Last week May Logan’s Bound Pages Book Shop hosted a visit by award-winning author Inga Simpson. Inga, daughter of Bryce and Barbara Simpson, formerly of Young Road Grenfell, was in town to promote her latest novel, The Thinning. This is Inga’s sixth novel, all of which have received high praise.

In addition, she has published a memoir, Understory and a book for children, The Book of Australian Trees, illustrated by Alicia Rogerson.

Inga’s writing is fuelled by her love of the natural environment, the fauna, flora and landscapes that she so keenly observes and so precisely and gloriously describes in her books. In The Thinning, a literary eco-thriller, the author goes beyond what is around her, looking even further, upwards and outwards to our night skies.

Many readers from the Central West will be familiar with the novel’s setting, primarily Warrumbungle National Park and the Pilliga, with numerous mentions of Parkes, Dubbo, and other locales not too far from Grenfell. Inga’s research for the novel was exhaustive and included having to be educated in astronomy, learning and developing skills in astrophotography, and even going as far spending a month by herself, camping in the Warrumbungle Park; that’s authenticity for you!

The event, held at Unwind Café, was very well received by a full house, and beautifully catered for by the Unwind team.

Footnote: Margaret Lynch, a former teacher/Librarian at The Henry Lawson High School was on hand to introduce her former student Inga “In Conversation”