Guy Debord (1931-1994) was a French philosopher. He observed modern society in which authentic social life had been replaced with its representation, or ‘spectacle’.

In each of my 5 books, there is a different spectacle appearing at the centre of attention.

1. In my new book Turkeys not Bees, coming shortly, Megan and Chance are caught up in regulation of athletics and a pandemic. They want individual freedom and resist nanny-state controls.

2. In the satire Animal Farm 2, the focus is on a proletariat of farm livestock, representing ordinary people. The spectacle is of slavery, exploitation and totalitarianism.’

3. ‘Time is Gold’ is a fiction story about a marathon runner whose will is commodified by her training team.

4. ‘Presumed Dead’ has a government and parliament conducted as a spectacle with the appearance of democracy. When a politician disappears, search and investigation adopt innovative forensic methods which reveal corruption.

5. ‘Short of Love’ has Vicki and Tom in a commodified love relationship. He assigns her to a friend, in a short due for delivery later, to repay his gambling debt. It is a satire and when she delivers to his friend early, the arrangement fails.

6. The Grass is Always Browner is a spectacle of Australia 250 years in the future, apparently unified by population growth and an indigenous prime minister, but deeply divided by religion and politics.

Each book has social and economic conditions derived from a ’spectacle’ rather than from reality. Debord’s aim and proposal is ‘to wake up the spectator’ who has been drugged by spectacular images…through radical action in the form of the construction of situations…situations that bring a revolutionary reordering of life, politics, and art’. My stories entertain with exciting situations and new images.

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