The Darkest Shore

by Karen Brooks

  Thanks to you, too, Peter, for your love, friendship and support and for being so much a part of this tale and its creation as well.

  Then there are the marvellous friends who gave me the idea for this story in the first place: Mark Nicholson and Bill Lark. Both are fabulous people and great raconteurs and it didn’t take much for them to convince me to search out this story. I hope I have justified your faith in my ability to do it justice. Bill also happens to be married to another of my friends — the kind you call on for a hug, a laugh and a shoulder and to share a few drams with — the superbly talented Lyn Lark. I also want to thank Bill and Lyn for insisting I stay in their ‘shack’ in Orford, Tasmania, for as long as I wanted to finish the book. I had a week by the cold, wild sea, with my dogs, imagination, research and words, and it was simply magic. Thank you so much for your incredible generosity. I did complete the book there.

  Thanks as well to Mark’s gorgeous wife, Robin. Also, to Simon Thomson, Lucy Wilkins, Clinton and Rosie Steele — all part of the Single Malt Motorcycle Club. Also, Mike Crew, the lovely Robbie (the Glaswegian Taswegian) and his beautiful wife and my friend, Emma Gilligan, and wee Harvey as well.

  To one of my closest friends, the marvellous Stephen Bender — you are an inspiration in so many ways. Kiarna, Chris, Jake and Samuel Brown — thank you. To my most special friends, with whom I share political diatribes, joy in images, poems, films and books as well as celebrating each other’s triumphs and mourning the setbacks, Professor Jim McKay, Dr Helen Johnston, Dr Liz Ferrier, Professor David Rowe, Professor Malcolm McLean, Professor Mike Emmison, Dr Janine Mikosa and Linda Martello, thank you.

  I also wish to thank (though they might not know it directly, they have been a great support and presence), Dr Frances Thiele, Dr Lisa Hill, Sheryl Gwyther, Mark Woodland, Mimi McIntyre, Gav Jaeger and Jason Greatbatch, Margaret Wenham, Natalie Gregg, Geoffrey Shearer, Fiona Inch, Mick and Katri DuBois, Christina Schultness (How), Trevor Dale and Jeff Francombe, Donna Williams and Kerrie Ashwood, Rebecca and Terry Moles and Wendy Moles, and my lovely step-mum Moira Adams and her fabulous but now deceased Scottish parents. They, along with my nanna, Margaret Ross, had such a passion for Scotland, its myths and history, and I like to think they began to instil it in me as well a long time ago.

  I also want to thank the IASH at University of Queensland where I am an honorary senior research consultant and the University of the Sunshine Coast, where I am an Honorary Senior Fellow.

  Thanks also to the talented Tony Mak and Sharn Hitchins for their wonderful music and friendship.

  I also really want to thank my readers. Where would I be without you? Or the booksellers and librarians, the custodians of stories — the matchmakers of the imagination — thank you to each and every one of you for being the guardians at the gate.

  Thank you as well to my gorgeous Facebook friends on my author page and on Goodreads, Twitter and Instagram — you are simply terrific.

  Also, a huge thanks to the friends of Captain Bligh’s Brewery and Distillery. Every time I see you, you cheer me on and support what it is Stephen and I do — whether it be with beer, spirits or books. Thank you so much.

  I also want to thank my much-missed inspiration and cherished friend, Sara Douglass.

  Now it’s time for my last thanks — my family. Starting with my remarkable sister, Jenny Farrell, whose unshakeable belief in what I do astonishes me always. Thank you.

  Grant Searle — thank you for being one my (and Stephen’s) best friends and a true support in so many ways — and when life has not been as kind as it could be to you. Here’s to that changing and soon. Love you dearly.

  To my furbies — my canine muses and beloved companions, Tallow, Dante and Bounty — I am so blessed you chose me as one of your humans.

  To my beautiful very adult children, Adam and Caragh — both amazing creators in their own unique ways. They make me laugh, cry, remind me that real life can be both challenging and as crazily astonishing as the fictional ones I write. I love you both very much.

  Finally, I have to thank my beloved husband, my partner in all that is wondrous and wondrously wicked. Together we’ve weathered some tumultuous, very frightening, sorrowful and damn tough times. But, like everything, we did it together. Able to bring me back to shore when I drift away, he’s there to shine a light in the darkness and laugh with and even sometimes at me. As I wrote this book, he also listened to and held me as I wept for the women of Pittenweem and what they endured — the men too. Then he cheered me on when I determined to alter, where appropriate, the outcome. Stephen is always there, my anchor, my rock. I may not be his fishwife (though I don’t think he’d mind), but I hope I’ll always be his wicked writing woman.

  ISBN: 9781489277435

  TITLE: THE DARKEST SHORE

  First Australian Publication 2020

  Copyright © 2020 Karen Brooks

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