the novel (Colonnades), and the internal dramatization within (Who Is My Playwright?), blend in a Comedy of Manners. They underscore Storey's meditation, how it eventuates that each embodied human persona's existential self-conscious being is pre-scripted through the infallibility of the Law of Conservation of Energy. Existence is themed with powerful tensions through each one's cumulative, habituated inclinations concentrated through Time.The novel's time-frame is focussed within a single month, January 2022, wherein Storey's existential romance unfolds against his immersion within an intense Australian summer: sun, sea, and sand co-join as emblematic to his sensibility of that spiritualised wall the First Zen Patriarch, Bodhidharma, famously contemplated, continuing the Buddha's spiritual transmission mind-to-mind in succession through millennia.

This original and enjoyable show is best described as a musical revue which takes a light hearted look at the first time experience and feelings all of us have or will come up against. Each song and sketch is associated with the word "first" in one way or another-- First Child, First Job, First Glance, First Family Christmas, First Bite(!). The show can be presented simply but effectively on an open stage, and the large number of characters provides the opportunity for a mixed cast to play a variety of interesting parts, with doubling. A great success in England.|9 women, 9 men

In this bubbling modern extravaganza for the young, the immaculate Miss Nadia Naive and her three pupils are swung into riotous Transylvanian happenings with the irrepressible Count and his gruesome acolytes. On the side of right are noble Nick Necrophilic, Father O'Stake, the cuddly Hansel and Gretel and the Fuddled Friends; can they prevail over the forces of darkness when these include the creme de la horrible creme such as the Countess Wraith, Genghis the groveling minion, the Zombies, the Fanged Brides and the dynamic sanguineous gentleman the Price of Vampireshimself? Plenty of good parts, a sizzling score and a fresh hilarious script.

Entablatures eponymous novelist undertakes an exploration of the conceptual implications held by the word palimpsest, using the gift of self-consciousness to place his origin within a presence he identifies as the inner thinker, the latter derivative from Rne Descartess famous dictum: Cogito ergo sum [I think, therefore I am]. Palimpsest postulates a practice whereby ancient manuscripts were reused by superimposing later writing over earlier work, which was not completely erased. Therefore, traces of the earlier writing become visible, intermixing with later text, an image the eponymous novelist utilises to startling effect in Entablature.Crises unsettle the novelist. The year is 2017, the centenary of the infamous 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, a traumatic memory colouring his meditations and social interactions, coupled with uncertainty surrounding the future of his romantic relationship with a corporate lawyer. Law is a pivotal point of contention, and the conflicting controversies between human, spiritual, and the laws of physics are interblended, creating subtext on the palimpsest of existence for the dramatis personae. Determinism and free will are cross-hatched in the weave of existence when the novelist has a chance encounter with his deceased sisters exbest friend, a social diarist.The novelist undertakes the creation of a new book, an epistolary novella, Hygeia, the text of which is included in full within Entablature. But is it the visible trace of an earlier embodiment visible through the text of his current existence? Enhancing the originality of this existential format are quoted samples from one of the novelists earlier books, Russian BrideRose Slavy, the latter name created by the iconic artist Marcel Duchamp.

This lively musical, originally written for teenagers and young people, is based on the life and times of Al Capone, the infamous Chicago gangster.|Large flexible cast

A top surgeon has disappeared from St Sennapod's Hospital leaving young Dr Boldly in charge of Ward 10. Sinister Dr Scalpel arrives, trying to corner the market in spare-part surgery by snipping off spare parts wherever he can. However, Orderly Jim Pill and the hospital staff succeed in foiling Scalpel's dastardly plans and all ends happily. This fun-filled, fast-moving play for children is easily staged and allows plenty of opportunity for audience participation.Large flexible cast

Horrible Harold, an oversized 'baby' with disgusting habits and a liking for Guinness and heavy rock music, falls prey to Mr Slickerbotham. After a near miss with the Dry Cleaning Emporium he is saved by his mum and reunited with his long-lost father. Plenty of audience participation combined with hilarious properties and easy staging make this an appealing play for children of all ages, especially when dirt triumphs over cleanliness.|5 women, 4 men

Following their success with Dazzle, the authors have turned their attention to football (a.k.a. soccer) in this hilarious musical about a hapless city team out to win the World Cup Six a Side Championship. With a host of comic characters, this fun filled comedy is a sure winner. Rockasocka offers opportunities for flexible casting and can be played on a proscenium or thrust stage or in the round to create a football atmosphere.|6 women, 6 men

This fun-filled play revolves around the antics of three waiters sacked by Mr Macaroni, the money-minded owner of the Pizza Pie Palace. They devise various schemes to get their jobs back, and are streered through their adventures with the help of the audience. After bangs, flashes, songs, dances, talking snakes and even exploding pizza pies, all ends happily with a double wedding.|Large flexible cast

Dazzle, a parody of Star Trek, charts the first voyage of the Star Ship Sunburster One under the control of dashingly handsome (and doesn't he know it) Captain Sam Galatic.4 women, 5 men

This wild West musical is fun for the whole family. The action takes place on Christmas eve in Diamond Tooth Lil's Saloon where all are busy with preparations for a Christmas party (could be changed easily to any holiday). Word comes that a badman and his gang are headed their way.4 women, 6 men