Serena Kirby, ARR.News

A good place to start reading Farm is at the back. That may sound counterintuitive but by taking a look at the extensive bibliography you’ll quickly see how intensely researched the book is which adds weight to the arguments and questions it presents. While Farm is a memoir that chronicles the journey of Nicola Harvey and her husband after they leave their city lives to farm cattle in rural New Zealand, it is far more than that.

Fashion, culture, romance and a storyline peppered with twists and turns - what's not to love about A Remarkable Woman ... if you’re a lover of fashion, romance, outback life and a darn good story, this book makes a great summer holiday read. It’ll keep you turning the pages from start to finish and remind you that, in life and in love, “timing is everything”.

Bec Bignell is a storyteller who believes the best stories are those that are grounded in truth. A writer, actor and film producer, Bec grew up on a farm outside Kojonup, three hours south-east of Perth and her most recent screen story ‘Homespun’ was born from a desire to present a more authentic portrayal of life beyond the city limits.

Bob Rees knows only too well that life can change in an instant. And that instant hit him hard when he was on a motorbike trip through Africa with his wife Chris. A reckless driver slammed head on into Chris and Bob’s bike and the result was catastrophic. Chris lost her life, Bob lost his wife and also lost the use of his legs ... it is not just the lack of access to the NDIS that has led Bob to speak out, it's also the obstacles that people with disabilities have to deal with when moving around in public places; especially in country towns.

Wayne Winchester’s love of surfing began in his early teens and he’d live for the weekends when he could head to the coast to spend hours in the surf. He never dreamed that his hobby would lead to a lifetime career and the creation of a world class surfboard gallery. “I started fashioning my own boards when I was a teenager and I then started making them professionally in the mid 1970s,” Wayne says. “It was an exciting time as I shaped all sorts of boards just to see how they performed.”

The past decade has seen a huge rise in gin consumption and one of WA’s newest distilleries is producing this popular spirit using a rather unusual product. The Cannabis Botanical Distillery (CBD) uses, as its name implies, cannabis as its alcohol base ... CBD’s owner, Matt Beaton, says he’d always had a dream to start a distillery and after joining his wife on her parents' 360 hectare Raintree Farm in the Great Southern region, that dream has become a reality.

Broome artist Sobrane Simcock, is well known for her brightly coloured, joy-filled paintings and her well-stocked gallery is filled with her eye-catching work.  Her artwork also appears in large-scale murals adorning hundreds of walls, watertanks and streetscapes around Australia. But there’s one colourful talent Sobrane usually keeps to herself.  Sobrane is a synesthete; one of those rare people with the perceptual phenomenon known as synesthesia.