Alison Croggon

Lina is enchanting, vibrant but wilful. Her eyes betray her for what she truly is—a witch. With her childhood companion, Damek, she has grown up privileged and spoiled, and the pair are devoted to each other to the point of obsession. But times are changing. Vendetta is coming. And tragedy is stalking the halls of the Red House. Black Spring...

A hybrid of memoir and essay from award-winning writer and critic Alison Croggon. This figure I see in the foreground, this me. How monstrous am I? What does it mean to be a monster? From Latin monstrum, meaning an abomination ... grotesque, hideous, ugly, ghastly, gruesome, horrible ... I was born as part of a monstrous structure - the grotesque,...

In our village, we had two treasures: the River, which was our road and our god; and the Book, which was our history, our oracle, and our soul. Simbala is a Keeper of the Book, the latest in a long line of women who can read the Book to find answers to the villagers' questions. As developers begin to poison...