'Wombat and Cockie' by Tom Graves

I recently finished reading 'Wombat and Cockie - the annotated script' by Tom Graves.

Tom Graves is a friend of mine, who I met at WriteNight Colchester.  He generally writes non fiction but has also dabbled in fiction writing.

Much of Tom's work is quite technical, writing non fiction on many topic areas including, but by no means limited to the structure of organisations.

In 'Wombat and Cockie', he uses fiction to shine a light on many of the problems within modern society and to examine the potential effects of a fundamental change in the way society and the economy functions.  

All the characters in the script are humans who are assigned names relating to the animals as metaphors for their personality traits.  The effect is interesting - it is easy to relate instantly to the characters through their animal metaphors.

The story is set in Australia, against the backdrop of a complete failure of the economic and political systems.  It is an interesting examination of the concept of rights versus responsibilities and how abuse and violence are used to exert power over others.

The protagonists - Wombat and Cockie are embroiled in a battle of wills.  Cockie, a relatively successful drug dealer, tries to intimidate and abuse Wombat, a single mother, after she points out his irresponsible behaviour and asks him to correct it.  

The book is well worth a read and would, I think, make an interesting film.  It certainly opened my eyes to the way people treat one another.

For more information, Tom's website is www.tetradianbooks.com