TALES OF BALLARAT - A LITERARY TOUR-DE-FORCE

Clinton Smith, at the age of 85, has finally completed his magnum opus - a story anthology about his home town of Ballarat. He's been revising these same tales for sixty years, so they have to be almost perfect. In fact they were almost perfect years ago as various stories in the collection have won ten literary awards. 

Clint says, 'I spent my childhood in the elegant provincial city of Ballarat and wrote my first story about the region in my 20s. Eventually I wrote thirteen more. Although they later won awards and appeared in magazines and anthologies, I kept revising the same tales for the next 60 years.'

 What really goes on behind the scenes in a country town? These thirteen brilliantly crafted short stories expose the lives behind the facades.
This collection of inter-related tales dates from the 1960's and is set in and around  Ballarat, Victoria. It takes us behind the masks of people related to that town with an intensity and depth that strips them bare.

Stories in this anthology have won ten literary awards: two Victorian Fellowship of Australian Writers Awards, four NSW FAW Awards, a Moomba Award, an Alan Marshal Shire of Eltham Award, a Shoalhaven COE Award and a Lane Cove Library Literary Commendation. The writer has also won the inaugural Mary Drake Award, a Bicentennial Literary Award for short fiction and an FAW award for a screenplay. 

The critics agree:

"Work of impressive quality. Each story skilfully manipulates language and form to convey the central theme: 'the world behind what we take as reality'. A pleasure and education to read."
      Lynk

"Beautiful writing."
      Judge: Lane Cove Literary Award

""This unusual collection maintains a very high standard indeed. These are tales of extraordinary depth and insight, consummately written and profound."
      Commissioning Editor, Buzzword Books 

Clint says, 'Each story is a cry - an attempt to make the reader feel.'

Read about THIS BOOK now.