Overview

In this beguiling collection of short stories Larry Boyd offers extraordinary insight into the human psyche and the many ways that we experience love and loss. Deceptively simple at times, each of the 16 vignettes reveals the intensity of the joy and sadness in the lives of ordinary people. Whether the young couple debating the question of parenthood or four women in wheelchairs creating a play about their reproductive rights or a young gay man forgoing all paternal rights for the sake of his unborn baby, Boyd deals with these situations with great delicacy. A more sombre note is evident in the unexpected confrontation between a CEO and the leader of a bikie gang and the quest of a Vietnamese woman to find out how she survived the fall of Saigon. Wry humour permeates the short tale of the cat and the canary as it does the rehearsals of neurodiverse actors mounting a production of Bluebeard. Boyd's fluidity of expression and subtle observations evoke a sense of familiarity while also revealing surprising strengths and deficits that we might at times find in ourselves. The promise of delight and the possibility of disappointment is ever-present.

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9781761099113

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Larry Boyd has lived most of his life in Sydney, with fifteen years in Melbourne. He studied both an Arts Degree, and a Law Degree at Sydney University and a Diploma of Education at Sydney Teachers College. While at school, he studied piano which kindled his love of classical music. He has had a love of words and writing from an early age. He became interested in drama and theatre while at Sydney University. For a short time, he studied acting at the ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli. After a short time working as a solicitor, he turned to teaching where his focus was on drama and English as a Second Language. Over some eighteen years as a teacher, he produced a number of plays with school students and then after moving to Melbourne in 1995, spent many years running workshops and producing plays with neurodiverse people of all ages. While in Melbourne, he took on the role of artistic director of Fusion Theatre Inc in Dandenong where he worked for twelve years making, scripting and producing new works of theatre. He moved back to Sydney in 2010 and started Different Degrees Theatre Ensemble in Lane Cove for neurodiverse people. In Melbourne, he became Concert Manager at Monash University Department of Music. After leaving Monash he worked as an arts consultant mainly with musicians. He was engaged by the Australian National Academy of Music to develop and manage the inaugural tour of students around Australia in 2000. Larry Boyd has a wide range of cultural and community interests. He is a keen concert and opera patron as well as an avid theatre goer. He was a committee member of Friends of the Queen Victoria Building during its proposed redevelopment in the 1980s. He was Chairman of Sydney Children's Choir for five years in the 1990s and facilitated its incorporation into the new organization, Gondwana Choirs. He was Editor in Chief and principal writer to Justice Rules Books one and two for the New South Wales high School Certificate. He also contributed to Butterworths text book Legal Studies for Years eleven and Twelve. His novel Choice Boy was published by Austen Macauley in 2018. This was followed by a set of ten short stories, Little Matsue and Other Tale, which was published by Spineless Wonders in 2022. Boyd is legally blind and uses a voice assistance program to allow him to write.

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