Hurdles in Hobart

About Hurdles in Hobart

First past the post is not the only winner.

Travelling in Australia with her family for a wedding, English journalism student Zaniya Fergusson fears six days in the small southern city of Hobart will leave her bored. A chance encounter in the hotel breakfast room with recent widow Helen O’Shaughnessy changes her mindset. Lucky O’Shaughnessy was known as the world’s worst jockey, falling in all forty-five jumping races he rode in. A figure of infamy and ridicule throughout his career, he’d been long forgotten until a newspaper article after his passing bestowed the title of Hobart’s Greatest Loser upon him.

The Fergussons experience the wonders of Hobart and its surrounds. The culture of MONA, the history of Port Arthur, the natural wonders of the Tasman Peninsula, the restaurants of North Hobart, the nightlife of Battery Point, the tranquillity of Bruny Island and the beauty of Cradle Mountain. Against these diverse experiences, they learn the fuller picture of the man Lucky had been.

Can Zaniya convert Lucky’s legacy from loser to hero?

What people are saying about Hurdles in Hobart.

“A novel that delivers the humour and the heartbreak of a jockey who spent more of his career in hospital beds than on horseback. An underappreciated legend, just like the city he called home.”

“You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll be inspired by the story of a man who let nothing stand in the way of living his dreams.”

“Before I’d even finished the book, I found myself searching maps of Hobart and planning out a trip there. Page brings the city to life through the combining of a modern-day traveller’s journey with the life story of an inspiring local.”

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Learn More About The Author

A business graduate from the University of South Australia, C.R. Page had never contemplated a career in writing until the passion was spiked by a series of major life events. Through several funerals and his own wedding, he wrote eulogies, vows and speeches that earned sufficient recognition from all who heard them for him to consider taking his hobby further. He was a prize winner in the Campbelltown Literary Awards in 2020 for his short story ‘One Person at a Time.’ He won the major prize at the Living Landscape Writers Festival in 2022 for his short story ‘Sanctuary’.

In 2022 he released his first novel, ‘The Ride to Work,’ a psychological drama set in real-time, with a man’s life story told in the space of a morning commute.

In 2023, he launched the ‘Soul of the City’ series, a collection of novels that serve as biographies of different cities through simultaneously telling the stories of a traveller in the city, with a local legend who defines it. ‘Bedside in Berlin’, ‘Paradox in Paris’ and ‘Hurdles in Hobart’ are available now.