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Ballarat Libraries in partnership with BMI

Meet Ann Cleeves
Meet Ann Cleeves on her 2022 Australian tour as she discusses Vera Stanhope’sreturn in her newest book, The Rising Tide.
Ann Cleeves is the creator of popular detictives Vera Stanhome (ITV’s Vera), Jimmy Perez (BBC One’s Shetland), and Matthew Venn IITV’s The Long Call).
 
Bookings are essential. Contact the Ballarat Library on 5338 6850.
Ann Cleeves

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Jock Serong

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This event is a BMI Community Cultural Project – Ballarat’s Oldest Cultural Institution

School tour of the BMI – 20 March 2026

School Tours of the BMIOn Friday 20 March the BMI hosted students from Lucas Primary School Event Overview An engaging, educational day at the Ballaarat Mechanics Institute, designed to spark creativity and curiosity. A perfect blend of learning, creativity, and exploration in one of Ballarat’s most historic cultural spaces. Tours membership If you would like to find out more about special group tours – contact: katrina@ballaratmi.org.au

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Rosemary’s Book of the Week

Letter from Provence: A memoir Sheryle Bagwell Australian journalist Sheryle Bagwell’s move to Provence is enlivened by the discovery of a book of seventeenth-century letters. After buying an ancient stone house in Provence, Australian journalist Sheryle Bagwell finds in her attic an old edition of selected letters by the seventeenth-century French noblewoman Madame de Sévigné, who died, she discovers, in the grand chateau down the road. So begins Sheryle’s new life in southern France as she deals with an ageing

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Stella Prize 2026 Long List

Stella Prize The 2026 Stella Prize Longlist presents another twelve exceptional works by Australian women and non-binary writers. Spanning poetry, memoir, fiction, non-fiction and graphic works, the 2026 longlist presents themes that explore the transformative power of memory, truth and the intrinsic beauty of creative fiction. This year Stella received 212 entries. In the coming weeks, this list will be reduced to six to make up the short list, to be announced on Wednesday, April 8th, before one extraordinary book is awarded the $60,000 Stella Prize, announced

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Rosemary’s Book of the Week

The Romanov Secret Chrissie Bellbrae Don’t miss Chrissie at the BMI on Tuesday 24 March at 6pm A priceless Fabergé jewel. An empire on the brink of revolution. A love to dangerous to reveal. A celebrated artist’s painting holds clues to long-held family secrets and lives under threat, long after the fall of the Russian Empire. 1898: When the legitimacy of Grand Duchess Tatiana Romanov’s marriage to the Tsar’s brother comes into question, her son’s claim to the Imperial throne is

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Rosemary’s Book of the Week

The Missing Wife Kerry Barrett 1933 Hannah Snow is fleeing her unhappy marriage when she finds herself in a small hotel on the banks of Loch Ness. But when a monster is spotted in the depths of the waters, the press descends- and Hannah finds her hiding place is discovered. Present Day. True crime podcaster Scarlett finds herself intrigued by the mystery of Hannah Snow, wife of a promising government minister who disappeared in 1933 – just moments before her husband

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Rosemary’s Book of the Week

The Hiding Place Kate Mildenhall Don’t miss Kate and Josh Pomare at the BMI on Tuesday 10 March at 6pm From the Author of Skylarking, The Mother Fault and The Hummingbird Effect They’re good people. Why shouldn’t they get what they deserve? When Lou sees an ad for a long-abandoned mining town up for sale, it doesn’t take her long to convince her sister and their oldest friends to go in on the idyllic property buried in the bush – a

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