Our business and author, Susan Boyer
Boyer Educational Resources is a successful Australian business that has been providing excellent English language learning books and audio to students and teachers since 1998.
We publish books which explain and provide practice with English grammar, pronunciation, spelling and everyday Australian conversation and international conversation for students and teachers of English. Most of our books have accompanying audio.
Also, our resources focus on reading, writing as well as listening and speaking skills. Our resources are effective, practical and relevant to everyday life.
Susan's first book, 'Understanding Everyday Australian - Book One' was the start of her writing and publishing career. See below for her her story and more on the building of our two publishing English learning resources and Australian history businesses.
Birrong Books is a publishing imprint division of Boyer Educational Resources for Susan Boyer's Australian historical titles including:
'Tunnel to Tar-Ra', Susan's latest book
'Across Great Divides - true stories of life at Sydney Cove'
Susan Boyer
Susan began her writing and publishing career unintentionally. After graduating with Distinction from a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication and cultural studies in 1995, she began teaching English language and literacy at TAFE NSW. Seeing the lack of Australian material available for students and teachers, she decided to address the issue by developing her own lesson content in response to her students’ needs and interests.
In 1998 Susan wrote 'Understanding Everyday Australian Book One'. After positive trialing feedback from teachers she submitted her new resource to ‘mainstream’ international publishers. A ‘no’ reply came back saying the Australian market was ‘too small’. Thus, Susan decided to publish the material herself under the business name of Boyer Educational Resources. Thus, Susan along with her partner Len, produced her first publication ‘Understanding Everyday Australian Book One’. This became the first of many English learning resources both for the Australian market and
for an international market.
‘Understanding Everyday Australian Book One’ became very popular due to the everyday themes such as ‘Visiting the Doctor’, ‘Socialising at a Barbecue’ and ‘Worrying about Money’. Each topic introduced ‘everyday’ expressions students would encounter in mainstream Australian society with a focus on idioms and colloquialisms as opposed to ‘slang’. Also, each topic included listening, reading and writing exercises, a focus on understanding grammar and speaking practice, through realistic interactions.
Going back in time to the mid-nineties, as a part of studying for her Batchelor of Arts degree, Susan researched archival records relating to the early settlement of Sydney Cove by the British First Fleeters. It was through this research that an interest of convict stories developed. The interest eventually transitioned into a passion with the result of Susan producing her twentieth title, in 2011, ‘People in Australia’s Past: Their Stories, Their Achievements’ which combined her love of producing English learning resources and writing Australian history.
In 2013, Susan transitioned from an English teaching career to becoming a full-time researcher, writer and presenter with a focus on early colonial Australian history. In 2013 'Across Great Divides - true Stories of Life at Sydney Cove' was published under the Boyer Educational Resources imprint publisher name, Birrong Books. Susan received positive feedback from teachers about its content linking closely with Australian Curriculum history units. In response she wrote a young reader edition with the title 'Stories of Life at Sydney Cove', and developed free teaching downloads, including listening activities for use in classrooms. See a review of ‘Stories of Life at Sydney Cove’ on Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Reading Time website.
In mid 2019 Susan commenced the story line for her latest novel 'Tunnel to Tar-Ra'. Later in the year she visited a former university BA supervisor at Western Sydney University to seek information in relation to writing her manuscript. This visit led to being offered the opportunity to commence a PhD commencing in 2019. Her research related to the place of history as stories versus history as 'facts' and how our perceptions of the past feed into concepts of identity and influence our view of the present.
Apart from Susan's thesis there was a major component of her PhD, being, a young adult time slip historical novel, ‘Tunnel to Tar-Ra’ set in Australia's early colonial year of 1791. In mid-2021 Susan was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It was because of Susan’s, determination, passion and courage that saw her manuscript completed. Even up to a couple of weeks before her passing, in February 2022, she worked on story feedback changes and the historical notes. In late 2022, due to the quality of Susan’s writing and research, she was awarded a posthumous Doctorate of Philosophy.
Since 2014, Susan presented author talks in schools, libraries and to historical groups. She gave radio interviews and published articles on the importance of true, inspirational stories from Australia’s past. And her own words, perhaps, best describes her historical writing passion, ‘My wish is that, like me, those stories will leave you wanting to know more’.