cread | read & see

Vegemite is an Australian cultural icon, and soon a book about the invention of this salty, black paste will be available. The Man Who Invented Vegemite documents the life of Cyril Callister, scientist and director of Fred Walker & Co. Cyril invented the spread during the early 1920s as an alternative to the British Marmite, the import of which was disrupted due to World War I. Jamie Callister – Cyril's grandson – wrote the book. A former advertising executive and builder, Jamie decided to put pen to paper in this his first book after reading through some of his grandfather's letters and documents. He believes his grandfather deserves “to be remembered as a significant and remarkable Australian.” Cyril had an ''an unshakeable belief in Vegemite, that it was good, and he persevered''. While invented as mentioned in the 1920s, Vegemite did not become the legendary icon it is today until the late 30s. Off the back of profits made from Fred Walker &am

"All over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities." I began reading action novel Zoo within a few hours of reading Sweet Tooth and after a few pages was wondering if I could go on. After the tight, intense characterisation of Ian McEwan's new novel I was feeling unconvinced by the almost clumsy attempts to build the central character of Zoo , Oz. I've had this experience before. A few years ago after being captivated by the prose of Hilary Mantel in Wolf Hall I picked up Ted Dekker's Emmanuel's Veins . To be honest (sorry Ted) I couldn't read past the first few pages. Here I go again, I thought, and this time it involves one of the world's top-selling and most prolific authors, although admittedly, I was a Patterson virgin. But I lay back and thought of the readers of Cread (Creaders?) and turned another page. After a few more pages I began to accept the kind of NCIS approach to characterisation - American individualist

Black Caviar is undefeated from 22 races throughout her career, attaining legend status with a race success record not equalled in over 150 years. A new "authorised" book, Black Caviar: The Horse of  Lifetime , document the career of this thoroughbred racehorse come Australian icon and will be available from October 1 (hardcover, 400 pages, ABC Books). Written by journalist and broadcaster Gerard Whateley, Black Caviar begins with the story of trainer Peter Moody of remote outback Queensland, who eventually came to select and guide Black Caviar to dominance. The book's foreword is written by Peter Moody himself. Black Caviar follows the superstar horse's career through to her victory on one of the most famous race tracks of all. But as for her future, the Black Caviar website reports Peter Moody as saying this week that, "Everything is very positive at this point in time. I'll chat with the owners on Saturday or Sunday week." (Click cover im

Australian author Jessica Shirvington's fantasy series - The Violet Eden Chapters (also known as the Embrace series) - has been picked up by the US television network CW, which plans to adapt the series into a TV series in association with Spielberg's Amblin Television. Her first novel, Embrace , was published in October, 2010, by Hachette Australia followed by Entice in March 2011, Emblaze in October 2011 and this month, Endless . Following its release in Australia and New Zealand, the series has been picked up in a number of international markets.  The books have been likened to the Twilight series, but rather than teenage vampires there is a teenage angel at the centre of a battle between light and dark forces. Shirvington says the four books in the series, could potentially be followed by a fifth and sixth. The TV show is said to be in development with release expected for next season in the US. Jessica Shirvington lives in Sydney with her husband of 10 years,

There's no doubt the world of publishing is in turmoil with no-one quite sure where the future lies so perhaps that's why so many big name authors have all come out with new books this Spring. JK Rowling, Tom Wolfe, Salman Rushdie, Junot Diaz, Zadie Smith and Michael Chabon are just some of the award winning, best selling authors to compete for shelf space while Australian authors such as Bryce Courtenay and Kate Grenville are also in the mix but perhaps in danger of being somewhat overwhelmed. Then there are the celebrity releases such as Justin Bieber's Just Getting Started and Kylie Minogue's new book Fashion . And let's not forget the Navy SEAL's first hand account of the killing of Osama bin Laden. So let's hope electricity bills aren't too high and we've all got plenty of reading money. In no particular order, here's a (partial) wrap-up of a particularly literary spring... Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe is due for release in Australia

The ABC reports that the new school library in the remote north-west Queensland, mainly indigenous community of Doomadgee has "hardly any books". Resident Peta Jenkins is using social media to encourage people to donate books in an effort to make school more interesting for students and to boost literacy rates. She says despite the opening of the state school's new library earlier this year, books remain a rare sight. "Well you just can't buy books in Doomadgee," she said. "It would be a matter of buying them online - if what you're after could be purchased online - or going to a major centre like Cairns or Townsville or Mount Isa, all of which are of course hundreds of kilometres away. "With a bit of luck ... we'll be able to build up the school library with some good quality second-hand books but there's also a keen interest in the community in getting adult books out there ... you just don't see books here in

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan has the kind of ending that immediately sends you to the front of the book to re-examine the voice, the perspective and decide who is actually telling the story. It feels at times more like a book of short stories as McEwan delves into his literary origins and even attributes one of his own stories to a novelist in his book. At one stage, Serena is reading a short story written by her lover which is about a novel written by an ape and... well, it's like standing in front of a television with a camera attached, creating video feedback that disappears into nothingness. It also feels like a memoir, especially after McEwan has revealed how closely biographical some of the material is, all except for the part about a spy. But then who knows? His re-creation of 70s Britain is almost as dystopian as the dystopia written by his character Tom Haley in Sweet Tooth , and may be a surprise for those of us who grew up through those times in Australia and did n