The Horror of Big Whitey
Sharks into cities doesn’t go – but they do – and too often these days.
With this recent attack on a woman at Sydney’s Coogee Beach, I have been thinking of my swims, a few bays around at Bondi Beach many years ago, in particular, one fine day. I was convinced by another to swim across the bay, starting out from Bondi Icebergers Club pool.
There is deep water behind the sand bank surf break. We swam across and back, perhaps 1000m, more because the beach itself is one kilometre. So we swam perhaps 1500m across and back. I can tell you I thought of sharks the whole way across and back. Were they watching us? Probably.
Are we too kind to them, the Great White in particular, giving them an all-year-round free city pass? Is it time for another novel on the horror of Big Whitey?
Out of Competition – a novel for Cannes?
This is not Cannes. Or the Cannes Film Festival. Let me say that upfront. It’s Renne-Sur-Mer, a far better film festival by the way, a film festival not many get to see because they are blinded by the tinsel razzle-dazzle of Cannes’ annual event, or so it seems.
I documented a year in Renne-Sur-Mer’s historical progress when some unfortunate things happened. It was sad and bit funny at times. But was it fair to portray Renne in such a, well, dubious light. I can say I documented what happened. You work it out. What year was it. You know I can’t remember but it wasn’t that long ago in the future. Here’s ten pages to give you an idea of how chaotic festivals can be when the wheels fly off.
Who am I – who I am
I am a writer, novelist, living and writing on the south coast of France, where I swim and continue renovating my apartment.
I am very close to finishing a novel set in 1963. My recently published novel Out of Competition, published by JEF Books, Illinois, October 1, 2024 won the Kenneth Patchen Award for the Innovative Novel.
Uncorrected Proof and Out of Competition can be found at bookshop.org.
OUT OF COMPETITION (JEF Books 2024)
Kenneth Patchen Award for the innovative novel
‘Laugh out loud funny’
5 OUT OF 5 STARS
Intelligent, provocative and fun
Cherry Jam UK, October 16, 2024 Review
Humorously subversive. It goes so fast I read it in two days. A must for anyone with a love of cinema and its festivals. And the most irreverent novel written about the South of France
5 OUT OF 5 STARS
Ten Years is Enough!
Read-fest UK, 9 September 2025
A sharp satire about democracy set in a Riviera Film Festival facing collapse as young cineastes demonstrate against privilege and lack of transparency in the annual voting shakedown, the novel opening with the kidnap off the streets of a desperate bankrupt Hollywood producer cadging money wherever he can
Out of Competition Ingram distributing, found at:
https://www.experimentalfiction.com/products/out-of-competition
Bookshop.org, bricks & mortar bookstores and online booksellers
Oh dear, oh dear
This old block of apartments was once one of the few examples of an older more interesting building along Cannes’s waterfront. There seems little virtue in destroying interesting architecture, especially with original wrought-iron balcony railings, high ceilings, old shutters. But now it’s gone – while Antibes has kept its past.
Except for the Carlton, what historic buildings are left on Cannes’s waterfront? Why not remodel a site like this?
Well they have.
The developer’s sign says the new offering will provide a private treated heated pool for two penthouse apartments – just a hop, step and tiny jump away from the Mediterranean.
Swimanög 