Meet some of our Authors

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Helen draws inspiration from her experiences as a traveller, teacher, movie extra and resident of Reims in the Champagne region of France, Winnipeg on the Canadian prairies and Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

See more about Helen  and order her books at: www.helenlyne.com.au 

In June 2021, Ginninderra Press published a collection of her short stories entitled 

Love, Disappointment and Other Joys of Life. 

These are a few of the thirty-one stories. A dying woman is taken surfing by her carer. A young Australian traveller receives a marriage proposal at an oasis in Algeria. A businessman interviews a job-seeker who bullied him when they were at school. A student inspires a teacher to leave her abusive husband. A grandmother-to-be rejoices in her first one-night stand. Helen’s protagonists range in age from adolescence to atrophy. With ingenuity, resilience and bloody-mindedness they kick over the rock of life’s disappointments and discover freedom, love, laughter and well-satisfied lust.

Helen also presents satirical and self-send-up poetry at open mic nights in cafes, pubs and book shops. 

The monthly Bonfire open mic at Desire Books and Records in Manly is a great place to find beginning and experienced poets, story tellers and musicians. (Tone-deaf Helen is not a musician!) 

Caterina, her fantom feline muse, ghost-writes her performance poems. She wrote “A Shimmy in the Shower in Chinon” for Helen to perform after their last trip to France. 

Here is the first verse. 

My hotel in Chinon is cheap. 

No lift and the staircase is steep. 

The shower’s so little 

a guest there should whittle

 the fat from her stomach and thighs

 before she steps in, otherwise, 

she’ll look like a dope 

when she drops the soap 

and that’s just what happened to me 

and left me with no dignity

Picture the scene a small end terraced house, two rooms downstairs.   The kitchen with a gas ring sat on the top of a board that covered the bath under the window, (yes that's right a bath in the kitchen with a board on top as a worktop).  It also had an open fire and Yorkshire range for all the cooking and the gas ring for boiling the kettle for a cuppa, mum's favourite drink. 

There was a table and a radio. The storage was cupboard space, a pantry and a lobby for all dad's  trantlements as he called them.  Then there was the front room with sofa, a piano and a large table.   A staircase off, leading to three bedrooms - Mum and Dad's, Mark my eldest brother's and the other I shared with my youngest brother.

 Outside was a yard, a toilet and a coal house.  The house was very cold in winter with frost on the inside of the windows.  The year was 1964 Mark was 9,  I was 8 and Chris was 2 . 

With Mum and Dad both being blind, things used to get pretty funny at Christmas.   The house was decorated with home made paper trimmings, an artificial tree that was way past its sell-by date, and Christmas lantern lights - only half working.    

My Aunty Nora told my dad she was getting him a bird for Christmas, so dad didn't order a capon from the butcher.  Christmas Eve arrives and dad's got his roasting tray and put in the fat for cooking and may I say even more on the table and down his front. 

Aunty Nora arrived with the bird and to dad's dismay it was a budgie in a cage.   Dad was gobsmacked!   The budgie was in trauma when he saw a box of Paxo and a roasting tray.  Panic set in quick and in his Yorkshire twang dad said 'Nah then arr Dan get thi shoys on an tec mi up roord to Len's and see if he as owt left.'  

So off we set.  Len was just closing as we got there.  Len said 'what's up wi thi Jim, that looks like thars lost a Bob and found a tanner'  (slang for a shilling and a sixpence).   Dad said  'Are Nora said she was gerrint bird for Christmas an she brought us a flamin' budgie as tha gor owt left'.   Luckily he had a turkey that was to serve 12, that hadn't been collected so Len gave it to Dad, free of charge.  It was massive.  He had to cut the legs off to get it in the roasting tin and cook those separately.   Well we had the best Christmas ever.   Our presents weren't expensive but we loved them.   We were eating turkey every meal for a week but it was wonderful.  Myself and my brothers were loved by two wonderful parents and I wouldn't have changed it one iota.

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     A TIME TO CONNECT
        A TIME FOR HUGS AND KISSES
          A TIME FOR BEING TOGETHER
            A TIME FOR MERRIMENT
              A TIME FOR FAMILY, FRIENDS
                A TIME FOR KINDNESS
                  A TIME FOR CONSIDERATION
                    A TIME FOR GIFTS AND GREETINGS
                      A TIME TO RESUME OLD LIVES
                        A TIME FOR RENEWAL
                          A TIME FOR APPRECIATION
                            NATURE, FLOWERS, TREES
                              A TIME FOR OLD TRADITIONS
                                A TIME FOR CHRISTMAS JOY.