More than made up for on Saturday Jan. 18, when I flicked through the pages of the Advertiser's SA Weekend Magazine and found my eye caught by a familiar black and red and white cover - and there it was. A full-scale review by Katherine England, who had selected it for her 'Well Read' section feature article in the Books section of the magazine. A bonus moment, as I read her thoughtful and insightful article, with its carefully crafted words and praise for Passion Play. There were phrases that I'll savour and treasure, like 'comedic cunning' and 'flexible … beautifully lean free verse,' while her closing lines: 'The plot, or series of plots - so many well-drawn characters, so many complex lives, so much intriguing venality - is as readable, engaging and cleverly shaped as any good novel' made it clear that a verse novel can stand beside all others in the field.

All this from a reviewer whose insights and appraisals  I've always respected  -  a very happy Saturday, and added to by the many people who contacted me to share my pleasure in the review. Unfortunately, there's no way I can find of giving a web link to it, but will reproduce and post the article in the Reviews section of this web site.

A bit of extra gilding on the lily when a few days later a friend drew my attention to the current Adelaide Review, where a number of Adelaide's celebrities were asked to nominate their favourite books of 2013  -  and found that Stephen Marshall, our leader of the State Opposition Party, had selected Passion Play as the first of his three best reads for the year. Thank you, Stephen!