Helium and Honey

David Tooby

Mateship, adventure and discovery in the rugged north-west

“Jim ran across to the lip of the rock platform and jumped out as far as he could, hurling the esky lid in front of him as he did. He hit the water, surfaced, then gathered the lid. He gasped, the water was much colder than he had expected. It sent his mind reeling.
“What had he just done?”


When the three McCawley brothers and their friend Will set off on their annual fishing expedition into the wilds of north-western Australia, they have no idea of the dramatic events that await and even less inkling of the latent feelings and histories that will be laid bare.

Helium and Honey is a gripping story of mateship, adventure and discovery set in a rugged and remote environment. Tooby writes with passion and authority, sensitively portraying his complex characters and their fraught interactions. Helium and Honey asserts Tooby as a talented writer of the Australian landscape and the rich characters that people it.

 

 

About the Author

David Tooby is a landscape architect by profession and a land-based game fisherman for pleasure, so it’s no wonder that visually descriptive artistry and a spirit of adventure infuse his first novel, Helium and Honey. Overcoming childhood dyslexia in his twenties, Tooby found joy in the written word as a reader and later as a writer.

Born in Scotland, Tooby migrated to Australia with his family as a seven-year-old and spent the remainder of his childhood in Perth, Western Australia. He now lives in New South Wales, but remains a frequent visitor to Western Australia, and feels a deep connection to the north-western landscapes that provide the setting for Helium and Honey. He is married with four children.