Kiwi notes
For much of my juvenile life in England, New Zealand existed only as a kind of mysterious dual oceanic blob…
Unneighbourly notes
More than 20 years of living in Australia has caused me to think that most Australians may now never really…
Cricket notes
It was the claim of one of my past editors – Jenny Naipaul – during my 11 years of writing…
Fair notes
In the land of the so-called ‘fair go’ it comes as no surprise that the words ‘fair’ and ‘fairer’ seemed…
Election notes
At the Anglican boarding school I attended in England as a scholarship boy from the age of ten it often…
Rhetorical Notes
In the somewhat distant days of my early manhood rhetorical language – that is language designed solely to persuade or…
Zeitgeist notes
The Inquirer section of the Weekend Australian March 16-17 kicked off with a veritable drum roll performed vigorously by editor-at-large…
Aesthetic notes
Earlier this week I attended a vast party thrown by Tim Storrier in Bowral to celebrate his and his twin…
Sports notes
James Allan’s notes last week about unenviable aspects of Australian tennis certainly struck a chord with me. When in Sydney,…
Australian notes
For me, at least, this year’s Australia Day was preceded somewhat significantly two days earlier by a vast four page…
Australian notes
How on earth can we ensure that 2019 is a more positive and constructive year than the last one? Australia…
Rainy day notes
As I write rain is absolutely bucketing down in the form of what is commonly known in the UK as…
Teaching notes
TEACHER’S VOW TO TURN KIDS OFF LIBS: so read the lesser front-page headline of the Australian on November 21. From…
Remembrance notes
Exactly a year ago I was on my way home starting the final stage of recovery from prolonged surgery. Indeed…
Learning notes
A week or so ago my wife thought she might be losing her mind when she heard the late Freddie…
Australian notes
In the hour and a half it took me to drive to Sydney on August 23, I listened to what…
Brutopian notes
A few weeks ago I had the privilege to be present at the launch of Kevin Donnelly’s vitally necessary new…
Parklife
During more or less the whole 20 years that my wife and I have lived in the Blue Mountains we…
Home & away notes
Over the space of a decade or so, a number of young Australians managed to bring themselves forcefully to international…
Cautionary notes
It strikes me sometimes as a fortuitous coincidence that the word communism shares its start with the word compulsion because…
High horse notes
For me, at least, one of the less edifying sights of recent times was watching Australia’s Prime Minister and his…
Neo-Marxist notes
I can best explain my temporary absence from these pages by saying that I agreed to write a ‘short’ book…
Arch-conservative notes
A devoutly Catholic Polish couple I know who came to Australia thirty years ago to escape the extreme unpleasantness of…
Rhetorical notes
Some decades ago in Britain a better than average advertising copywriter came up with the following rather clever slogan: ‘Tern:…
SSM notes
How would you react if you saw a somewhat naïve and impressionable friend about to step off the edge of…
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