Animal rights activist Diana Pembridge is embroiled in a tangle of scientific corruption and sexual scandal when her friend, scientist Carolyn Williams, is found murdered.At a remote biotechnological research centre in the Australian outback, chief scientist John Parker is developing a virulent and contagious chimera, a fatal bacterium for which there is no cure. When a young female scientist is found murdered at the research facility, John encounters Diana Pembridge, an animal rights activist who suspects there is more to John's work than meets the eye.Diana has dedicated her life to caring for majestic birds of prey. When she discovers the body of her childhood friend near the research station, she immediately suspects murder. Her questioning leads her into a web of scientific corruption. But when people will go to deadly lengths to protect their secrets, getting too close to the truth threatens to lead to her own demise.Blanche d'Alpuget examines complex ethical...

A story of an Australian screenwriter in quest of her past as she returns to Israel, the land of her birth.Danielle Green's reasons for returning to the city of her birth, Jerusalem, during the first Lebanon War are twofold: first, she is researching a screenplay that she hopes will make her rich; second, she is seeking a reunion with an autocratic Jewish father who has refused to acknowledge her existence for most of her life. After a separation of many years and many miles, she hopes he will be willing to reconcile with her.In the quest for her past, Danielle is reunited with a former teacher, an old woman of deep wisdom. She falls in love with an Israeli and is drawn into a web of terrorists and nationalists, soldiers and survivors. Yet the confusion, divisiveness and famed aggression of Israel is only the best-known part of an oft-repeated story. The country's progress, hindered as it is by centuries of religious, emotional and political turmoil, provides the backdrop...

An exceptional portrayal of life and love in Indonesia among foreign residents after the 1965 coup.Alexandra Wheatfield, a young journalist, has come to work in the Australian Embassy in Djakarta at a time of chaotic change: the coup of 1965 has been crushed, but the Indonesian Army has not yet overthrown the revered President Sukarno.Sukarno has warned that without him the people will bring anarchy upon themselves, like 'monkeys in the dark'. The privileged Australian diplomats view this scene with benign contempt. The problem of security officer Frank Greaves and his protégé, Anthony Sinclair, is to find new sources of information and power in the crumbling and corrupt city.But Alex sets her mind to a different task, attracting the affections of Maruli Hutabarat, an Indonesian poet who is in hiding for publicly supporting Sukarno's regime. Sexual tensions blaze, and Alex believes that she might have come to understand the deeply sensual but cruel city.However,...

On Lust and On Longing together for the first time.When On Lust was first published it caused a media sensation: Blanche d'Alpuget wrote of a pillar of society who had molested children and of events that ended in mystery. Now she reveals all.On Longing caused a similar sensation, for different reasons. D'Alpuget dared to write that she loved and had inspired love in a man already adored by the public.Here are the raw and timeless themes of the power and powerlessness inherent to lust, love, loss and death.

Geoffrey the Handsome, the virile and charming Duke of Normandy, seduces Queen Eleanor of France to spy for him in the struggle between Normandy and France and Normandy and England. Said to be the most beautiful woman in Europe, and very rich, Eleanor has not been able to give birth to an heir for France. Her liaison with Geoffrey could remedy that - or lead to her downfall and Geoffrey's death. But what begins with cool calculation becomes a passionate affair. Despite his love for Eleanor, however, Geoffrey has larger plans: to help his warrior son, Henry, seize the English throne from the uncle who usurped it from its rightful heir, Henry's mother. When Henry is forced to intervene to save the lives of his father and Eleanor, he falls foul of the French queen——and madly in love with her Byzantine maid. Should he become King of England, however, this dazzling foreign girl will never be acceptable as his queen. These two relationships, both forbidden, both perilous,...

The second novel in the compelling series about two of medieval history's most fascinating characters, Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.It is 1154, and Henry Plantagenet avenges his family honour by taking back the English throne from Stephen the Usurper. The kingdom he inherits is impoverished, lawless and broken by years of civil war. By his side is the beautiful, wealthy and indomitable Eleanor of Aquitaine. Combining forces, this golden couple use their charisma and shrewd diplomacy to crush rebellious barons and restore England's prestige and glory.However, an equally ambitious financial magician is needed to restore the royal treasury. Opportunistic Thomas Becket answers the call, using his appointment of Chancellor to fill not only the King's coffers but also his own. In a dance of ambition, vengeance and forbidden passions, Henry, his Queen and the Chancellor fight for political power and control against forces seen and imagined, each with their own agenda, each...

Two women, two worlds. Together they must risk everythingJudith Wilkes, an ambitious journalist, leaves her husband and two sons in Australia and goes to Malaysia to report on the international refugee crisis. Ten years earlier, Malaysia provided Judith with her first major career success, but also with a personal disaster that she would like to forget.While on assignment Judith encounters Minou, the manipulative young French-Vietnamese wife of a high-ranking Australian diplomat. Minou is desperate to rescue her children from Saigon, who were left behind when she fled. Judith also begins a romance with the enigmatic Indian scholar Kanan. These new loyalties throw her headlong into dramatic personal and professional dilemmas. It is on the East Malaysian coast, where the giant turtles gather to lay their eggs, that the conflict reaches its tragic, brutal climax.Winner of the Age Book of the Year Award, the South Australian Government's Award for Literature, the...