Books
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…
Blue-sky dreaming
We don’t have an extreme climate, says Richard Mabey in Turned Out Nice Again (Profile, £8.99). We don’t have tsunamis,…
Blue-sky dreaming
We don’t have an extreme climate, says Richard Mabey in Turned Out Nice Again (Profile, £8.99). We don’t have tsunamis,…
Fight to the death
Not Dead Yet: Labor’s Post-Left Future By Mark Latham Black Inc Books, $19.95, pp 99 ISBN 9781863955973 This book, by…
All is not lost
Phyllida Law has a delightfully natural style, a gift for anecdote and the knack of seeing the funny side of…
All is not lost
Phyllida Law has a delightfully natural style, a gift for anecdote and the knack of seeing the funny side of…
A hero of folk
‘This Machine Kills Fascists’ was the ambitious slogan that Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) painted on his guitars. By fascists he meant…
A hero of folk
‘This Machine Kills Fascists’ was the ambitious slogan that Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) painted on his guitars. By fascists he meant…
Down to a T
There are normally three problems with reviews of books which, like This is the Way by Gavin Corbett (Fourth Estate,…
Down to a T
There are normally three problems with reviews of books which, like This is the Way by Gavin Corbett (Fourth Estate,…
Growing old disgracefully
Virginia Ironside’s novel, No! I Don’t Need Reading Glasses (Quercus £14.99) about a 65-year-old granny who belongs to a local…
Growing old disgracefully
Virginia Ironside’s novel, No! I Don’t Need Reading Glasses (Quercus £14.99) about a 65-year-old granny who belongs to a local…
Knowing your onions
Having fried your leeks in butter, form them into a poultice and apply it to your backside. No, not Heston…
Knowing your onions
Having fried your leeks in butter, form them into a poultice and apply it to your backside. No, not Heston…
Novel ways of writing
If you consider ‘gripping metafiction’ a self-contradictory phrase (surely metafiction disables tension through its wink-at-the-audience style?), Nicholas Royle’s First Novel…
The Diana effect
My favourite joke of all time concerns Diana Dors, whose real name was Diana Fluck. She was invited back to…
The Wiggins streak
As the first British winner of the Tour de France and a gold medalist at London 2012, Bradley Wiggins is…
Rock solid
Rod Stewart once tried to convince his mother that he had made a lot of money, and wanted to buy…
