AustLit

'Professor Belville-Smith had bored university audiences in England with the same lecture for fifty years. Now he was crossing the Australian continent, doing precisely the same. Never before had the reaction been so extreme, however, for shortly after an undistinguished appearance at Drummondale University, the doddering old professor is found brutally murdered.

'As Police Inspector Royle (who has never actually had to solve a crime before) investigates the bizarre behaviour of some worthy locals, a hilarious, highly satirical portait of life down under emerges.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

After years teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle-aged and twice divorced, has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours; he is denounced and summoned before a committee of inquiry. Willing to admit his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicly, he resigns and retreats to his daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding. For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. He and Lucy become victims of a savage and disturbing attack which brings into relief all the faultlines in their relationship.' (Publisher's blurb)

'The last thing Rowena wants in her life right now is a cockatoo with a crook temper. She's got enough problems of her own. For a start, she's just spattered two hundred grown-ups with jelly and custard. But a crazy cockatoo, Ro discovers, can be just the friend she needs.'

Source: Trove

'A lonely boy haunted by an ancient family curse, The Shadow Guests is a classic supernatural mystery from the master-storyteller, Joan Aiken.

'After the strange disappearance of his mother and older brother, Cosmo is sent from Australia to live with his cousin in England. Lost and lonely at his new school, Cosmo escapes at weekends to the peace of his cousin's ancient mill house, and the shadowy companions only he can see. When he learns about the family curse, he realises his ghostly visitors from the past have a message for him - but are these new companions friends or enemies?'

Source: Publisher's blurb, Puffin.