11 November 2025: we remember.

New Open Access War & Society article! The British POW experience in Hong Kong & Oeyama, Japan: the memoirs of Frank Evans & Joseph Henry Newman by Mark Newman. Comparison of memoirs highlights that survival also depended on luck & uncontrollable external factors. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

And the shelves are starting to empty! David's been very busy packing, and has already taken a couple of boot loads of fiction to Woden Seniors who hold a HUGE book fair every year. It's one of our favourites.

One of the locals! Just saw him sitting on the side of the road so went and said hello. He’s not very talkative.

Both a bit tired after our big day yesterday. I could barely keep my eyes open!

Just having a quiet moment to myself. And snuffling a couple of Christmas stars! Things will be very different once David is home permanently. it will take some adjusting to having to about the house all the time!

Last day trading for Alexander Fax Booksellers at the Mawson, Canberra shop! Bag lots $25 and 50% off loose books. Last change for these bargains: fiction, military, lots of other categories. 10-3. See you soon!

A spider set off our alarm. It was this big! Happy Halloween folks.

Just a little reminder folks. We cease trading at the Mawson shop 3.00 1 November. There's still plenty of stock available: military, fiction, aboriginal history, fishing etc. So last chance (almost) to visit. BTW: we've put our website inventory on vacation pro tem. We'll reinstate ... SOON!

I walk past our local street library almost every day. While I've been tempted I've always resisted. This time I snaffled one. (And no, I'm not diving into the confessions of a nuclear war planner. Rather, the confessions of one of our acting greats (and from what I've seen a thoroughly nice bloke)!

Where's Wally? I mean David. Hiding behind those boxes, putting more books on the shelves ahead of our Closing-the-Mawson-Shop forever on Saturday 1 November. Time's running out for a bargain: it's almost your last chance! Wed (today)-Sat 10.00-3.00. So, if you're in the neighbourhood, pop in soon!

Reading in bed. I am enjoying this classic British crime from the Golden age. Up at the recent lifeline book fair.

It rained for most of the afternoon and I couldn’t get out until just before dinner. I was very glad to though because the roses although wet are still beautiful and I met this little fella waiting for worms.

Cheesecake! Very yummy. While the tea was, as ever, refreshing, I did nick some of that milkshake!

The jasmine fairy came to visit! The house is smelling divine

Sunday morning catch up but neither of us were chatting as we were too busy reading. I am quite enjoying this second world war diary. It is full of whimsy and because it wasn’t written under the auspices of mass observation it is More personal and less orientated for posterity.

A little surprise in my mess of the garden!

Blast from the past! Alexander Fax Booksellers started out as a post office/bookshop in Hughes ACT in 1997. We didn't move to the Mawson shop til 2004. David's a bit grayer round the gills now! Don't forget: Mawson shop closing sale Wed-Sat 10.00-3.00, last two weeks. Ends Saturday 1 November.

Reading in bed. Very much enjoyed this account of an iconic painting, it’s artist, and what it means to Australia.

The commissioning letter has arrived! Jack Tipton Sandford DSO DFC did some impressive work with 30 Squadron RAAF Beaufighters! This will be my fifth entry for the @ausdictionarybiog.bsky.social and I am delighted to be invited again, and to be invited to write Jack's life!

Aren’t they beautiful?

Went back to the wishing tree. The green bow next to the pink one is mine. This wish was for both of us.

Paperwork re Squadron Leader Jack Tipford Sandford DSO DFC hasn't yet come through. In the interim, I've gathered books from my shelves, trawled Trove, & started working on a timeline. I'm missing some key 30 Sqn histories but not to worry it's just a hop, step, & a jump to NLA! #histbookchat

Reading in bed. This is the most powerful book I've read for a long while, on so many levels. Terrible things happened and we need to know this.

When the paperwork comes through I'll be making the acquaintance of Squadron Leader Jack Tipford Sandford DSO DFC 30 Squadron RAAF. Not much 'out there' but I'm looking forward to researching him. (Pic clipped from www.awm.gov.au/collection/C... taken c. September 1944, shortly after the DSO award).

There's a wishing tree in our neighbourhood! Naturally (because some kids never grow up) I wished. Mine is the pink one with a bow. I'm not telling anyone what I wished for as I would dearly like it to come true. My writer friends can perhaps guess.

Me and my scissors went a-walking. The first jasmine of the season! Its heady perfume has been wafting throughout the house. I know nicking from other gardens is naughty (but I am my sister's sister!) and who could resist? Anything over the verge, as I've said before, is fair game.

