OUT OF THE FOREST is one of the best non-fiction books I’ve ever read.
It tells the beyond incredible true story of a man who dropped out of society and lived rough in the rainforests of Northern New South Wales for close on a decade.
Gregory Smith – pictured above – was that man. Today he is Dr Gregory Smith, senior lecturer in the Social Sciences department and chair of the faculty of Business, Law and Arts at Southern Cross University in NSW (Australia).
For the next few weeks, we’re going to check out some brilliant excerpts from the book. Prior to entering the forest, Dr Gregory was homeless for a number of years. Here he tells all about less-than-ideal sleeping arrangements –
My homeless life played out right up and down the east coast of Australia; from the harsh sidewalks of Darlinghurst, Kings Cross and Surry Hills in Sydney to Woolloongabba and Redhill in the back lanes of inner Brisbane.
I’ve slept on stinking, urine-splattered tiles in public toilets, inside grime-coated industrial rubbish bins, at railway platforms, in boiler rooms, on the verandahs of unsuspecting Australians, under country churches, in a big plastic bag on the side of a road, in a cardboard box, in cars, in police lockups.
Homeless life is a hard, hard slog. People stealing your things is always a possibility, I’ve had shoes ripped off my feet while sleeping. You’re always hungry, you’re always tired, and society always thinks the worst of you – especially cops and security guards.
We find out the unique, pet names Dr Gregory coined for various parts of his rainforest home.
In 1979, the body of High School English teacher Susan Reinert was found in the boot of her car, parked outside a hotel in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.
The Principal at Susan’s school, a man by the name of Jay Smith, was convicted of her murder. Smith spent six years on death row awaiting execution. His conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1992.
Three books and a 1987 TV mini-series ensured the case cemented itself in the public consciousness of the era.
The real killer turned out to be NOT Principal Smith but a fellow teacher at the school. 36-year-old victim Susan Reinhert had been having an affair with another married teacher in the English department, William Bradfield.
One month prior to her murder, teacher Susan Reinhert had declared Bradfield, who was President of his local branch of the Teacher’s Union, to be the sole beneficiary of a life insurance policy worth, in today’s money, $2.2 million USD.
He was also the sole beneficiary of her estate, valued in today’s money at $1.1 million USD. Impressive amounts on a teacher’s salary.
Bradfield was convicted of Susan’s murder and sentenced to three consecutive life terms. He was also found guilty of the murder of Susan’s two children, 11-year-old Karen and 10-year-old Michael, whose bodies have never been located.
William Bradfield died in 1998 while in prison. Principal Jay Smith passed away in 2009 and being also a full colonel in the Army Reserves, was buried with full military honors.
JAY SMITH was an American High School Principal found guilty of the 1979 murder of an English teacher at his school. Smith spent six years in prison before his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
This is an excerpt from the book PRINCIPAL SUSPECT, written by Smith’s lawyer William Costopoulos. It describes the former Principal’s time on death row.
The cell had just a little light coming into it from the food slot in the steel door. He had no idea whether it was night or day, let alone what time it was – not that it mattered. He wasn’t going anywhere.
Smith’s naked body was dripping with sweat. His death row cell – of two-feet thick concrete walls with no windows or ventilation – got unbearably hot in the summer with temperatures that rose to over 110 degrees. It was sweltering in there, especially in July.
Jay looked at the dark, slime-green concrete walls that seemed to be moving in on him, closer and closer with each passing day. He wasn’t even allowed to put a religious picture on them to help him get through his living hell.
Jay wondered how much more he could take and believed he was dying. He prayed he was not. Jay had gone from 220 pounds to 165 and looked like he had cancer, even though he worked out every day.
His teeth had completely rotted out. His hair was thinner and had turned white. His eyes were weakening, too, but at least he could still read and write with his strong glasses.
Despair and depression plagued him day and night. Sometimes he sat on the edge of his bed for hours, unable to move. His body would become rigid, and his eyes fixed into a blank stare, seeing nothing. Once a guard reported him dead.
“Jay!” a guard yelled, pounding on his steel door, startling him and causing his heart to race.”Your Greek lawyer called and left word for you to call him. He said it’s an emergency!”
“When can I call him back?” Jay asked, shouting to make sure he was heard. “Your next scheduled phone call is in two weeks,” the guard answered.
As a career school-teacher over the past 25+ years, it’s fair to say I’ve known my share of school Principals.
For interests’ sake I’ll mention at least two of those principals could reasonably be classed as ‘high-functioning psychopaths’. But even these triple-A type-oddbods have nothing on the school Principal you’re about to meet.
In 1979, the body of High School English teacher Susan Reinert was found in the boot of her car, parked outside a hotel in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.
The Principal at Susan’s school, a man by the name of Jay Smith, was convicted of her murder. Smith spent six years on death row awaiting execution. His conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1992.
The real killer turned out to be another teacher at the school where both Susan and Jay Smith worked. This case had more twists than a circa 1980’s Rubik’s cube, with no less than three books published on the murder.
