What is The Saucepan?

My father showed my mother The Saucepan as they sat in the park on the night he asked her to marry him. Later on during World War Two Mum would look at The Saucepan from our little backyard in Australia and Dad would look at it from the jungles of New Guinea. And that’s where they met during those long years of danger and separation. In the sky.

What readers say

The world that Nicholls evokes is vivid, full of laughter, triumph and tears.

Authortalk, Berkelouw Bookshop

A Saucepan in the Sky

I reluctantly read the last page and immediately wished for more.

J. D. Paddington, NSW.

A Saucepan in the Sky

Paints a vivid picture of a colourful extended family. A compelling tale.

Sunday Age

A Saucepan in the Sky

Brian Nicholls creates an array of memorable characters. A lack of sentimentality is a strength of both McCourt’s (Angela’s Ashes) and Nicholls' memoir, but the national humour and idioms of A Saucepan in the Sky stand out as unmistakably Australian.

Independent Scholars Association of Australia Review

A Saucepan in the Sky

I’m definitely going to be reading your book over and over because as well as the history behind it there are the constant stories of mischief and humour.

G.P. Healesville, Vic.

A Saucepan in the Sky

It has everything: humour, pathos, history, laughter, tears.

C. McG. Perth, WA.

A Saucepan in the Sky

This is the first time in my long life that I have felt IMPELLED to convey to a writer my opinion of his/her work. I began reading A Saucepan in the Sky at 6 am and finished it at 11.30 am. Couldn’t put it down. Haven’t been able to do anything else since then except think about it and read extracts to my husband over tea and lunch breaks.

J.W. Tumbarumba, NSW.

A Saucepan in the Sky

So much of it seemed very familiar to my own struggles and wow moments.

A. A. Devon, UK.

A Saucepan in the Sky

Details the mapping of a moral universe…a wry, humorous approach to living. ‘Uncle’ Stan is my all-time favourite character – a man with a unique worldview. I thoroughly recommend it.

Sylvia Rosenblum, East Side Radio

A Saucepan in the Sky

Had me in fits of laughter in the train en route to work.

R.H. Wavell Heights, Qld.

A Saucepan in the Sky

An utterly readable account of a memorable ‘ordinary’ environment. Uncle Vic is a ‘funny bugger’ with a Conradian outlook. ‘Uncle’ Stan is wonderfully disreputable. A charming book…as tender a maternal portrait as you will ever read.

Australian Book Review

A Saucepan in the Sky

Comic and loving…the reader is hooked from the beginning. You’ll want to raise your glass to Brian and his gang of relatives.

Geelong Advertiser

A Saucepan in the Sky