AustLit

''This collection blends candid and personal worlds, short stories, allegories and vignettes. The warmth of "Knight in Shining Chain Mail" moves to the chilling short story "Undertow", with its secrets, to heart-rending "The Broken Windmill". Decima does not shy away from reality, with all its twists and turns of family angst, defiant love, jealousy, betrayal, blackmail and the ache of the road not taken, balanced by the humour of light-hearted stories such as "Pop-up Author" and "Guest of Honour". The great strength of Decima's writing is her ability to hook the reader into a story. Her pared-back, often lyrical language keeps one involved until the denouement, one which often lingers long after the last full stop. I am still pondering "Burning Sixpence". What did I just experience? Enjoy a wonderful feast of language and ever-changing images.' - Colleen Keating' (Publication summary)

'"In Glimmers of Light, Decima Wraxall gives us an array of poems graphically written, as she says, with the 'struggle to understand our troubled society and who we might be'. The dark moments of our world, the injustices, disorder, struggles and losses of the past few years are loud, with many poems on the Covid attack. Masks and hospitals add narrative detail from Decima's medical background. The title conveys that in the darkness there is light even if it be only pinpricks in a black sky or a bruised horizon at dawn, 'stopping for the warble of a magpie' in the poem 'A Fountain Dances', 'the delight of an introspective Sauvignon blanc' in 'I am Lived', or 'sharing billy tea under whispering casuarinas' in 'Defiance'. We know that as with Vermeer paintings it is only the light that remains. Delve in, and be surprised with many gems on travel, love and history." -Colleen Keating'   (Publication summary)

'‘A second gratifying collection of poems from Decima Wraxall. Flame is an odyssey of diverse themes from nature, history, anxiety, loss, love, transcendence. Always a liminal struggle from the certainty of ‘staircase houses and hedges clipped into obedience’ to being on the thresholds ‘lit by firefly light’, ‘gardens taking golden sun baths before dark’, ‘a miracle clasped in loving arms’, ‘the surge of one melds with ripples of the other’, I am reminded of Kahlil Gibran’s words: ‘the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears’. Delight in poems that speak to the paradox of dreams, courage, and spirituality, a cornucopia of the poetic emotional spectrum. Enjoy the marvels of the natural world, the honesty of family and the joys and trials of international travel.’ – Colleen Keating' (Publication summary)

'Decima Wraxall’s poems mirror moods of the natural world and humanity in a rich diversity of themes and settings. Visit the magnificent and sacred monolith of Uluru in Central Australia, share its secrets. In Peru, fly over the Nazca Lines, ponder on the huge icons of a lost civilisation. Savour moving paeans, paying tribute to the courage of those facing their own mortality. Share the pain of saying goodbye, juxtaposed against the frantic dating dance - alone - by a woman past her prime. Ageing is explored in its many dimensions, with a side dish of exuberance from the very young. Reflect on hardships of the frontier days. Imagine the dispossessed watching civilisation emerge with swords and muskets, indigenous rituals and ceremonies ignored as savage. Above all, the universal shines through in this thoughtful collection.'   (Publication summary)