Cheeky Dogs: To Lake Nash and Back

Dion Beasley and Johanna Bell

Allen & Unwin Children’s, 2019

Review by Kingsley Gittins

Cheeky Dogs: To Lake Nash And Back is a fascinating visual journey into the heart of life in rural parts of the Northern Territory.

Dion Beasley (artist & focus of the book) combines once again with Johanna Bell after two successful forays into the world of children’s writing. This time they are telling Dion’s story: from growing up in Tennant Creek, facing and overcoming physical adversity, to exhibitions at the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art. This is a story that had to be told.

Dion’s drawings are the main focus of the book, and they easily carry the reader through the narrative with only a few poignant sentences in support. Cheeky dogs dominate each page, but are interspersed with drawings of the local area, people in Dion’s life and a few well-chosen photographs. It quickly becomes obvious why his work is attracting the attention of the art world, his deceptively simple illustrations have real emotive depth and a dark honesty that challenges the reader in a powerful way.

Despite the sometimes-heavy subject matter, the overall tone of the book is a positive one. Dion’s description and drawings of the dogs at the various camps around town is heart-warming, yet told with a dark humour that is prevalent in the book, facing harsh truths with an unflinching attitude to a sometimes-cruel world. At times it will have you both laughing and crying in equal measure.

Overall, I was very impressed with Cheeky Dogs, it is a worthy addition to any Territorian’s library, if only for the beautiful drawings on show. Dion’s story so far is worthy of your time and attention, even though I suspect there is more to come.

Dion Beasley is the Tennant Creek artist, well known across the Territory for the much-loved T-shirt brand, Cheeky Dogs. Johanna Bellis an award-winning author and director of the Darwin-based creative production house, StoryProjects,

Kingsley Gittins works for NT Writers’ Centre, Darwin. This review was first published in Off The Leash.

Malediction: The Cursed Play

Sean Guy

Self-published, 2018

Review by Kingsley Gittins

Sean Guy’s novel, Malediction: The Cursed Play, is an engaging and well-written tribute to all things Shakespeare. The story takes the form of a reverse whodunnit, where the actors in a cursed play are all alive, but they’re convinced the curse will take one of their number before the performance is complete.

The setting is fictional, but has a very strong Elizabethan England feel. Readers will recognise elements of the great bards work reflected in the variety of characters on show. Indeed, this is where the The Cursed Play really shines, the distinctive and interesting performers bring the action to life. This interplay creates the feeling of a performance for the reader, which will have you engrossed for hours.

The central mystery of the novel is a sound one, with enough red herrings and twists to keep even the most avid Sherlock Holmes fan guessing right until the very end. Readers will find themselves picking their favourite characters and rooting for their survival as tensions rise over the course of the narrative.

While primarily focused on showcasing the classic tragedies of Shakespearean theatre, there are a number of interesting supporting themes at play. The tension between old stick-in-the-mud male actors and the newly enfranchised female performers adds value and a contemporary relevance to the story.

I highly recommend this book, especially to those who love a good murder-mystery novel. The prose and pacing allow for an engaging read, and the high-brow Shakespeare is subtly incorporated. The story is well written and the characters are excellent. Best of all, Sean is a local Darwin author and can be found running The Bookshop in the CBD. If this work proves anything, it’s that supporting local authors can be a lot of fun.

Sean Guy is an author and manager of the independent bookstore, The Bookshop Darwin.

Kingsley Gittins works for NT Writers’ Centre, Darwin. This review was first published in Off The Leash.