![The Legacy of Old Gran Parks by [Blackthorn, Isobel]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZZWJ-EhJL._SY346_.jpg)
Review
ANITA WALLER:
Isobel Blackthorn is a new writer for me. This is the first book of hers I have read, but it won't be my last. Her characterisation is brilliant, and now I've finished the book, I'm missing them. The book features just a handful of characters, and centres around half a dozen women, most of whom care nothing for the law. It is set in a small outback town - very small, just a crossroads really - and each chapter is told from the viewpoint of one or other of the women. No spoilers, but it's worth every one of the five stars I've given it. Just buy it, it's brilliant.
About the Author
Isobel Blackthorn is an Australian author and educator. Her novels Asylum (2015), The Drago Tree (2015) and A Perfect Square (2017), are all published by Odyssey Books, along with her short story collection All Because of You (2017), previously released by Ginninderra Press in 2012. A Spanish translation of The Drago Tree was released by Odyssey Books September 2017. In 2018, Odyssey Books will be releasing La Mareta, the sequel to The Drago Tree. Isobel's writing has appeared in journals and websites around the world, including Paranoia Magazine, Mused Literary Review, Backhand Stories, Fictive Dream and On Line Opinion. Isobel's interests are many and varied. A humanitarian and campaigner for social justice, in 1999 Isobel founded the internationally acclaimed Ghana Link, uniting two high schools, one a relatively privileged state school located in the heart of England, the other a materially impoverished school in a remote part of the Upper Volta region of Ghana, West Africa. Isobel has a background in Western Esotericism and she's a qualified Astrologer. She holds a PhD from the University of Western Sydney, for her research on the works of Theosophist Alice A. Bailey, the 'Mother of the New Age.' After working as a teacher, market trader, and PA to a literary agent, she arrived at writing in her forties, and her stories are as diverse and intriguing as her life has been. Isobel performs her literary works at events in a range of settings, gives workshops in creative writing, and writes book reviews. Her reviews have appeared in Shiny New Books and Newtown Review of Books. She talks regularly about books and writing on radio, in Australia, and in the UK and Canary Islands. British by birth, Isobel entered this world in Farnborough, Kent, as Yvonne Margaret Grimble. She has since been Yvonne Rodgers, before changing her name completely in 1996 to Isobel Schofield. After a number of years as Isobel Wightman, she is now very happily and permanently Isobel Blackthorn. Isobel has lived in England, Australia, Spain and the Canary Islands. She now lives near Melbourne with her daughter and her cat, Psyche. She is currently at work on her second horror novel and her first work of historical fiction.
