June 6th, 2025Debut book celebrates Aussie way of life

Words & Image: Eve Lamb

There must be a fair few familes with a resident “Grumps”.

Newly released at Daylesford’s Paradise Books shop in recent days, Kate Foulds’ debut book, Grumps and the green fishing rod, pays homage to a special Grumps in her life; her dad.

The new children’s book that’s been accepted for release at the National Library Bookshop in Canberra, also captures many precious aspects of the local area and celebrates being out in nature and the Aussie way of life.

It features unfiltered coloured photographs by one of Kate’s former colleagues from her days as a journalist with the Bendigo Advertiser newspaper, Tania Tanti. There are also beautiful nature photos by Daylesford’s Darryl Kirby included as well.

Kate says seeing her first ever book released locally and stocked at Daylesford’s Paradise Books is both “exciting” and “humbling”.

“I think it’s so important to capture some of these oral stories that form the fabric of who we are as Australians,” she says.

“I’ve had a number of people contact me saying ‘we’ve got a ‘Grumps’. So they’re really relating which is great.”

Kate says the book was largely inspired by her own treasured childhood days just getting out and being in nature with her dad who is a keen general fisherman and a skilled fly fisherman.

The book carries the stories of four generations and includes a glossary of some classic Aussie terms.

Kate is a Central Victorian short fiction and memoir writer who grew up on the family farm in Musk before becoming a regional newspaper journalist. 

Her short fiction, Grandma’s Gift, was published in the anthology, Mother – Memories, Moments & Stories and her flash fiction was shortlisted for the inaugural Minds Shine Bright Writing Confidence Competition 2022. 

In 1994 Kate gained a graduate cadetship at Kyneton’s Midland Express office and was a journalist at the Bendigo Advertiser between 1997 and 1999.

As a police and court reporter at the Advertiser, Kate wrote a news story judged a first-place winner at the 2000 Crime Stoppers International Conference in Canada – topping nominations from around the globe including London, New York, Miami and Vancouver. 

Kate has already started work on another book project capturing more of the area’s rich local oral history.

“It’s a long term project and will be a much bigger book,” she says.