‘What things?’

‘I promised not to tell.’

‘Do you remember?’

‘Some things. Not good.’

A care worker’s unwise interest in a dementia client leads him into a dark labyrinth.

A man intent on suicide happens on his doppelganger.

An abandoned woman wonders whether her lover’s crime might prove his love.

Stories to beguile and captivate.

Read an excerpt from ‘The Lost Child.’

Supported by grants and residencies from Arts Tasmania

and a mentorship from the Australian Society of Authors

A young unemployed art restorer discovers a lost historic painting that reveals an appalling event in Tasmania’s past, a subject of acrimonious debate. The canvas is damaged and the figures unclear.

To create a career for himself, and save his faltering marriage, Paul Collins must somehow find a way to use this discovery by forging a pact with those who want the truth known, along with those that don’t.

A novel of art, history and deception.

Read an excerpt of Past/Present

Shadow in the Forest can best be described as a psychological thriller. In brief, it follows the inner and outer journeys of an idealistic young zoologist, Evelyn Carter, who travels to the Tasmanian wilderness as part of a study to help evaluate the impact of tourism on specific wilderness areas, in her case, the Walls of Jerusalem.

The story is set in the 1980’s following the successful actions which saved the Franklin River and it references some important movements and moods of the time, such as the influence of growing environmentalism and feminism. Isolated in the wilderness, Evelyn sights and eventually befriends an animal which she believes to be the extinct ‘mythical’ Tasmanian Tiger. Gradually she becomes obsessed with the beast and the various potential issues arising from her ‘discovery’. A peculiar psychosexual ‘love affair’ builds between woman and animal, leading eventually to a heart-breaking outcome. On the sidelines is a friendly ‘greenie’, Graeme, also part of the project, who fancies Evelyn and is concerned and watching out for her.

Ethical zoological, personal and environmental issues are tied in with the examination of a mind descending into madness.

Read an excerpt of Shadow in the Forest

All have elements of mystery and suspense, some a touch of the supernatural. In the opening, ‘One Winter’s Afternoon’, a distinguished G.P. confronts his past life while making an outcall to a deserted cottage. In ‘The Willing Flesh’ a rich woman confined to a wheelchair commissions a portrait painter to create for her on canvas an ideal mate, with unforeseen and disastrous consequences. In ‘The Shark’, a young idealistic teacher begins her first job in a decaying country town and finds herself caught up in a sinister web of power…

‘(Swinbourne) demonstrates a rare confidence with language that makes for compelling reading.’

– The Weekend Australian

‘Even the shorter stories quickly create an atmosphere of foreboding and menace.’

– The Sydney Morning Herald

Read ‘One Winter’s Afternoon’ from The Shark and Other Stories

In the opening story, ‘Away’ (winner of the 40⁰ South Short Story Award), a young Hobart woman visiting Sydney for work, suddenly sees the life she walked away from and is dangerously tempted back. In ‘The Divine Image’ a passionate art collector must choose between a priceless sculpture and a human life. In ‘The Deal’ a loving husband must make a pact with the devil to keep his wife…

‘The tales’…shapes converge, with a satisfying precision, on the agony of the instant. Swinbourne’ s fiction provokes and entertains, teases and disturbs, with admirable, and unpretentious vitality.’

– The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Read ‘Away’ from Away and Other Stories

A fine act of trespass…”
—The Mercury

Style: heightened naturalism
Length: 30 minutes
Cast: 0 female, 2 male
Audience age: adult
Publisher: Australian Plays Transform

The Tryst is a one-act melodrama/black comedy set in a deserted farmhouse in the country.

Style: black comedy
Length: 60 minutes
Cast: 1 female, 2 male
Audience age: adult
Publisher: Australian Plays Transform

Angela’s growing disquiet, particularly concerning Brian, precipitates a series of mounting crises. Her complicated road to eventual self-realisation involves all characters in a variety of farcical and dramatic confrontations.

Style: comedy
Length: 90 minutes
Cast: 2 female, 2 male
Cast age: 18+
Audience age: adult
Publisher: Australian Plays Transform

The property hides a terrible secret about which Frank is in denial. His son, John, returns determined to reveal this and reclaim his love for his half-sister, Josephine. His clash with his father and subsequent actions over the farm precipitate tragedy.

Set in country New South Wales.

…Generational differences power this confronting work all the way to its explosive climax”
—The Mercury

Style: drama
Length: 90 minutes
Cast: 2 female, 3 male
Cast age: 18+
Audience age: adult
Publisher: Australian Plays Transform

This party has been organised by his older lover, Clarissa Luewin, a famous artist, at her house in the Blue Mountains above Sydney. It is the late 1930s, and the day has been chosen so the guests can observe the rare appearance of a famous comet later in the evening. While they wait for this, Clarissa, for personal reasons, proposes each in turn tell a story from their youth, that feel encapsulates what ‘youth’ means for them.

The stories turn into self-revelations, which as they unfold, highlight and augment existing tensions within the group—particularly the rivalry between Henry and Clarissa’s former lover, Bert, an alcoholic and disappointed communist, who has returned from overseas to claim her back.

Matters reach a head between these two and at this point of unresolved tension, just prior to the blaze of the comet, Clarissa tells the culminating tale, her long bitter fantasy of lost dreams and faith, an explanation for her ensuing shedding of Henry for Bert, and a veiled apologia for her imminent suicide.

Style: naturalistic drama
Length: 70 minutes
Cast: 2 female, 4 male
Cast age: 18+
Audience age: adult
Publisher: Australian Plays Transform