By Aaron Cordy
HISTORY books can lead you on adventures through time and places you never expected to travel. You can share the plight of women throughout the ages or fly with the first RAAF unit in Vietnam, all in the pages of a book at Tatura, Nathalia and Euroa libraries when husband and wife writers, Ruth and Don Pollock bring their books to town.
Their unique writing journeys didn’t begin like many aspiring writers, but when COVID closed the successful business they ran for over 27 years, these almost 80-year-olds turned to writing books and discovered a new passion.
Despite being married, the pair don’t write together, instead choosing to pursue their own projects. Ruth’s first book, Clouds and Sunshine, centres around a pair of daredevils whose dreams for the future are betrayed by friends and associates seeking to undermine their aspirations. Her second book Hard Women, compares women’s lives between 19th century Sweden and Australia from 1870 to 2021.
Suggy’s Men is an anthology of personal stories about the first RAAF unit in Vietnam in 1964, from the men who lived it. Don Pollock compiled the stories with the aid of others, comprised of personal experiences from the Vietnam War, including Don’s experience of returning home to find his mother didn’t recognise him.
Ruth and Don will be at the Tatura Library on Thursday, February 29, from 10.30am. Nathalia Library Thursday, February 29, at 2.30pm. The Euroa Library Friday, March 1 from 10.30am. Copies of their books will be available at the events, please contact Goulburn Valley Libraries on 1300 374 765 to book.
