Let's hear it for WA's writing talent

In William McInnes' new book Holidays, he recalls his mum telling him what she thought the word meant. "A holiday is a time when you do lovely things that you never get a chance to really do otherwise," she explained to the young William.

One of those lovely things is, of course, reading a good book. But buying a book for another is also a lovely thing, made doubly lovely when that book is written by a local writer, published by a local publisher and sold by a local bookseller. It's like buying local produce from local producers: it's the gift that gives many times over.

So with that in mind, let's revisit some of this year's best local releases, as well as those from last year whose sails/sales billowed thanks to strong showings in State and national awards. Along the way, notice that what is most distinctive about Western Australia - especially its flora and fauna - seeps into the blood of ordinary people whose stories are universal and for all time.

Short-listed for the 2014 Premier's Book Awards earlier this year, David Whish- Wilson's evocative Perth (NewSouth Books) perhaps best exemplifies this idea.

"Perth is a people's city," says Whish- Wilson, whose crime novels Line of Sight and Zero at the Bone are also set in WA. "It's a city where the tension between order and disorder is just about right, and there's space and time for creative people to do their own kind of thing. It's just a great place to live.

"Perth is a biography of the city itself, one teeming with stories of inhabitants past and present, such as Fanny Balbuk, Ernest "Shiner" Ryan and Whish-Wilson's own grandfather Ollie, who "worked as a brewer at Swan for close to 40 years, and the Emu Bitter longnecks that my father drank when I was a child - and that I liked to open every night with an Emu Bitter bottle opener - came from Ollie's generous brewery allowance".

Other 2013 books by WA authors which featured in the 2014 WA Premier's Book Awards include Tracy Farr's moving fictional biography The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt (Fremantle Press), partly based in Cottesloe; Tim Winton's Eyrie (Penguin), which paints a less-than- flattering portrait of Fremantle as the unemployed and divorced Tom Keely is dragged back into a world he'd escaped long ago and yet thought he still understood; Amanda Curtin's Elemental (UWA Publishing), which straddles the turn of the 20th century and is set in the north-east of Scotland, Norfolk, the Shetland Isles and Fremantle and is illuminated from within by unforgettable characters and rich dialect woven into a straightforward narrative where bright, sensuous imagery is allowed to hold sway; Dianne Wolfer and Brian Simmonds' equally illuminating children's picture book Light Hor se Boy (Fremantle Press); and Yvette Walker's stunning debut epistolary novel, Letters to the End of Love (University of Queensland Press).

Of this year's releases, one of the most powerful and eagerly awaited novels was Fremantle author Joan London's first book in six years, The Golden Age (Random House), named for a one-time pub and well-known children's home in Leederville.

"I wanted to write about the 50s, the time of my childhood, when the schools were overflowing with baby-boomer kids - sometimes more than 50 in a class," London says. "I had memories of huge gravel playgrounds, and I remembered lining up in long queues for a polio injection from a nurse, at a table on the veranda." London's lead character, 13-year-old Feri "Frank" Gold, is an intense young Pole who has survived the polio virus to pass his days in the rehabilitation hospital.

One of 2014's big hits was undoubtedly Brooke Davis' Lost & Found (Hachette), which caused a sensation at this year's London Book Fair and has been sold to more than 20 countries. Featuring three people thrown together by circumstances - seven-year-old Millie Bird, elderly Agatha Pantha and even more elderly Karl the Touch Typist - Lost & Found explores, as Davis writes in the introduction, "what it means to grieve, not as a process that begins and ends and is only about sadness, but as a part of life. As something that we have to work out how to live with."

Then there was bestselling author Liz Byrski's Family Secrets (Pan Macmillan), which shines the spotlight on the effects of secrecy and secret-shaming on people's everyday lives; Ben Elton's Time and Again, the Perth-based author's reflection on the Great War; Peter Docker's Sweet One (Fremantle Press), in which an Aboriginal elder and Vietnam war veteran dies while in police custody, which results in an orgy of revenge; and Mosman Park author Dawn Barker's Let Her Go (Hachette), a searing exploration of the ethical and emotional minefield surrounding surrogacy.

The year also saw Deb Fitzpatrick making a change from Young Adult fiction with her first novel for adults, The Break (Fremantle Press). Set mostly in the South West, The Break features two sets of couples: the young journo Rosie and her mineworker boyfriend Cray, who decide to throw it all in and move down south; and Liza and Ferg, who are very much locals. Their increasingly intertwined relationships are complicated but something terrible happens that puts everything into perspective in the most brutal way. Richard Rossiter's intimate tale of star- crossed lovers Thicker Than Water (UWA Publishing) also taps into the numinous power of the South West, particularly the area Gracetown and the mouth of Margaret River.

Annabel Smith's dystopian multi-media novel The Ark (self-published) saw a break of a different kind, featuring a complementary website and app which provide digital animations and other bonus material while allowing readers to fill gaps in the story and elaborate on its virtual world.

And those who still doubt the relevance of poetry to the real world will find in local poet and essayist Annamaria Weldon's The Lake's Apprentice (UWA Publishing) a subtle, intelligent collection of poems, essays, journal entries and photography celebrating Yalgorup National Park and Lake Clifton in particular.

Finally, if classics are your bag, Angus & Robertson, Text and Penguin added to their impressive catalogues of inexpensive yet lavishly produced Australian Classics this year. Among them were West Australian favourites such as Cloudstreet, The Merry-Go-Round by the Sea and A.B. Facey's A Fortunate Life. Even the University of Queensland Press got into the act with a new edition of WA author Elizabeth Jolley's wickedly satirical Miss Peabody's Inheritance.

Of course, for every great WA book I've mentioned there are 10 more crying out for attention. The answer? Get thee to a local bookstore such as New Edition, Boffins or Dymocks Garden City and browse their generous selections of local books by local authors. You might be surprised by the sheer range, depth and quality of what's on offer from our very own authors and illustrators.