Christina King

There has been a lot—a lot—of content lately around working from home, social distancing and self-isolation. Social media is bursting with memes, tips, ideas and statistics around the coronavirus, shopping centre shelves being stripped bare, toilet paper being more in demand than food (if someone can explain that to me, please get in touch!) and the delights and difficulties of spending more time at home.
As business owners, particularly small business owners, these social distancing measures...

Winner of the HNSA 2019 Short Story Contest

by Christina King

Just fuzz. Like the fur of a sewer rat. She ran her hand over her head again, shuddering in the darkness as her fingers touched all that was left of her once long hair. She picked at some bread stuck between her front teeth with the remains of her thumbnail. The sound of her cough shattered the silence.

The ultimate punishment: hair cropping and solitary isolation. She sighed; she regretted her lost locks. But not her escape. She ...

With the rigorous research involved and the potential for disagreement and criticism, what could be more difficult than writing the biography of an historical figure?

The answer? Writing the life of an historical figure on whom the historical record is completely silent.

In the latter case, academic rigour must be balanced against a refined imagination and powerful historical empathy to create a work of fiction which could easily pass as biographical.

Anne Blythe-Cooper has achieved such a ba...

Geraldine Brooks is a genius.
Historical biographical fiction is difficult to write at the best of times because of issues with source evidence and conflicting views; Brooks does a superlative job in her latest novel, The Secret Chord, taking inspiration from a historical figure from three thousand years ago.
King David’s story of rags to riches to divine punishment as a result of an abuse of power is a compelling one in itself. But when told with Brooks’ beautifully crafted sentences and ori...

Writing a memoir is a monumental task. And I write that as someone who has never attempted to do so. Consolidating decades of one’s life into a work small enough to be held in one hand seems titanic, especially given the complexity of its primary source: memory.
The subtle art of memoir has been beautifully handled by Australian writer Drusilla Modjeska in her own endeavour, entitled Second Half First. Her work is so named because it begins with her fortieth birthday and details the years tha...

The woman behind the counter jiggles the baby on her hip. The child is red-faced and crying. Customers smile sympathetically as the woman tries to serve them and placate him. She had no choice in the matter. The daycare is closed today. There is no one at home who can care for her son. Thus he is at work with her. And he is hungry.
This may seem a somewhat less common sight in today’s world of long-hours daycare, but women’s battle between work and family goes on.
In her new work of nonfictio...

‘Great Hera! I am running so late today!’
‘Aphrodite aid me in getting through this after-lunch meeting!’
‘Suffering Sappho I am exhausted!’
Not curses we hear in today’s world – but wouldn’t we all secretly love to make such glorious exclamations?
Wonder Woman did. In Jill Lepore’s readable new book The Secret History of Wonder Woman, she introduces us to the tiara-toting, revolutionary comic strip character who wore hotpants in the forties and regularly used such feminist curses.
The book d...

Christina King
The hospital room is narrow and dark. A Disney poster of Mickey Mouse and his magic mop from Fantasia is stuck to the wall. Six little metal beds are in a row. In the furthest bed, the one beside the window, there is a little girl aged seven. She sits in a little circle of light from the reading lamp, hunched over the yellowed pages in her lap. She is motionless. A moment later she turns the page. The scrape of the paper against the blanket fills the room for a moment. The girl...

Women’s crime writing has come a long way, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing. Like walking in high heels, there have been moments of comfort and ease, and a stumble here and there and the odd blister.

But central to the ongoing success of female crime authors is the support of fellow writers, providing an arm to lean on to prevent those stumbles when a stiletto heel gives way.

An opportunity to experience this support and celebrate women’s crime writing is The Death in July Festival of Women’...

There are an abundant of social, neurological and personal benefits that spring from learning and practising a new language.
We’ve all experienced it. The awkward smile, perhaps a wave, usually coupled with some highly exaggerated gestures. A shake of the head then a shrug of the shoulders. Then the sorrowful I’d-like-to-help-but-don’t-understand smile. And you are still stranded; your attempt at obtaining directions in this unfamiliar place has failed. Because of language restraints.
However...

Not just a food fad
Navigating the somewhat ambiguous world of food intolerances can be a daunting and isolating journey. But there are innumerable positive experiences involved, with social understanding and acceptance ever increasing and the numbers of those with a food intolerance ever growing, writes Christina Bulbrook.
“Excuse me, just how intolerant are you?” The occupants of the table stare wide-eyed at the waiter.
“I mean, are you going to have an attack if you ingest dairy?” he ploug...

Opinion piece for Lip magazine

I recently admitted to a friend that I knit scarves and make cross-stitches. She gave me a look that was an unmistakable mixture of pity and incredulousness then reached across the small table, on which rested our coffee cups, and patted my hand comfortingly, reassuring me that I was not alone, as I shared this passion with her 88 year-old grandmother.

I let my friend pay for her own coffee that day.

However, despite her mocking smile, this trend is on the up, propelled along (as is the case ...

Discover the healing powers of perfumed essential oils in aromatherapy for combating stress and anxiety, and supporting concentration. Christina Bulbrook writes.
As human beings, our sense of smell is surprisingly acute, especially given how little we are forced to rely on our noses for survival. Not only can our sense of smell trigger memories, it can also be used to promote a number of sensations beneficial for the wellbeing of our minds and bodies.
The term aromatherapy is a modern one and...

Opinion piece for Lip magazine

Whether it is what we remember from the unquenchable enthusiasm of a high school Ancient Greek teacher or through a sleep-induced haze from the back row of a lecture theatre in third-year compulsory Classics at university, most of us have some grasp, no matter how tenuous, of Greek mythology.

We might even remember the names of certain deities. Zeus, king of the gods. Eros, the little cherubim with his quiver of love arrows. Hera, the mature goddess of mothers and childbirth. Aphrodite, frivo...