Bonfire Books

ANNOUNCEMENT! COMING October 2026! A yet to be titled novel by Jack Cuthbertson aka @bookclubhell666 "Book Club From Heaven". Rock band Atlas & The Shruggers rule the world with monumental aesthetics. Benighted Tasmania is the lone holdout. Schizoid fiction at its INSANEST!

Chicago, I’ll be reading at this event. Come hang out, I’ll be in town Friday and Saturday eventbrite.com/e/romanticon-e…

Australia is the world's largest beef exporter. People who find this uncomfortable sometimes suggest that Australia should redirect this toward plant agriculture and feed itself more ethically. Have they looked at a map of Australia? Not the bit with the cities. Not the coastline. The bit in the middle. The part that constitutes 95% of the agricultural land. It looks like the Outback at 40 degrees in October, where the annual rainfall in good years is 250mm and the soil has never had topsoil in recorded geological history. It looks like the Mitchell grass downs of Queensland, where the black cracking clays grow native perennial grasses that have evolved specifically to be eaten by ruminants and cannot support cropping without irrigation that doesn't exist. It looks like the Northern Territory station country, where a single cattle station might be larger than England and the nearest agronomist is six hours away by plane. You cannot grow quinoa in the Northern Territory. You cannot grow wheat in the Pilbara. You can run cattle on both, because cattle evolved to convert the inedible into the edible, which is the precise function being asked of them. The people saying Australia should eat less beef have not been to the places the beef comes from. They've been to Melbourne. Melbourne is lovely. It is not where the food grows.

This rare self-portrait began during an art residency in South Australia following a major life change. I recently completed it in Sydney, and it was presented at the group exhibition ‘Sense of Place’ in Adelaide alongside several artists I deeply admire. The work draws inspiration from South Australian artists John Brack and Jeffrey Smart.

If you are in Australia then do try to go along to this exhibition. Ryan is a wonderful artist and we are delighted that he has agreed to work with us on a project for next year (we'll reveal more in the coming months..)

*guy who produces and consumes twelve hours of internet content a day* Are there great novelists anymore? I don’t intend to find out, seems unlikely

The Weltgeist stirs! My latest novel, Audience Capture, is coming out in October with @BooksBonfire, under my actual name, Jack Cuthbertson

Ryan genuinely one of the best artists in the world today, please give him a follow and support his work

'Second Valley' 31x36cm Oil on linen Painted quickly on a road trip with Sophie, while she snorkelled! This area of South Australia looks like Norway. Our opening night was a great success!! The exhibition continues at Mezzanine 55 gallery, Adelaide until 24 March

I am pleased to announce that I have been commissioned by the English-Speaking Union (Victoria Branch) to write a new monodrama of serious length for the Australian heldenbaritone Warwick Fyfe. The monodrama's subject is the tyrant Vortigern, whose supposed reign as King of the Britons occurs during Dark Age Britain, before the rule of Uther Pendragon. My basis for the monodrama's libretto is Geoffrey of Monmouth's largely fantastical twelfth century chronicle, Historia Regum Britanniae. According to Geoffrey, it is Vortigern who settles the Saxons Hengest and Horsa in Britain, which ultimately leads to his downfall. In financing this commission, I am extraordinarily grateful to the English-Speaking Union (Victoria Branch). It has been some time – several years, in fact – since my music has been supported institutionally in Australia, so I am grasping this opportunity by the horns. In particular, I am looking forward to working closely with Warwick, whose predilection for Wagner suits him perfectly to a work of this nature. The English-Speaking Union (Victoria Branch) has a storied history. Since the branch's formation in 1919, its ranks have included Dame Mabel Brookes, Sir John Monash, Sir Owen Dixon, Sir Billy Snedden, Dame Joan Hammond and many other luminaries. Further details: esuvic.org.au/content/musica… (Pictured: Lambeth Palace Library MS 6 folio 43v; Vortigern watches as two dragons battle.) @ESUVicBranch @Tom_Rowsell

The more I see of @R_W_Daffurn's work, the more this sentiment becomes my own.

If you are in ADELAIDE tomorrow night head to the opening night of A SENSE OF PLACE, featuring Bonfire author @R_W_Daffurn at Mezzanine 55, 55 Rundle Street, Kent Town, SA. 6-8pm. Get Ryan's book here: bonfirebooks.org/product/hill-e…

NUMBER ONE! The first title in the Bonfire Monograph Series is now available to pre-order! "Landscape Written in His Face: People, Places and Ideas in the Life and Work of Christopher Koch" by Jamie Grant. Heavily discounted until early May! bonfirebooks.org/product/landsc…

Proudly in the 1%

In Launceston, Tasmania, local tradesmen are offered free intensive training programs in traditional building techniques to pass on dying skills that will be vital in preserving for example the heritage Woolmers and Brickendon estates. Commendable. Munis worldwide must start making sure there are people who can maintain their built heritage and not trusting to "the market" or national governments. Also, the more widespread these skills are the cheaper it will be to acquire their use and to perpetuate them into the future.

One of the greatest Australian artists living and practising.

Port Noarlunga Beach. Looking South. 46x66cm Oil on linen My small tribute to the richness of the South Australian shore. This painting will appear in my upcoming group show "Sense of Place" at Mezzanine 55 14-24 March - Adelaide

Grab a copy of Ryan's art book HILL END ENTANGLED. We have about forty numbered and signed copies remaining! bonfirebooks.org/product/hill-e…

Maslin Beach, South Australia, where the land rises and falls in undulating contours so particular to the Fleurieu coast before surrounding itself to the sea. This painting will appear in my upcoming group show "Sense Of Place" in Adelaide with four other Australian artists

"Between Us and the Street" After our move to Sydney, I found myself captivated by the restless charm of local streets, where the fun dramas of suburban life unfold between garden fence and passing world. Upcoming group show "Sense of Place" 14-24 March - Adelaide

My debut collection of stories SLEEP CAPRICORN was released nearly 6-months ago. Already it feels regressive. As adults, we must learn to put away childish things. As artists, we are required to burn them ceremoniously for all to see. open.substack.com/pub/thingol/p/…