Everything under the Sun — James Cochrane

Short stories telling tales from a sunburned country. A wandering walkabout of a book, both Urban and Outback. Thirty-seven heartfelt sketches laced with longing.Within these pages we travel to the most eclectic corners of the country, from secluded sand spits and beaches to inland Birdsville; dine with dingoes, fishermen, farmers and cassowaries. There is history and humour, mystery and regret, an odd assortment of bibs, bobs and bibelots - often nostalgic, reflective, happy or sad - sometimes all of the above. We wander ruins and rocks with their own ancient stories; smell the mountain air, the mud and bulldust, the spinifex and baking sand from dune and desert. We meet Station hands, backpackers, country and city folk, travelling souls of all ilksMost of these offerings have been previously published here and there, in some form at least, scattered across various blogs, websites, the occasional newspaper and/or offered up in some literary competition.While there is lots of 'travel' in this Antipodean oddity of a book, the stories are very much focused on people, places and the human condition. The tales vary in length, a menagerie of the tall and the true, all intended to lead the reader to who knows where.