Time to delve deeper…
In 1979, Dr Jay Smith (the ‘Dr’ title being due to his PhD in Education) had been Principal of Upper Merion High School – located 20 minutes drive west of Philadelphia – for 12 years. He was also a colonel in the Army Reserves. To say that he had a shady past, however, would be a large-sized understatement.
Dr Jay was convicted in the late sixties of robbing a Sears department store by posing as a Brinks security guard. The attempted heist included using a bogus Brinks ID card and dressing in a guard’s uniform. How someone with a history that also included convictions for drug possesion was able to enter the education system and rise to the position of school principal is a mystery belonging to that time.
Jay Smith also had a daughter who was a heroin addict. Both she and her husband went missing in 1978. Smith was accused of murdering both.
Dr Jay’s shady side also extended to him subscribing to what used to be colloquially known back in the 70’s as ‘swingers’ magazines and was rumored to be the head of a love cult at the school that included after-hours orgies and satan worship.
Spice? This case had more of it than a jumbo-portioned vindaloo Indian curry.
At the time of Jay Smith’s conviction for the murder of Susan Reinert, at least four other teachers at Upper Merion High School were under investigation for criminal offences.
The clip below will give you a little more vibe for Principal Jay Smith…
2025 has been one thwackingly spectacular year – easily the best since party spoiler Covid (boo) exited stage left – the building.
SCENIC WRITER’S SHACK has been along for the ride, with you every step, breath, snicker and guffaw along the way. Cue the look-back…
Back in July, a female BBC newsreader was ‘disciplined’ by the station after she added a single additional word to a news story and accompanied that (spontaneous) modification with a nano-second- length eye expression judged to be a personal condemnation of the politically-correct-nonsense- speak she was forced to read.
‘The Donald’ had a lot of newsworthy moments in 2025. SWS judged this to be the highlight –
I do some of my best movie watching on planes. I watched THE SUBSTANCE (2024) at one o’clock in the morning on a flight back to Brisbane from Seoul, Korea. By the time we landed I was still recovering from the experience. Every person I’ve spoken to since who’s seen THE SUBSTANCE agrees – it truly is one of the most original, mind-freaking films to come along in a great many years.
Saw this one on DVD. Completely loved its quirkiness, something I wouldn’t normally associate Sean Connery with.
Why exactly did this one get the gong? Besides being generally funny, we reckon this bit of hilarity slash absurdity perfectly summarizes the SCENIC WRITER’S SHACK, er… ‘way’.
Argentinian born Lalo Schifrin composed music scores for close to 100 movies, including two of my all-time favorites DIRT HARRY (1971) and MAGNUM FORCE (1973). He is also responsible for the instantly recognizable MISSION IMPOSSIBLE theme.
Those 1990’s tv ads, complete with his distinctive horse-race-commentator’s voice, were cheese-flavoured, ear & eye-worm classics from a bygone era that somehow managed to drill their way deep down into every tv viewer’s of-the-era screen hippocampus (science talk for memory folks – but I knew that you knew that.
I could watch this scene from SUPERMAN 2 (1980) featuring Terrence Stamp a hundred thousand times and never tire of it. It’s so perfect.
What’s more left to say but…
2026 kicks off with a bang and a clang not to mention a thundering thwack on SCENIC WRITER’S SHACK with the January launch of the annual SWS Short Story Writing Competition.
It’s back bigger and badder (ie. gooder) than before with boosted cash prizes. Stay tuned,won’t you!
Show me a person that DOESN’T – at least partially – judge a book by its cover and I’ll show you a person who doesn’t read books.
Yes shacksters – (if I may be so bold as to use this wacked-out and possibly stylish honourific in your… er, honour) it’s time again to celebrate the best the year had to offer in book cover eye candy. And there’s a lot to celebrate.
(A) Royally weird and wonderful, your Majesty.
(B) Waaah
(A) So many interesting trains of thought with this one.
(B) Pink Splendor! You can just about hear the squeak.
(A) Nice balance (sorry!) between image and text.
(B) Now that’s a button!
(A) Clever and more than a little bit frightening.
(B) Is that tomato aimed at the reader or the guy in the brown suit? The red splatters already there might help you decide.
(A) My nomination for Book Cover of the Year. Nicknamed ‘Death by Lolly’.
(B) Love, love the LOST IN SPACE (1960’s) vibe to this cover.
(A) So vampy! If ever a cover deserved the red-carpet treatment, this is it. The spelling of ritual is pretty special too.
(B) It’s the phallic-shaped blood drip from the nose that really seals it for me.
(A) Another BOOK COVER OF THE YEAR nomination. Those car headlights are indeed next-level illuminating!
(B) One supremely kissable cover.
(A) You want clever text placement? We give you clever text placement.
(B) I’m so mutts about this cover! (again, sorry). What a Fire-God brilliant interpretation of the book’s title.
Two hot-in-different ways beguiling book covers.
(A) “A two-year-old could do better than this cover” I hear you say. Actually, it looks like a two-year-old DID this cover.
