Judy Smallman
Youness, a Bedouin from the Ananza tribe, comes in from the desert with his slaves and a thousand she-camels. His wish is to buy an olive valley on the outskirts of Gaza, the place where his mother is buried. Youness buys the olive valley and marries Fatima, daughter of the chief of Tuffa (a district of Gaza).
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Cowrie makes a pilgrimage from New Zealand to Punalu’u, a Hawai’ian island where her grandfather once lived. She is welcomed by her extended family who live very simply and well on this bountiful island. Cowrie, who is a lesbian, revels in her family’s harmonious way of life, and begins to fall in love with Koana, a heterosexual woman.
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Mary Bates, a young Australian living in London in the 1930s, is advised by Dr Gerald Somerset where to do her nursing training: ‘The London for hard work. St Mary’s for sport. Guy’s for flirts … and St Thomas’s for ladies,’ he says. Mary thinks Gerald would be as cold in bed as a dozen frozen eggs, but nevertheless she takes his advice and applies to St Thomas’s Hospital.
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In 1960, Dr William McBride drew the world’s attention to the dangers of thalidomide. This drug had been found to cause multiple severe abnormalities in babies born to women who has taken it during early pregnancy. In 1961, thalidomide was withdrawn from sale in Australia, and McBride’s reputation grew as an authority on drug-induced birth defects. In 1971 he was awarded the inaugural BP Prize ... (read more)