ASKED what he felt he nailed best in his latest novel, Cherrywood, author Jock Serong, a Port Fairy resident and a Phillip Island regular, said it was his homage to the “brilliant neighbourhood” of Fitzroy and its ‘pubs on every corner’ culture.
Although we haven’t yet read the book, a flip through its pages reveals that you can practically taste the froth and hear the bubble of conversation as you enter the Standard, The Napier, The Union or whatever your favourite from generations gone by at Jock’s fictional pub the Cherrywood.
Jock Serong was the special guest at a Literary Luncheon last Friday, October 25 at the Phillip Island Winery organised by the Book Club of Phillip Island and supported by the Turn the Page Bookshop which offered copies of the book for sale and signing at the luncheon but also had copies available in the shop in Thompson Road Cowes.
Jock spoke about the book, some of his other high-acclaimed novels and also reminisced about learning to surf when he came down as a kid to summer at the Beach Caravan Park in Cowes.
“I started surfing at Phillip Island in 1981 and I’ll be having my next surf here tomorrow,” said Jock, in the company of Island Surfboards’ legend Matt Ryan, and well-known locals Greg Price and Steve Fullarton and three long tables of book group supporters.
It’s an intoxicating mix, the pubs of Fitzroy and the waves of Phillip Island and there’s enough people who’ve indulged in both those delights to make this latest offering from Jock another roaring success.
According to Chris Gordan writing a review for Readings; “Take two love stories, one good, old-fashioned Fitzroy pub, some magical realism, and mix it all up with Melbourne’s booming years of the 1910s, and you have one of the most compelling and wonderfully bonkers novels of the year.”
Many readers he says, “will likely fancy for themselves a pint or two at The Cherrywood”.
Highly acclaimed author of many genre defying books including Quota, winner of the 2015 Ned Kelly award for the best fiction, and the Rules of Backyard Cricket, shortlisted for the 2017 Premiers Award for fiction and a finalist in the 2017 Indie Book Awards Adult Mystery Book of the Year, Jock feels at home on the Island where he’s a regular visitor.
Other books including On Java Ridge, winner of the inaugural UK Staunch Book Prize, and widely praised trilogy of historical novels Preservation, The Burning Island and The Settlement set in and around the Ferneaux Islands in Bass Strait and south east Australia were also written by Jock Serong. Editor of the Great Ocean Quarterly and he has also written feature stories across Australia’s surfing media.
The Sentinel-Times bought itself a copy of Cherrywood, so stay tuned for a telling review.