Books
Laidlaw by William McIlvanney - review
Laidlaw was first published in 1977, 36 years back from now, 38 on from The Big Sleep. Like Chandler’s classic…
Adhocism, by Charles Jencks - review
Here, for time travellers, is the whack-job spirit of ’68 in distillate form, paperbound and reissued in facsimile (with some…
Foreign Policy Begins at Home, by Richard N. Haass - review
A year or so after the ‘liberation’ of Iraq, an unnamed senior Bush administration official (later revealed to be Karl…
Against Their Will, by Allen M. Hornblum - review
After the Morecambe Bay Hospital scandal a new era opens of compassion, -whistle-blowing, naming names and possible prosecutions. But what…
Dark Actors, by Robert Lewis - review
No book about Dr David Kelly could start anywhere other than at the end. Kelly is found, dead, in a…
Jane Gardam on Barbara Comyns - essay
The Vet’s Daughter is Barbara Comyns’s fourth and most startling novel. Written in 1959 when she was 50 it is…
A walking contradiction
Nick Greiner: A Political Biography By Ian Hancock Connor Court, $59.95, pp 480 ISBN 9781922168542 Ian Hancock has, in recent…
Reasons to be angry
As a teenager in the 1980s I liked Jimmy Connors. This meant parking my not inconsiderable jealousy that he’d once…
The end of separatism
In Black & White: Australians All At The Crossroads Editors: Rhonda Craven, Anthony Dillon, Nigel Parbury Connor Court, $29.95, pp…
One-sided story
Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott By David Marr Black Inc, $19.95, pp 208 ISBN 978186355980 If there is…
All our Yesterdays
Too many Beatles books? In my house there’s always room for one more, and this week’s addition is All Together…
All our Yesterdays
Too many Beatles books? In my house there’s always room for one more, and this week’s addition is All Together…
Terra nullius
For many people these days, exploration means peeking into some of the more unusual corners of the internet. This massive…
The lady means business
Gina Rinehart: The Untold Story of the Richest Woman in the World By Adele Ferguson PanMacmillan, $34.99, pp 490 ISBN…
Progress and its critics
The Lucky Culture and the Rise of an Australian Ruling Class By Nick Cater HarperCollins, $29.99, pp 309 ISBN 9781743098134…
Not so serenissima
Master your disappointment. The Politics of Washing: Real Life in Venice (Hale, £9.99) is as far from the fantasy-relocation genre…
Not so serenissima
Master your disappointment. The Politics of Washing: Real Life in Venice (Hale, £9.99) is as far from the fantasy-relocation genre…
Byronic intensity
A year before he died from emphysema in 1990, the composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein agreed to be interviewed by the music…
Byronic intensity
A year before he died from emphysema in 1990, the composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein agreed to be interviewed by the music…
Coming attractions
It appears inevitable that the Coalition will win the federal election to be held later this year. What can we…
On the snail trail
Snails are supposed to hate eggshells. Not the ones in Ruth Brooks’s garden. They clamber over the barrier as though…
On the snail trail
Snails are supposed to hate eggshells. Not the ones in Ruth Brooks’s garden. They clamber over the barrier as though…
Talk is cheap
The Rise of the Fifth Estate: Social Media and Blogging in Australian Politics By Greg Jericho Scribe, $29.95, pp 313…
Evil under the sun
The plot of The Quickening (Arrow/ Hammer, £9.99) by Julie Myerson (pictured) revolves around pregnant, newlywed Rachel and her sinister…
Evil under the sun
The plot of The Quickening (Arrow/ Hammer, £9.99) by Julie Myerson (pictured) revolves around pregnant, newlywed Rachel and her sinister…
