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OF FISH
AND FEATHERS
Chapters 1 to 11
THE OLD DART
Chapters 11 to 25
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Reviews
Comic Tale Hits the Target
Emma Scarpella
Sunday Herald-Sun
Bart Cummings is allergic to horses, yet he has trained 12 Melbourne
Cup champions. Any sports fan will enjoy the fascinating facts peppered
throughout this comic novel (if you can overlook the dubious title).
Ches
Fanning, a sports broadcaster in his twilight years, discovers a
prodigiously talented dart thrower in a country Victorian pub.
Her resurrects her career by convincing her to try her luck against the UK’s finest.
Pay-TV picks up the resulting series of shows and a star is born. Ches’s complicated love life adds extra humour.
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The Gentle Art of Tossing
Susan Errington
Wet Ink, No. 25
The Gentle Art of Tossing
is the story of Ches Fanning, a sports broadcaster whose career is on
the wane, and a young bush darts champion, Samantha Alley. When the
novel opens, Ches’ television career is over and he finds himself on
the country circuit, hosting sheep dog trials and calling darts’
tournaments in pubs. Ches is a classic sports’ tragic and his narration
is full amusing and intriguing anecdotes about the famous and not so
famous, as well as his own misdemeanours in sport, romance and life
generally. The humour of the book is convincing and gentle, sometimes
too gentle. I would like to have seen a more ridiculous element to some
of Ches’ adventures but Ches is a very likeable character and we laugh
at and pity him in turn.
What’s wonderfully drawn in the novel
Is Ches’ relationshlp with Sam. Cornell paints a convincing
relationship between mature promoter and young sports star. What could
so easily have slid towards sleaze remains fresh and paternal under
some very skillful writing. There’s no doubting Ches’ respect for Sam’s
talent and his determination to get her to the top of her field. His
romantic indulges remain firmly separate and with women his own age. If
I have one criticism of this novel it is that the language occasionally
feels a little old fashioned, but Cornell’s style is smooth and the
story flows well.
The Gentle Art of Tossing is definitely one for summer holiday reading and the sports enthusiast in the family.
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Launch Photos - Warrandyte
Cornell
biography