Latham’s Law
Saturday morning at the nearest coffee shop, marvelling at the power of Murdoch self-promotion. One paper presents a profile of…
Bookends: Doors of perception
Unlike most of the old rockers he writes about, the esteemed US critic Greil Marcus is becoming more prolific as…
Bookends: The year of living dangerously
Most people who recall 1976 do so for its appallingly hot summer, when parks turned brown and roads melted. Some…
Latham’s law
December was a bad month for the Kim family. First Kim Il-Carr was dumped from Julia Gillard’s cabinet. Then Kim…
Bookends: A shaggy beast of a book
Autobiography is a tricky genre to get right, which may be why so many well-known people keep having another go…
Latham’s law
In the pages of this magazine and elsewhere, the British neolibertarian Brendan O’Neill has mounted a curious argument about media…
Bookends: An unreal world
Even by Hollywood standards, Carrie Fisher is pretty crazy. She was born a Hollywood princess, and remembers her parents —…
Latham’s law
On one of his visits to Australia, Bill Clinton confessed to former NSW Premier Bob Carr that ‘Some people in…
Bookends: A metropolitan menagerie
London has always loved its animals. James I kept elephants in St James’s Park (allowed a gallon of wine per…
Latham’s law
Lost in the hub-hub of Labor’s National Conference was an election result which lays bare the true state of Australia’s…
Bookends: Saving JFK
Stephen King’s latest novel is a time-travel fantasy about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. At almost 750 pages, 11.22.63…
Wild life
Kenya In protest against the lack of law and order in my farming district I have decided to dye my…
Saved by the Bel
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s and Jérôme Bel’s 3Abschied is the latest addition to a long and historically well-established series of…
Bookends: No joke being a comedian
Failure is the very stuff of comedy, but not of showbiz memoirs, so Small Man in a Book (Michael Joseph,…
Latham’s Law
Earlier this year, the Sydney Morning Herald declared Chris Pyne to be Australia’s most annoying person. I must confess, I…
Bookends: Not filthy enough
The Pursued (Penguin, £12.99) is a lost crime thriller by C. S. Forester, the author of the Hornblower novels. It…
Latham’s law
Kim Williams has left Foxtel just in time, escaping Bob the Blogger’s ferocious campaign against Psychic Sally, Teen Mom and…
Original sin
Nothing beats the buzz that precedes the debut of a rising star in a big, known role. Double it and…
Latham’s law
Andrew Bolt got into trouble recently when he suggested that some people exaggerate their aboriginality for financial gain. Having just…
High hopes
For more than 40 years, Scottish Ballet has been one of the most vibrant and interesting companies on the UK…
Bookends: About a boy
The Go-Between was L.P. Hartley’s best novel, Joseph Losey’s best film, and probably Harold Pinter’s best screenplay. In the novel,…
Wild life
Kenya I am proud of Kenya for taking on Muslim extremists in southern Somalia. Rather wisely, the Kenyan military has…
Bookends: Spirit of place
A new book by Ronald Blythe is something of an event. In recent years the bard of Akenfield has mostly…
Latham’s law
As they say at the BBC, it must be a matter of taste. When it comes to watching footy matches…
Bookends: The showbiz Boris Johnson
Amiability can take you a long way in British public life. James Corden is no fool: he co-wrote and co-starred…