Just sent out Alexander Fax Booksellers latest military bargain list to subscribers. It's a bumper one! Locals: please do come down to the Mawson (Canberra) shop and help clear our shelves (Wed-Sat 10-3). We have some spaces but we need more! LOTS and LOTS of good books at bargain prices.

Lunch! Sometimes a girl just has to have hash browns with her toastie. And what toastie is any good without tinned beetroot! And pink milkshake. Very full but it was a lovely treat after a busy few days. Back to it now, tho. I'm 'all but' on some revisions! When I finish I can have another treat!!!

The wisteria at Margaret Timpson Park is past its peak, but it is still lovely. I, too, am well past my peak.

Note to self. If the serving staff ask if you want your choice heated up, that is code for it is a sale as hell. This wasn’t one of my regular haunts and it won’t become ones. But I had a lovely morning chatting with a good friend and friendship is more important than Fresh croissant.

A purpley kind of day. These blue Pacifica and lilac trees are looking stunning at the moment. I have some very colourful neighbourhood walks.

My front garden is looking particularly pretty at the moment. The banksia rose little B more magnificent in a day or so.

David up bright and early, heading off to the Mawson shop (Alexander Fax Booksellers) for the beginning of Week 4 of our Closing the Shop Forever Sale. He spent most of the weekend restocking shelves (lots in storage) so if you're Canberran and haven't visited yet, do pop in & help clear some space.

Kate Ariotti reviews ‘Gull Force: Australian POWs on Ambon and Hainan, 1941–45’ by Joan Beaumont @newsouthpublishing.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Free to a good home! Found these on my walk and had to carry them home in stages. I figured I wasn’t being selfish because the stages were over three days. Obviously, nobody else wanted them. I think they are beautiful. Hopefully, I won’t kill them. I am not famous for my green thumb.

#HistBookChat morning tea!

Fun morning! Met up with some old friends, got some ideas about what to do with my mother's old glomesh bags, and found a piece of cake with my name on it!

Early morning coffee then off to the markets to stock up on jam.

The garden is looking its prettiest. The freesias, however, are a bit battered. They smell heavenly, though.

Latest issue of AJPH is online: special issue Australia & Vietnam: 50-Year Legacy @miamh.bsky.social & Tom Richardson eds). Includes Alexander & Ariotti “Laid to Rest in Australian Soil”: Legacies of Repatriation Policy Change during Vietnam War. Check it out. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14678497...

I don't know what this is but it has a bit of a lost in space alien planetscape vibe. Spotted it while walking, trying to get my head round reviewer comments, working out how to work in the suggestions & how to restructure to make sense. Have you guessed I'm tackling article revisions? Wish me luck!

The orange poppyseed muffin was a tad undercooked. Perfect on the outside but just that little bit gluggy right in the middle. But I downed the lot. Waste not! (Wouldn't have minded an iced coffee like my friend but just as well I stuck with the tea - as it was I so was full I could not fit lunch!)

In days of yore when I was an undergrad at UNE Armidale, local lore had it that if you hadn't started exam revision before the wisteria came out you were doomed. I wonder if this holds true for article revision? My deadline is looming, the wisteria is out,& I haven't started. (Tomorrow. I promise.)

Chris Elliot and I argue that it’s past time for the Australian War Memorial to update its Ben Roberts-Smith exhibits to give a full, unvarnished accounting of his crimes and their impact on victims. www.abc.net.au/religion/aus...

Catkin Carpet! I think they are from silver birches. I am a bit botanically challenged but they look like the silver birches my parents planted in my childhood home in Orange. I just loved the catkins! And now I can enjoy them (and remember) close to my Canberra home.

Yay!!!! My UK casualty files have arrived!!!!! B@gger. They don't contain anything relevant to 'My guy'. Leaving aside the fact I have crossed to dark side because of glee in expectation of casualty (read death) files, these were just part of a fishing expedition so I didn't expect much. Sigh.

My favourite blossoms on my favourite walk. Such a brilliant blue sky day!

Bookfair spoils! A goodly swag of (mainly) cosy crime and I confess to judging the BLCCs purely by their covers. Also found some aviation titles. (While I'm sure I have Hillary and Scholes SOMEWHERE as I've read both, I can't find them.) Particularly excited about the British SWW homefront ones!

Lots of good books! I found a few military books for me, as well as a nice pile of crime books; you can just see my bag. David seems to have forgotten he is closing the shop because he found some as well. All are home now but he hasn't unpacked them so I will show off my spoils tomorrow.