When nuclear war kills off all the human inhabitants of Earth, it opens the way for new sentient life forms to arise. Super-intelligent dolphins with arms and legs — having evolved rapidly due to all the radiation — now stand on the beach (in the region of Australia that was once called Melbourne, of course ), ready to establish the first land-based colony of what they plan to be a better civilisation than that of their self-destructive primate predecessors. But they are not the only beings intent on achieving supremacy in this brave new world. For the surviving birds have also evolved into something closely resembling their ancient ancestors, the dinosaurs...

(And no, I haven't been drinking anything more potent than Earl Grey tea this evening, honestly. )

The Mushroom Tapes 

This not-quite Melbournian "whodunit", using taped evidence of the case, fingered a notorious pastry chef, subsequently found guilty in a court of law, of using death cap mushrooms as ingredients, when several people died after tucking into what were otherwise perfectly cooked & presented meals, with pastry to die for - literally.  

Brave New World.

@courtenay (And no, I haven't been drinking anything more potent than Earl Grey tea this evening, honestly.)

Never mind the Earl Grey tea, what were you eating with it, I wonders? 

By the way, Ava Gardner, Gregory Peck & Fred Astaire starred in the 1959 filming of Australian author, Neville Shute's 1957 novel, On the beach, which was actually filmed in Melbourne. Ava Gardner's notorious opinion of Melbourne even made its way into politics.  

The sequel to Disney's Brave, in which Merida, Princess of Dunbroch, through her own feisty impulsiveness, brings an evil witch into Scotland from another world, via a wood full of enchanted pools. Trying to return the witch to her own world before she causes irrevocable destruction, Merida instead finds herself and the witch and an assortment of other characters entering a dark, empty place where nothing yet exists — until the song of a great Lion brings this new world to life... oh hang on, I have a feeling I've heard this story somewhere before...

The Dark is Rising 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

This not-quite Melbournian "whodunit"... 

Thought you'd recognise the real-life case in question. The town where it occurred is only 20 minutes' drive from my own home town, where I grew up and where my parents still live, so I know it well (though I don't know any of the people involved) and it's all literally very close to home.  

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

By the way, Ava Gardner, Gregory Peck & Fred Astaire starred in the 1959 filming of Australian author, Neville Shute's 1957 novel, On the beach, which was actually filmed in Melbourne. Ava Gardner's notorious opinion of Melbourne even made its way into politics.

I know, and I'm aware of the said notorious opinion, which is why I made sure to mention Melbourne! 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Never mind the Earl Grey tea, what were you eating with it, I wonders? 

 

Ah, now that would be telling...  

A historical novel which might well have been set in either early 1942 Timor or Darwin, when definitely, the "Dark is rising" describes the aftermath, in both places, of the fall of Singapore to the Japanese on 15th February in 1942. The novel concerns the adventures of the Sparrow Force guerillas before, during & subsequent to the Battle of both Dutch & Portuguese Timor against the invading Japanese, on 19th February and the catastrophic Bombing of Darwin, earlier on the same day. Much has been said about the ensuing Japanese invasion of Papua New Guinea in Australian territory in the following June that year, but little has been said about the deeds of the Sparrow Force, gallant though they might have been. 

A town like Alice

@courtenay Thought you'd recognise the real-life case in question. The town where it occurred is only 20 minutes' drive from my own hometown, where I grew up and where my parents still live, so I know it well (though I don't know any of the people involved) and it's all literally very close to home.

Never mind, the culprit in question is safely in gaol, where I suppose kitchen duties involving cooking or food preparation will be off limits. Yes, that story was in the papers for what seemed months, where a Daily Telegraph photograph of a sample demonstrated all too clearly the culprit's undoubted skill in pastry cooking. I've tried Beef Wellington, at a Tasmanian motel we stopped at in 2017, but the pastry was limp, soggy and disappointing . I agree that Beef Wellington is a fiddly & expensive sort of dish to make, which is why I have never tried to make it, even to impress visiting family members. And so, I can't remember if a recipe of Beef Wellington usually included mushrooms of any sort, whether bought from the store, growing wild like death-cap mushrooms, or even "magic".