Helen Lyne
Paperback 2026
A young teacher has noxious role models.
A baby is removed from his sixteen-year-old mother.
A young man doesn’t know how to come out to his grandmother.
A woman abseils out of an abusive relationship.
A cat thwarts an old woman’s inheritance-hungry relatives.
An aging woman seeks advice from a sex worker.
In these twenty-six short stories, partners, parents, pupils, teachers, colleagues, neighbours and intelligent cats achieve turnabouts in their lives with courage, ingenuity, insight and wit.
Turnabouts is Helen’s second collection of short stories. Her first, Love, Disappointment and Other Joys of Life, published by Ginninderra Press in 2021, was short-listed in the Society of Women Writers NSW Members Book Awards in 2022. Both collections include a number of award-winning stories.
Traveller, ailurophile, Francophile and former secondary school teacher and movie extra, Helen performs her satirical and self-send-up poems in bookshops, cafes and pubs.
Her short story collections and three poetry chapbooks, At the open mic, Performance Poems and Performance and Page Poems are available from
Desire Books and Records
3/3 Whistler Street, Manly, NSW, 2095 – 02 9977 0888
www.helenlyne.com.au