John Dale

Seventeen-year-old Jed White lives with his mum and dad behind the Ampol service station in the small coastal town of Plenty. His girlfriend Chrissy works in the local fish cannery. When a foreign trawler crashes on the rocks one night, Jed and Chrissy figure from the rolls of stained bedding below deck that the boat must have been carrying a lot of people. They soon discover dozens of refugees are sheltering at a nearby property. At first the townsfolk accept the new arrivals, but gradually Plenty becomes divided as more and more boat people are relocated there. Jed is torn between his feelings for Chrissy and his fascination for Ashley Page who lives with her father on the property and is helping the new arrivals move in and adapt. As external pressures build, Jed is forced to make a choice about where he belongs and what he believes. A story of love and loyalty, prejudice and pride, Plenty is the riveting new book from the bestselling author of Huckstepp and The Dogs Are Barking. Praise for Plenty ‘An authentic voice telling a compelling story for our times.’ Peter Corris Praise for the previous work of John Dale ‘Rips along with verve and confidence … funny, energetic and full of life.’ Helen Garner ‘A significant, original work that challenges as much as it reveals.’ The Australian ‘An outstanding book … the quality of the writing is seamless.’ The Sydney Morning Herald ‘A mightily impressive debut. A vibrant thriller in the guise of a quest for redemption, Dale’s novel is incandescent.’ Time Out

Plenty

This is a compelling account of a courageous woman who lived a dangerous existence within Sydney's underworld, but who also spoke out against corruption.

A Dangerous Life

Huckstepp

Sarah Dixon is 31-year-old casual academic who is finally achieving her dreams of a placement at a prestigious university - even if it is only a short term contract. Like many before her, Sarah pictured a scholarly place where she could teach, write and read surrounded by intellectual colleagues. Instead, she has joined a faculty in free fall, its staff fighting tooth and nail to keep their jobs and an administration determined to innovate no matter what the cost. The Faculty mixes black humour with the personal journey of a bold and independent young woman making her way in the modern university workplace.

The Faculty

Sydney Noir

Notes from a Sidecar examines where philosophy might go after Wittgenstein and provides a light-hearted philosophical travelogue on modern philosophy. The motorcycle/sidecar rig provides grounding in reality.

A Philosophical Explanation of Vagueness

Notes from a Sidecar

Emery J. Hyslop-Margison

The primary mission of this text is clarifying many of the misconceptions about Paulo Freire’s theories, concepts and his implications for education. It revisits his ideas and explains more fully the philosophical influences that shaped concepts such as problem posing, conscientization and praxis. The fundamental thesis, then, is that the present absence of in-depth philosophical analysis leaves an unacceptable void in the literature addressing Freire’s work, while also promoting frequent misconceptions and superficial understandings about his relationship to contemporary education. Indeed, the philosophical assumptions contributing to Freire’s critical pedagogy require identification, unravelling and ultimately evaluation on the basis of their epistemic and moral tenability. Most existing applications of Freire’s pedagogy are unfortunately superficial because they simply sloganize terms such as banking education, conscientization, praxis, and humanization. A slogan in education popularizes a concept or idea in a positive way, but offers very little in terms of critical reflection or analysis. In order to understand these terms and their origin and apply them as Freire intended, a far richer and more in depth examination of Freire is desperately needed. This text will provide precisely that type of examination.

The Philosophical Influences on the Work of Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire: Teaching for Freedom and Transformation

Great writers engage with the changing times and by using their imaginations transform their ideas and environments into fiction. More than any other writer of the 20th century, George Orwell responded to a period of historical change by imagining his dystopian future of Nineteen Eighty-Four, perhaps the most influential political novel ever written. At the same time Nineteen Eighty-Four was very much a product of post-war England with its rations and shortages. Orwell, in fact, remained a socialist until his death in January 1950, but the far more intriguing question is what Nineteen Eighty-Four would be like if it were written today, in an age of Islamist terror, fake news and post-truth politics.

on Nineteen Eighty-four and the thrust of Orwellian political satire

If George Orwell were alive today …

After Damian Frick saves Jack Buturov's life when he gets caught stealing $1,500 from a Sydney casino, Jack must help Angela Frick, Damian's sister, solve Damian's murder

John Dale

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