After reading this collection, I’m regretful that I haven’t read Canberra-based John Clanchy’s stories before, and I’ll be steadily making my way through his backlist. Having a themed collection means that this book will appeal to those who are perhaps fathers or daughters; but this is a book for any reader, or any observer of family life. The stories are of varying length, including a superb 90-page novella, ‘Flights of Memory’. In this piece, Clanchy writes convincingly from the perspective of 17-year-old Laura, who leaves Australia for Greece to visit the father she has not seen nor communicated with for 10 years.

Laura’s insecurities and her desperate search for something familiar - both in the landscape and within her father – means the story succeeds on many levels. Clanchy demonstrates that he can also cross eras, age and socio economic boundaries: the fathers of the title include a farmer, mechanic and miner. Older men reflect on the lives they’ve lived and daughters they’ve not known well. Interestingly, almost despite the focus on fathers and daughters, the mothers and wives omitted from the title come sharply into view, too.