Stuck in traffic one night John Hale read a sign: "If you don't change direction you will finish up exactly where you are headed." He took the message to heart. Something did have to change. His marriage has just collapsed; the life that he was used to was gone; he was not happy. So he sold his inner city practice and bought a farm. Before he knows it John is taken on in the local surgery, and becomes a frantically busy country doctor, dealing with life in all its forms - the sweet and the bizarre, the humorous and the painful. As he settles into this close-knit community, Hale finds a new type of life with Hardy, the Munsterlander, and slowly begins his own healing. Paul Carter's stories are about the people of his country Victorian community, spun with magic, humour and humanity. Populated by a cast of characters who are the everyday heroes of rural Australia, Hale and Hardy is an irresistible testimonial to the good in people, and the pleasures of the good life.