Australian Books

Inbuilt obsolescence

11 February 2017 9:00 am

Once upon a time, Australian politics was known for its stability. Long periods of one party or another in office,…

Bankstown lefty

4 February 2017 9:00 am

For Paul Keating, there have always been two kinds of politics: ‘high tone’ and ‘low rent’. High tone was to…

Spurred on

28 January 2017 9:00 am

‘Old radicals become quietist’ a character in Valley of the Weed tells Plant, the appropriately-named private detective investigating the disappearance…

Best of 2016

10 December 2016 9:00 am

After a slow start 2016 turned out to be a pretty good year for Australian writing, with excellent books across…

Up Close and Personal

3 December 2016 9:00 am

Chris Mitchell’s memoir of his life as a News Ltd journalist, then as editor, first of Brisbane’s Courier Mail and…

Reds in our beds?

26 November 2016 9:00 am

John Blaxland and Rhys Crawley’s The Secret Cold War is the third and – at least for the time being…

Walking the walls of Theodosius

29 October 2016 9:00 am

Hagia Sophia (the Church of the Holy Wisdom) in Istanbul is arguably the most important building in our Judeo-Christian tradition.…

Trumped up

8 October 2016 9:00 am

If Donald Trump keeps campaigning on immigration, he cannot lose. His Democrat rival for the US presidency, Hillary Clinton, has…

War games

24 September 2016 9:00 am

For a long time the Australian military has been very wary about public discussions, so this first book is a…

Tangled web

10 September 2016 9:00 am

It was John Howard who famously declared that the government would decide who came to Australia to live and in…

Aussie exceptionalism

1 September 2016 1:00 pm

It would have once been uncontroversial to suggest nations have characteristics that not only distinguish them from other countries, but…

Aussie exceptionalism

1 September 2016 1:00 pm

It would have once been uncontroversial to suggest nations have characteristics that not only distinguish them from other countries, but…

White trash

20 August 2016 9:00 am

Hillbilly Elegy is an extended meditation on cultural and social capital. It asks seriously – and answers truthfully – this…

A hero recalled

6 August 2016 9:00 am

In these times it seems that heroes are acclaimed readily and easily. A single television appearance coupled with a politically…

Slaying sacred cows

23 July 2016 9:00 am

It is a measure of Andrew Bolt’s ignominy that it takes a certain courage simply to walk into Dymock’s and…

The sentimental socialist

7 May 2016 9:00 am

Having done something similar myself, I wondered how Bill Shorten would handle the challenge of a campaign biography. My book,…

God’s children

26 March 2016 9:00 am

Once upon a time, Christianity in Australia was seen as the One True Faith. These days, it is likely to…

Cods wallop

12 March 2016 9:00 am

One might hope that as a Hellene, Niki Savva could shed some light on the tragedy of the Abbott government…

Three writers

5 March 2016 9:00 am

This ‘documentary’ of the lives and careers of Marcus Clarke, Adam Lindsay Gordon and Henry Kendall presents a detailed account,…

Hat trick

27 February 2016 9:00 am

Kipling once wrote a poem lamenting that the three-volume romantic novel (‘The old three-decker’) was said to be extinct. It…

Kerr’s curse

30 January 2016 9:00 am

Here it is, yet another book on the Dismissal. The fall of Gough Whitlam in 1975 has created quite a…

Child’s play

23 January 2016 9:00 am

In Australia there are tens of thousands of emotionally stable, financially secure but medically infertile people. As much as they…

Fighting back

16 January 2016 9:00 am

For anyone looking for a stimulating read this summer, one that bestows a certain sense of rationality on our otherwise…

The year in books

12 December 2015 9:00 am

In an age of white noise Christopher Pyne’s A Letter to My Children (MUP, $33) stands out as a loving…

Saints and demons

28 November 2015 9:00 am

‘The Australian Labor Party is composed of two main factions,’ writes novelist Shane Maloney, ‘Them and Us’. This truth illuminates…