(B) Oh my! Green is most certainly the new black.
(A) Inhale on this smokin’ hot bit of eye trickery, if you will.
(B) Love how the text gradually morphs from FEAR to LESS.
This post has been brought to you by the new (old) movie KILL BILL : THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR
The guy above looks nothing like me. And importantly, I’ve never owned a red and gold pinstripe suite.
But this man-kid in a candy shop COULD be me, for I have unearthed an uproarious new book that combines my twin loves of history and chest-caving humor.
That book is LOVE – LIFE – AND LAXITIVES and I am presently like a kid in a 19th century candy shop being entertained by its old skool – and by old skool I mean ‘Victorian era England’ old skool – mirth, merriment and sweet absurdity.
The book offers up a super-witty collection of sage advice, home remedies, lonely hearts counselling and general words of wisdom all aimed at living your best (19th Century England) life.
The invaluable counsel dispensed by the shudderingly all-knowing and worldly-wise, rotund housekeeper Mrs Finnegan – who, looks-wise, is equal parts Robin Williams’ MRS DOUBTFIRE and MISERY’s Kathy Bates
– is something along the lines of… all dry meats being tied up in strong paper and being kept in a cold, dry place – but never in the kitchen.
Sageadvice like that is worth paying for, don’t ya think?
And the reply? Sheep fat and grating is involved. For any more detail you’ll need to buy the book yourself.
History was never, ever so show-stoppingly entertaining!
I don’t play chess but intellectual envy has sometimes made me wish I did.
That does not stop me however, from taking an interest in goings-on in this world of strategic ‘bodybuilding for the brain’.
And oh my sweet apple sauce, things really HAVE been going on.
Earlier this month, a 10-year-old girl beat an experienced adult player. Not your garden-variety experienced adult player but no less than a Chess Grandmaster. Not meant to happen.
That child genius was British born Bodhana Sivanandan. Her ‘victim’ was 60-year-old British GM Peter Wells.
Not only is Peter Wells a Chess Grandmaster, he has also authored numerous books on elite level chess tactics and ‘stratagems’ (fancy word alert on that one). Sales of his labyrinth-style ‘how to win’ manuals are now understandably expected to bottom out. Rather drastically.
To sizably ratchet up the ‘no way’ factor, on the very same day, 6000 kilometers away in Ohio U.S, another pint-sized junior wizard defeated another Chess Grandmaster.
This time it was the turn of 10-year-old Keya Jha to inflict shock and humiliation on 45-year-old Chess Grandmaster Peter Wells.
If you didn’t know better, looking googly-eyed at just these two beyond-outlandish anomalies, you might be forgiven for thinking gifted ankle-biters defeating grown-ups was an everyday event. Well, no. But it has happened before.
Back in 2014, Boston (U.S) born Carissa Yip became the youngest player in history, aged 10, to defeat a Grandmaster.
Against-the-odds victories are the best, aren’t they!? I reckon these are three of the ga-ga making best.
Book launch time folks and this one hits like a dreamy glamazon!
If sci-fi is your thing, then you have hit the tucked and twilled jackpot – complete with all the futuristic, alternate universe bells and whistles – with this about to be published new release.
I’ve read it and for me the world-building was elaborate and ingenious beyond belief. There’s thrill-ride, shuddering action scenes aplenty. And film comparison-wise, this novel has a complexly layered belly-banquet mix of stylistic touches and themes reminiscent of –
From the dynamic duo writing team known widely as ‘Ran and Yan’ (F.A Corporan and S.E Bryan) this novel delivers compelling storytelling with enough distinctive elements and convincing science fiction worldbuilding to make it worthy of a big screen adaption.
When a member of the SCENIC WRITER’S SHACK alumni does something great, well… it’s time to wheel out the vanilla-slice pastries cart and pop the champagne corks.
U.S author Diana Webb placed 2nd in last year’s SCENIC WRITER’S SHACK short story competition. Now she has written an intriguing just-published novel.
Set in the early 1980’s, LAST OF THE AUTUMN RAIN tells the story of insurance underwriter Julie Cromwell as she journeys back to her childhood home in search of answers to mysteries and secrets that have defined and encircled her adult life.
Dirty huge congratulations Diana, from SCENIC WRITER’S SHACK.
Here’s a LINK to Diana’s website, where you can explore more of her exalting creative universe, so to speak. (You’ll see what I mean if you visit).
And the winner in this year’s STEVIE NICKS LOOK-A-LIKE COMPETITION goes to…you guessed it… Diana Webb!
Unsure of whether Diana was ever a fan of the 1992 erotic thriller BASIC INSTINCT, but news from Hollywood this week has it that Australia’s own Margot Robbie has landed the lead role of Catherine Tramell – made famous by Sharon Stone – in the soon-to-begin-filming sequel.
In what bodes well for the quality of the new production, original writer Joe Eszterhas will return to pen the reboot.I mention that because, well… this is Scenic WRITER’S Shack. Right?
