Australia
Who says Test cricket is boring?
Under a dark sapphire sky, tearing across grass as green as a lick of new paint, Mitchell Starc raced in…
The towering talent of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii
When it comes to dishing out God’s gifts, you feel the Almighty could be a little more even-handed. Take Joseph-Aukuso…
Will there ever be another cricket captain like Richie Benaud?
The thrilling fourth Test of 1961 at Old Trafford showed Benaud at his enigmatic best, in sharp contrast to his English counterpart, the uninspiring Peter May
A haunting theme: The Echoes, by Evie Wyld, reviewed
The many ghosts in Wyld’s novel include the recent occupant of a London flat, a girl in a faded photograph, and, most disturbingly, traumatised indigenous children in Australia
What Labour could learn from Australia and New Zealand
I’m just coming to the end of a four-week speaking tour Down Under and have spotted some worrying signs of…
The unimaginable tragedy of the Sydney stabbing attack
Bondi Junction, in Sydney’s affluent eastern suburbs, is well known to many British backpackers and tourists. Close to the city’s…
Heartbreak in the workplace: Green Dot, by Madeleine Gray, reviewed
Hera is 24, bisexual and usually dates women. But her infatuation with Arthur, an older, married journalist in her office, grows all-consuming
From the Odyssey to The Wizard of Oz: Praiseworthy, by Alexis Wright, reviewed
Everything blends into everything else as an Aboriginal knight errant sets out on a quest to save his scorched native bushlands
Has Bazball rescued — or ruined — cricket?
Thanks to Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, English Test cricket has been revolutionised – at the expense of the gentle, contemplative game
The crushing defeat of Australia’s divisive Voice referendum
Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, urged his fellow Australians to take ‘the opportunity to make history’ today. And they did,…
Why did Australia vote No in the Voice referendum?
I’m in Sydney for the Voice referendum result and was ready to settle in and watch the declarations for each…
Robyn Davidson explores yet another foreign country – the past
Now in her seventies, the travel writer returns to her childhood in Australia, and the trauma of losing her mother at the age of 11
Australia’s disastrous indigenous voice referendum
My partner and I have just returned from the most magical trip. As guests of Western Australia’s tourist board we’ve…
Why I’m addicted to Australian MasterChef
Why is Australian MasterChef so much better than the English version? You’d think, with a population less than a third…
A fable for our times
When phylloxera destroys the vines on the Aoelian island of ‘S’, the inhabitants, forced to emigrate, blame the recently established prison colony
The problems of being a Bee Gee
Calling themselves the Bee Gees spelt trouble from the start for the very disparate Gibb brothers, says Craig Brown
Watching Queen Cleopatra felt like witnessing the death of scholarship
The most controversial aspect of Netflix’s new drama-documentary Queen Cleopatra – not least in Egypt – was the casting of…
Who killed Australia Day?
Australia Day was once a big deal Down Under, but in recent years the annual celebration has been somewhat muted.…
Removing PMs hardly ever ends well
As Tory MPs appear to descend into a panic of buyers’ remorse over the election of Liz Truss, they would…
How did climate doomsters get the Great Barrier Reef so wrong?
We are, of course, in the midst of a ‘climate emergency’ and the ‘sixth mass extinction’ of life on Earth.…
Must we now despise colonial architecture too?
Here’s a thing. A disturbing book about disturbing cities. And it’s full of loaded questions. Like Hezbollah, the publisher uses…
Are the Australian election results a bad sign for the Tories?
Scott Morrison’s Liberals were absolutely thrashed in the Australian elections this weekend. The party’s vote collapsed, and there were big-name…
How Scott Morrison was defeated in Australia
‘Scott Morrison is empathetic – without the “em”.’ Those words, spoken on Friday by the Labor party frontbencher Jason Clare,…
New Aussie rules: Conservative values have fallen out of fashion
Conservative values have fallen out of fashion
