The Old World On Desire Lines

Using both poetry and prose, author Joachim Matschoss exposes truths that turn tiny moments into revelations. He finds appreciation as he uncovers profound insights in common life experiences. Meet the variety of people that he encounters as he treks through Europe and Australia, and the discoveries he makes as a result. This literary journal is no ordinary account of the author's travels. Poetry and snippets of prose stand next to short stories about the everyday moments, the little idiosyncrasies, the people you meet on the road. Matschoss writes with the meditative attention that is needed when visiting places that seem foreign, but were once home, and in a way still are. - Lukas Drihy, poet/writer The most distinctive feature in Matschoss' new poems are their beautiful clarity and the sense of stillness. - Campbell Connors, poet/writer Joachim Matschoss is an accomplished teacher of theatre, and also writes plays and poetry.

David R. Ross not only shows us his Scotland but he teaches us it too. You feel as though you are on the back of his motorcycle listening to the stories of his land as you fly with him up and down the smaller roads, the 'desire lines', of Scotland. Ross takes us off the beaten track and away from the main routes chosen for us by modern road builders. He starts our journey in England and criss-crosses the border telling the bloody tales of the towns and villages. His recounting of Scottish history, its myths and its legends is unapologetically and unashamedly pro-Scots.

Ground-breaking multi-disciplinary new study of heritage practice in South Africa from native practitioners and scholars following the implementation of the National Heritage Resources Act.

I have been led through familiar cities, glimpsed moments from the lives of strangers and caught fragments of their overheard conversations. But these are more than poetic snapshots of contemporary life. These poems are imbued with disdain for privilege and compassion for those without it. Every now and then the poet turns his gaze upon himself evoking places he has been and moments he has lived. This juxtaposition between the lives of strangers and the deeply personal captures something very true about travelling, and about living. Through the lives of strangers, we are reminded of past intimacies and the things and people we have lost. Andrew Bovell, playwright, Australia. In theatre each character you meet is teetering on the edge of catastrophe. This is a collection of poems about the dangers of that precipice, but it is not the characters in the poems scattered all over the world whom you fear for the most. It is the one sitting behind the words who, sometimes, shockingly, shows itself above the parapets and makes your ‘fat red heart’ break. Tom Holloway, playwright, Australia. I am mesmerized by the intimacy the poems capture in these lyrical scenarios. It is as though I am eavesdropping on these characters’ most private thoughts and ways of being. Thomas Kellogg, playwright, USA.

The haiku that punctuate Joachim Matschoss' travels work as luminous mile-markers, cryptic road signs and legends on maps that trail off into myth and legend. Matschoss understands that the language of intimacy between humans extends to interactions with landscape, history, animals and weather. These haiku find the sum of their many parts in a palpable immediacy and longing. - Anthony Lawrence Matschoss devotes himself to an ancient art form that captures the moment before it escapes, and he does it with humour, insight, whimsy, a keen ear, and a sharp eye. In publishing so many haikus, he shares his unique take on the world. Reading them, you may be inspired to create and share yours. - Arnold Zable Travels with Myself is a perfect title for this brilliant Haiku collection by theatre-maker, poet and playwright, Joachim Matschoss. A busy life is hauled back again and again to quiet moments – to pictures in rich words. - Irish poet, Terry McDonagh What is never lost in Travels with Myself is the primacy of experience and the direct way of finding its expression. These haikus are clear-eyed, meditative and full of surprises. - Frank Rullow This book is a phantasmagoria of words beautifully crafted to engage the senses of the reader. As one turns each page, words fall into place, and the journey begins through the neon-lit streets of the poet’s mind. He entices us into his reality festooned with irony, futility and an acceptance of life with all its surprises. Truly a travel book for those that rarely leave or have never left home even when they travel. - Mark Ulyseas

When sixteen-year-old Walker gets caught up in a witch-hunt against homosexuals, he is left to stand by and watch as a tragedy unfolds.

This ground breaking new work draws together a cross-section of South African scholars to provide a lively and comprehensive review of the under-researched area of heritage practice following the introduction of the National Heritage Resources Act. Looking at the daily heritage debates, from naming streets to projects such as the Gateway to Robben Island, Desire Lines addresses the innovative strategies that have emerged in the practice of defining, identifying and developing heritage sites. In a unique multi-disciplinary approach, contributions are featured from a broad spectrum of fields, including the built environment and public culture and education. Showcasing work from tour operators and museum curators alongside that of university-based scholars, this book is a comprehensive and singularly authoritative volume that charts the development of new and emergent public cultures in post-apartheid South Africa through the making and unmaking of its urban spaces. This pioneering collection of essays and case studies is an indispensable guide for those working within or studying heritage practice.

'Deftly embroidered, the narrative is perfumed, with plants and flowers, signifiers of life, of love...a vivid and sometimes harrowing tale of yearning' - The Weekend Australian 'accomplished and devastating' - The Saturday Paper 'From the outset, the novel captures the attention of the eye and the mind with its exquisite sensory observation, its breathtakingly exact expressions of feelings and sensations.' - Australian Book Review Are you still a liar? The crafting of those five words, even without dispatch, left her chilled. Arctic Circle, 2012. On a lightless day at the end of the polar winter, landscape architect Evie Waddell finds herself exhuming the past as she buries Australian seeds in a frozen mountain vault - insurance against catastrophe. Molong, 1953. Catastrophe is all seven-year-old Paddy O'Connor has known. Shipped from institutional care in London to an Australian farm school, his world is a shadowy place where lies scaffold fragile truths and painful memories. To Paddy's south in Canberra, young Evie is safe in her family's embrace, yet soon learns there are some paths from which you can't turn back; impulses and threats that she only half understands but seems to have known forever. Blue Mountains, 1962. From their first meeting as teenagers at a country market, Paddy and Evie grow a compulsive, unconventional love that spans decades, taking them in directions neither could have foreseen. Set against the uneasy relationship society has with its own truth-telling in history, war and politics, DESIRE LINES is an epic story of love and the lies we tell ourselves to survive - and a reminder that even truths which seem lost forever can find their way home. 'Felicity Volk is the real deal' - NIKKI GEMMELL 'Epic, tender, heart-rending - a story resonating in its spectacular landscapes' - INGA SIMPSON 'Genuinely tender, passionate and devastating' Books+Publishing