Australian Books
In the bunker
Wars make myths; probably no-one understood that better than Charles Bean, Australia’s first true war writer and a person who…
In the bunker
Wars make myths; probably no-one understood that better than Charles Bean, Australia’s first true war writer and a person who…
Ends of the earth
This story, second in a projected series (the first was The Thief Fleet, reviewed in these pages 8 December 2012),…
Tales to tell
The short story has long been a staple of Australian literature but has had something of a rough ride in…
Buffoonery
Not so much striding across the political landscape as huffing and puffing his way through the back rooms, Clive Palmer…
Under the bed
The bogeyman of the ASIO agent under the bed has long been an obsession of the Left, and judging from…
Shock jock
A senior Minister in the NSW government of John Fahey once told me that there was a vacant metaphorical chair…
It’s the Stupid, stupid
Ironic Capitalisation of That Which You Do Not Like is apparently A Thing. You’ll forgive me for employing this Irritating…
Genocidal thoughts
It takes a certain type of courage for a writer to complete a book and then admit that he does…
Lazarus is back
Australia’s Ambassador to the United States, Kim Beazley, still quips that John Winston Howard is his nemesis. This does not…
In the big chair
Even those of us of a conservative bent hoped that the election of the Rudd government in 2007 would constitute…
Racy reading
In a field which is often characterised by polemics and hand-wringing, Noel Pearson has emerged as both a considered thinker…
Head Beaters
Ah, democracy. The informed will of the majority. If only the practice was as simple as the theory. When it…
Thought bubbles
It is not really a surprise that political parties produce a certain number of oddballs; the scary thing is that…
Guilt trip
If you had to pick one emotion to characterise Australia’s attitude towards East Timor, it would be guilt. We are…
Muslim integration
Growing up is hard enough at any time; coping with additional cross-currents of race and religion is a whole new…
Battered and beaten down
It’s surely a fancy, the conviction that my first memory of newspapering came as a three-year-old, but I swear the…
Unfair and unbalanced
The thesis of this book is that there is something wrong with politics in Australia. Bryant is right, but not…
Labor partisan’s economic tale
The old saw about economics being a dismal science turns out, on the evidence of this short but interesting piece…
Perils of activist judges
Democracy in ancient Athens was often criticised by the aristocracy for not showing significant respect for them and their superior…
Labor renewal?
Ben Chifley once spoke about a shining light on the hill. By the time that Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard…
Hawkish Hillary
If you were contemplating running for President of the United States, a national book tour would be a handy pointer…
Out of his depth
There are individuals who, when fate hands them the opportunity for greatness, have risen to the challenge. Rob Oakeshott was…
With enemies like these…
Rupert Murdoch’s last five years have been the worst of his career, but a new biography by Sydney University’s Rodney Tiffen is so unfair that even Peter Oborne, one of the newspaper magnate’s severest critics, found himself warming to him
Bold history
This is a bold attempt to write the history of Australia in 1,200 pages of narrative. A huge team of…
