Simon Collins
‘That sounded like gunfire,’ said one of my dinner companions, glancing towards the window. We were a quarter of a…
Simon Collins
When Geoffrey Blainey’s seminal work The Tyranny of Distance first appeared in Dymocks’ window many people didn’t realise it was…
Simon Collins
Of all the names Mark Latham was called last week, the one which could most seriously affect his future employment…
Justin Milne’s Stand Up Comedy Routine
If the Walkleys had a Most Humorous Headline category, ‘No bias at the ABC vows new chairman’, would surely take…
Simon Collins
As a man without a faithful atom in his body I am fascinated by the phenomenon of radicalisation; the alchemical…
Simon Collins
As I write this the Trump inauguration is still three days away, so the US intelligence community still has time…
Simon Collins
Forget Thredbo, Charlotte Pass and Falls Creek; Australia’s best skiing conditions are to be found in Canberra! For reasons which…
Simon Collins
I can’t be the only Speccie reader who’s lost sleep thinking about the Crown Resort employees awaiting trial in China.…
Simon Collins
Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Agri, Big Pharma… every industry these days seems to have its bogeyman collective, the theory…
Simon Collins
It’s a little know fact that when French aristo Baron Pierre de Coubertin averred that ‘the important thing is not…
Simon Collins
I may have been labouring under a misapprehension. In all my years in the advertising caper I’ve always believed that…
Simon Collins
Currencies will plummet, markets will crash and there will be rioting on the streets of capitals. Followed, perhaps, by the…
Simon Collins
Whether or not Australians get to vote on the subject of gay marriage later this year, nobody would dispute the…
Simon Collins
Given the popularity of Channel 10’s I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here it’s hardly surprising that other networks…
Simon Collins
Crosses may have huge symbolic significance for Christians but the physical reality of crucifixion is something most of us only…
Simon Collins
Working my way back to Australia after a long exile in the US, I stop off in London the day…
Manchester reunion
One of the enduring benefits of emigrating at an early age is that you are not expected to attend school…
Simon Collins
If the Aussie dollar could be said to have gone up and down like a bride’s nightie over the last…
Dogzheimers
How far should a man be prepared to go for a free meal? Two weeks ago I came 12,000 miles…
Dope ‘em up
Australian athletes only managed to get two silvers at the Beijing World Athletics Championships. But the good news is that…
Driving Dixie
I am driving my son from Washington DC to Charlottesville, Virginia, for a two-day ‘orientation’ at the university he will…
Normandy landing
When you’re told by a Harley Street specialist that you’re not, as you had feared, about to cark it, you…
On ‘mateship’
Has Australia’s most valuable currency lost its value?
London notes
I can see the London Eye from my hotel room, but for a panicky, hungover moment this morning I thought…
Diary
I have added a few days onto a London trip to visit my mum in South Wales, and as I…
