Australian Books
Vengeful pygmies
It says almost everything that needs to be said about Niki Savva’s latest book that its original title was Highway…
Unforgotten person
A newly-elected Australian Prime Minister was pleased to receive a letter of congratulations from Australia’s longest serving PM, Sir Robert…
Character building
Having fired off his first challenge in paragraph one (‘Read every word of this book, but don’t believe a word…
Financial eunuch
Teenagers are normally embarrassed by their mothers. Germaine Greer was particularly so. Elizabeth Kleinhenz in her new biography writes: ‘Germaine…
Into oblivion
Moribund for about nine years now, Clive James has released his newest transcription of the Grim Reaper’s call. You might…
Unis? Must try harder
‘I’m a revolutionary Marxist, and if you’re not one by the end of semester I haven’t done my job properly,’…
Undercurrents
Former Melbourne detective Colin McLaren’s cold case book into the 2009 disappearance of Bob Chappell and the 2010 conviction of…
Leftist wonderland
Kerry O’Brien in his mammoth memoir argues that his decades of ABC TV presenting were not Left-biased. It’s an easy…
Of the people
This must be the first occasion when a book on politics, written in Australia, has been listed among the year’s…
Are you an Innie or an Outie?
The Institute of Public Affairs infuriates the Left. The IPA’s success in being the public face of centre-right thinking, even…
How The West was run
There aren’t many histories or biographies written by Australians that sociologists and anthropologists will turn to in the future in…
Australian liberalisms
David Kemp’s first of five volumes in the history of Australian liberalism, The Land of Dreams, How Australians Won Their…
Flexing China’s muscles
We live in interesting times. And, according to Taylor, a respected academic from the Australian National University specialising in geopolitics,…
But does it pass the breath, er, pub test?
Anne Summers in 2011 was named by Vogue magazine as ‘one of the world’s wisest women’. After reading her memoir…
Long march, short book
Rarely does one have the opportunity to understand the complexities of modern political problems through the lens of an artist.…
Rollicking Ruddick?
I first saw John Ruddick speak about party reform in 2011 as part of his quixotic run for NSW State…
Disturbing
‘There was no body. There was no wrench. There was no evidence.’ The first two statements are undoubtedly true. Lawyers…
Misplaced nostalgia
Michelle Grattan has been a part of the political landscape for nearly a half-century, so when she says that there…
Mysterious ways
This is Greg Sheridan’s best book because it is his bravest. He tackles an important subject in a challenging way…
Leaving Mangoland
When Donald Trump was elected President in 2016, irascible US comedian Lewis Black declared angrily that, thanks to that event,…
Oddballs and lefties
Ah, populism: is it a fulsome democratic expression of giving people what they want or merely join-the-dots fear-mongering? Bit of…
Sober liberal
Australia has a rich heritage of nineteenth century classical liberalism. But that history has been almost completely lost in the…
Wilder still and wilder
Hello! Hello! Hello! What have we here? What we have is the new Plant – the sixth – from Michael…
The Fighting Kangaroo
Jim Eames, an established and respected aviation writer, whose previous credits include The Flying Kangaroo, a history of Qantas, has…
Classic whodunnit
How many readers know the answer to the question, ‘After the Bible and Shakespeare, who is the biggest selling author…
