A Fictional Interlude

Stories

These stories are fiction — affectionate imaginings built on the family’s real records, written with the help of an AI writing assistant as homages to authors we love. They are not sources. Each ends with a note separating fact from invention.

In the manner of P. G. Wodehouse Uncle William and the Statutory Month Coffs Harbour, 1911 Coffs Harbour, 1911: three charges, a party singing ‘The Wild Colonial Boy’ in harmony, and a nephew from Bunbury with a legal brain. A light-hearted story built around a real court case. Read the story

In the manner of Kate Morton The Slate at Halls Creek Four generations, 1849–2026 A shoebox of family papers, a slate headstone cut by lamplight in the Kimberley, and a family legend about the Kelly gang that turns out to hide a truer story. Four generations of Caddens, told across two timelines. Read the story

In the manner of Charles Todd A Bench Painted Blue Kent and London, October 1918 Sidcup, October 1918: the night Corporal Fred Poole overstayed his leave from the facial hospital, a man died below a railway bridge. His cousin Lieutenant Jack Cadden of the Provost Corps comes on leave to find out why Fred will not speak. Read the story

In the manner of Jacqueline Winspear Two Lieutenants Manning Sydney, May 1936 Sydney, May 1936: on the day of her uncle’s cremation, Elsie Knox asks an inquiry agent who he really was — and a muddled army file turns out to hold two men of the same name. Read the story

In the manner of John Grisham The Warden’s Clerk Dalmorton, Grafton and Bathurst, 1893–1896 Dalmorton, 1893: a Royal Commission, a bank clerk with a ledger, and a perjury trial before the most upright judge in the colony. A young Grafton solicitor defends the Warden’s Clerk — a legal drama built around William Frederick Poole’s real fall and the town that petitioned to set him free. Read the story

In the manner of Hannah Kent The Fourteenth Hour Whampoa Reach, Canton River, 1851 Whampoa, August 1851: a ship’s surgeon lies dying of cholera, counting the fourteen hours his own death notice will record — and remembering Arran, the fever ship Minerva, and everyone the sea took from him. Read the story

If you enjoy these, read the real thing: the novels of P. G. Wodehouse, Kate Morton, Jacqueline Winspear and Charles Todd. None of their characters or words appear here — only our attempts at their manner, in their honour.