Published 28 August 2025 (paperback) and 10 September 2025 (hardback)
The Girls and the Ghosts of The Old Manse Revisited, the new novel by Ruth Skilbeck, is published 28 August 2025 in paperback. The hardback (case cover) is published on 10 September 2025, and is out now. It is for sale on the Anthology. Journal. Books bookshop page, and in online bookshops around the world.
Reviews:
“I have been so immersed in The Girls and the Ghosts of The Old Manse Revisited by Ruth Skilbeck. It is so vivid. I was transported and could really see what her protagonist, Roxanne/‘Roxy’ was going through. The parts that really stand out for me are when Roxy evaluates migrating to Australia, which I can relate to, and the van accident, I've never read anything like it before, it's so well written. But also how Roxy was impacted by that, and how back then people just brushed it off as almost nothing. What Roxy had to go through! Also, the characters, like Roxy's mum and her sister Lily, they really come to life, and it's an absolute joy to imagine them as well. Whatever happened to Margy? Did they stay in touch? And Elvis? That was so sad about the bombing in Ireland. But what a 'romance'. And all the historical connections to the story…amazing! Skilbeck is a great writer. It's a great read. I’m going to buy and read Sayonara Baby (the second book in the series, to find out what happens next). It sounds intriguing.” – VEE MALNAR, award-winning playwright. Edna Ryan Award for Creative Feminism in the Arts winner. Literary Manager, Short + Sweet International.
"With an intriguing premise, this novel brings Irish history vividly to life, told with an arresting voice through the eyes of a 15-year-old girl."- ERINA REDDAN author of novels Deep in the Forest and The Serpent’s Skin. Walkley Award winner.
Back cover description:
When Roxanne and her family move into The Old Manse, a former 19th century manse in the countryside in Northern Ireland, a new chapter of exciting adventure and peril opens for the almost-thirteen year old budding writer. The Girls and the Ghosts of The Old Manse Revisited by Ruth Skilbeck will take readers on a journey with Roxy, her family, her new friend Margy, and girls from earlier times; over three years from the conflict of the early 1970s Troubles, at home and on road trips including a near fatal van crash in a Swedish blizzard. (Back cover).
Each of the novels in Ruth Skilbeck's Australian Fugue series can be read as a standalone novel.
Read as a series, the novels proceed through recursion, going back in time, with The Girls and the Ghosts of The Old Manse Revisited also moving forward decades in its ending.
Publisher: Borderstream Books
Place of publication: A suburb in Geelong, in the state of Victoria, Australia. (The records of our first print run show our publisher address as Borderstream Books, Whittington VIC 3219; subsequent printings record the place of publication as Newcomb VIC 3219 and publisher address Borderstream Books, PO Box 124, Newcomb VIC 3219). The books are printed in Melbourne Australia and also on demand around the world (including the UK and US), but the publisher and place of publication is Borderstream Books, at Newcomb. There’s a simple explanation for the change. There is no post office in Whittington, to get a local PO Box we had to go to next-door-suburb Newcomb.
Copyright ©2025 Ruth Skilbeck