Books
The history girl
Ronald Knox, found awake aged four by a nanny, was asked what he was thinking about, and he replied ‘the…
She Landed by Moonlight, by Carole Seymour-Jones - review
The subtitle of Carole Seymour-Jones’s quietly moving biography of the brilliant SOE agent Pearl Witherington is ‘the real Charlotte Gray’.…
how to get a life
just to tell you there is nothing better almost nothing better than getting into bed in the middle of the…
The Unwinding, by George Packer - review
The Unwinding is a rather classy addition to the thriving genre of American apocalypse porn. The basic thesis can be…
The Authors XI, by The Authors Cricket Club - review
We were never going to get ‘come to the party’ or ‘a hundred and ten per cent’ from The Authors…
Books and Arts
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A wicket way with words
We were never going to get ‘come to the party’ or ‘a hundred and ten per cent’ from The Authors…
A wicket way with words
We were never going to get ‘come to the party’ or ‘a hundred and ten per cent’ from The Authors…
Music & Monarchy, by David Starkey - review
Music has always been integral to the image and power of monarchy. Our present Royal family should take note, says Jonathan Keate
Horace and Me, by Harry Eyres - review
After Zorba the Greek, here comes Horace the Roman. The peasant Zorba, you’ll remember from the film, releases uptight, genteel…
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…
