Second book for Lacey

Pearl Beach resident Stephen Lacey has published his second novel, Sandstone.

Mr Lacey was born and raised in Umina and now lives in a fibro house, which he is renovating in Pearl Beach.

Drawing on his family background, Stephen Lacey researched the period from 1931 to 1950, and in Sandstone has written an Australian family saga.

The story is set in post war Australia where Jack and Ruth are running away from their past in the city, and chasing the Australian dream on the coast, which in 1951 is largely based around owning their own home.

"Sandstone took around two years to write.

"Much of that time was spent researching the period over which the novel is set, 1930 to 1951," Mr Lacey said.

"I used many historic source books on politics, social structure, and building methods and materials of the time.

"I also looked at many old family photographs for inspiration when building character and a sense of place.

"A lot of the research involved telephoning my family several times a day to ask pertinent and often uncomfortable questions.

"Not all of the family are happy with the way they are portrayed in Sandstone.

"I often strolled around the streets of Point Clare (where the novel is ostensibly set), trying to recall how the village had looked to me as a child in the 1960s and imagining how it might have looked a decade before that.

"The idea for the novel came from a desire to record the struggle of my grandparents, although it must be stressed, Sandstone is a work of fiction"

Stephen Lacey was born in 1963 at Gosford.

Mr Lacey was encouraged by the poet Robert Adamson to write poems, and his first appeared in Southerly and later, Westerly, Cordite, Ulitarra and Quadrant while he was still studying at Sydney University.

In 2000, Mr Lacey gained first prize in the Max Harris Literary Awards for his Boatshed series and he has twice won the Henry Kendall Poetry Competition.

Mr Lacey's first novel, The Tin Moon, was published in May 2002.

A freelance journalist, Stephen Lacey is a commentator on architecture and design.

The book was published on June 15 by Hachette Livre Australia.

Press release, June 15 Jaki Arthur, Hachette Livre Australia