NB. If you are interested in the online BookTown discussion forums commencing soon, please click here to send an email to info@booktown.com.au

Mayor Announces Nominated Books for

Australia's First Community Reading Program

Text of speech given by the Mayor of Wingecarribee Shire, Councillor Phil Yeo, at the Historic Berrima Village Australia Day celebrations to launch the inaugural One Book - One Town project.
Mayor Yeo was able to make this announcement despite dire threats to his safety and well being by local criminal elements bent upon disrupting the launch of this important cultural initiative. Even a dramatic escape by notorious local bushranger, Captain Starlight, while under the escort of NSW Marine Guards from Berrima Courthouse to Berrima Gaol, and then their later bailing-up of the stage coach carrying the Mayor and Australia Day Ambassador, Carmel Travers, was unable to foil the successful launch.

It is my pleasure, as Mayor of Wingecarribee Shire, to announce to the local community and the world at large, the list of nominated titles submitted by the nation's major publishers, for the first-ever Australian One Book - One Town community reading program. From the following list of books, which is given below in alphabetical order by author's surname, one book will be selected for a four-month public reading campaign later this year. There are twelve (12) nominations. They are:

[Click on book entry below for a description and cover image]

[1.] Don't Let Her See Me Cry
by Helen Barnacle
Publisher: Random House

[2.] Candelo
by Georgia Blain
Publisher: Penguin

[3.] The Art of the Engine Driver
By : Steven Carroll
Publisher HarperCollins

[4.] Jessica
by Bryce Courtney
Publisher: Penguin

[5.] Mallawindy
by Joy Dettman
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

[6.] The Divine Wind
by Garry Disher
Publisher: Hodder Headline

[7.] Maestro
by Peter Goldsworthy
Publisher HarperCollins

[8.] Lilian's Story
by Kate Grenville
Publisher: Allen & Unwin

[9.] My Brother Jack
by George Johnston
Publisher: HarperCollins

[10.] Over the Top with Jim
by Hugh Lunn
Publisher: Hodder Headline

[11.] Beyond Duck River
by Angela Martin
Publisher: Hodder Headline

[12.] Dare To Fly
by Janine Shepherd
Publisher: Random House

The final selection will be made by a panel convened by BookTown Australia Convenor, Paul McShane, comprising local librarians, booksellers and with the input of volunteer reading panels from across our community.

The chosen book will be announced on World Book Day, April 23rd, just prior to the inaugural Australian Festival of the Book, which is to be held in Bowral over the weekend of April 27-28. There are handbills being distributed here today and you can obtain them also at the Council Mobile Library stationed in the park across the road from here.

The public reading campaign will then take place during May, June and July, concluding with Book Week in August. Everyone is invited to join in this reading campaign and encourage others to do so by reading the chosen book and also joining one of the many reading discussion groups that will be formed. Other events, including a visit and workshop by the author, may also take place.

Literature has been vital in shaping the Australian character and defining our sense of nationhood. Australia Day is therefore an appropriate time to launch the first-ever Australian One Book - One Town project. From this small beginning here in the Southern Highlands, we hope that other communities across the nation will also see the value in creating such a project.

Congratulations to the organisers and actors in today's re-enactments. Thank you everyone here in the audience for attending our Shire's Australia Day celebrations here in historic Berrima and I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have.

ENDS Issued 26 January 2002

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND/OR INTERVIEWS WITH THOSE QUOTED CONTACT:

Paul McShane
Convenor - BookTown Australia
Churchill Fellow 2002

PHONE: 0408 65 9896
EMAIL: info@booktown.com.au