{"id":362519,"date":"2025-07-10T19:38:36","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=362519"},"modified":"2025-07-14T17:06:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T07:06:17","slug":"novel-casts-light-on-cherbourg-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/07\/10\/novel-casts-light-on-cherbourg-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Novel Casts Light On Cherbourg Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Author Tess Merlin has woven aspects of her life as a police officer into her historical novel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

July 10, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

A former police officer who served in the South Burnett has written an historical novel which casts a light on life in and around Cherbourg in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

“Red Dirt, Blue Lights” tells the story of a young policewoman, Tess, and a young Cherbourg woman, Jemma, who is debating whether to stay in community to care for her nan, or run away to explore a different life.<\/p>\n

Tess Merlin felt compelled to write the book – which she hopes will become popular with young people – after a visit to The Ration Shed Museum and chatting with Cherbourg Elder Uncle Eric Law AM.<\/p>\n

The novel reflects the author’s own experiences as a police officer but she relied on Uncle Eric’s help to ensure she depicted Cherbourg life accurately.<\/p>\n

Uncle Eric wrote the foreword, and his\u00a0daughter, well-known artist Nikita Law, provided the artwork for the cover.<\/p>\n

“Red Dirt, Blue Lights” was launched at The Ration Shed on Tuesday to coincide with NAIDOC celebrations in Cherbourg.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is also another connection to Cherbourg … the book has been published by Brisbane-based And Also Books<\/a><\/strong> which happens to be the company owned by The Ration Shed archivist Matthew Wengert.<\/p>\n

The book launch was an opportunity for Tess to catch up again with Matthew, Nikita and Uncle Eric but also provided a chance to chat with another former police officer, Member for Wide Bay Llew O’Brien.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Member for Wide Bay Llew O’Brien, Uncle Eric Law AM, author Tess Merlin and artist Nikita Law in the Boys Dormitory at The Ration Shed complex on Tuesday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Former Kingaroy Constable 1st Class Tess Merlin with former Kilkivan Senior Constable Llew O’Brien at the book launch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former police officer who served in the South Burnett has written an historical novel which casts a light on life in and around Cherbourg in the 1970s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":362520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[863,16,3,24],"tags":[23,1135,1132],"yoast_head":"\nNovel Casts Light On Cherbourg Life - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A former police officer who served in the South Burnett has written an historical novel which casts a light on life in and around Cherbourg in the 1970s.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/07\/10\/novel-casts-light-on-cherbourg-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Novel Casts Light On Cherbourg Life - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former police officer who served in the South Burnett has written an historical novel which casts a light on life in and around Cherbourg in the 1970s.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/07\/10\/novel-casts-light-on-cherbourg-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-10T09:38:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-14T07:06:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250708book1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"740\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"460\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/07\/10\/novel-casts-light-on-cherbourg-life\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/07\/10\/novel-casts-light-on-cherbourg-life\/\",\"name\":\"Novel Casts Light On Cherbourg Life - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-10T09:38:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-14T07:06:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\"},\"description\":\"A former police officer who served in the South Burnett has written an historical novel which casts a light on life in and around Cherbourg in the 1970s.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/07\/10\/novel-casts-light-on-cherbourg-life\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\",\"name\":\"Anne Miller\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Novel Casts Light On Cherbourg Life - southburnett.com.au","description":"A former police officer who served in the South Burnett has written an historical novel which casts a light on life in and around Cherbourg in the 1970s.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/07\/10\/novel-casts-light-on-cherbourg-life\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Novel Casts Light On Cherbourg Life - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"A former police officer who served in the South Burnett has written an historical novel which casts a light on life in and around Cherbourg in the 1970s.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/07\/10\/novel-casts-light-on-cherbourg-life\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2025-07-10T09:38:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-14T07:06:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":740,"height":460,"url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250708book1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Miller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/07\/10\/novel-casts-light-on-cherbourg-life\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/07\/10\/novel-casts-light-on-cherbourg-life\/","name":"Novel Casts Light On Cherbourg Life - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-07-10T09:38:36+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-14T07:06:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae"},"description":"A former police officer who served in the South Burnett has written an historical novel which casts a light on life in and around Cherbourg in the 1970s.","inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/07\/10\/novel-casts-light-on-cherbourg-life\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae","name":"Anne Miller","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362519"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362519"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362526,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362519\/revisions\/362526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}