I’ve been reading for sixty-six years, from about the age of four. I was born in Stawell in Victoria’s Wimmera and my family used to travel by car to Melbourne. I’ve...
Read MoreSumner Locke Elliott’s portrait of Kings Cross and Sydney’s class divides is a classic worth revisiting. My mother was a wonderful snob. ‘You know Macleay...
Read MoreCeltic and Japanese cultures give visual and emotional charge to two recent fantasy novels. There is much richness and complexity on offer in fantasy writing, as well...
Read MoreRadio and television interviewers sometimes struggle to ask sensible questions of writers. ‘Where do your ideas come from?’ is an old stand-by to which most writers...
Read MoreÅsa Larsson The Black Path, Kathy Reichs Bones Are Forever, Karin Slaughter Criminal, Camilla Lackberg The Drowning, Tess Gerritson Last To Die, Anne Holt The Blind...
Read MoreThe strange case of Roger Casement. The ghost of Roger Casement is beating on the door. W B Yeats This a difficult book to review, but not because it’s boring or poorly...
Read MoreIn the latter part of the 19th century, after mass education greatly expanded the number of readers, the short story enjoyed a great vogue. In Britain, ‘literary’...
Read MoreThe search for Newtown’s Miss Havisham. There are several urban myths about Newtown’s famous reclusive spinster, Elizabeth (Eliza) Emily Donnithorne. The most...
Read MoreThe master of Discworld enters a new dimension. People who buy a new Terry Pratchett usually do so in the hope of finding themselves in the comfortable, funny and wise...
Read MoreThe first library I remember was the Footscray City Library. I was nine or ten and travelled there from Yarraville by tram. I imagine the trip cost a penny for a child....
Read MoreSusan Johnson’s new novel is both a woman’s search for love and a meditation on the senses. As Samuel Beckett reminds us, we are all born ‘astride of a grave’, so there...
Read MoreAlcoholism, neurosis, venereal disease … this fascinating compendium of writers’ lives contains plenty of cautionary tales. John Sutherland, an academic...
Read More
{ I'm with you Julia. And I extend that to the aggressively English accents (whatever they are) you hear on BBC radio. I feel I am... } – The Godfather: Peter Corris on accents, 25 Feb 18, 6:01 pm 
{ I thought it pretty common knowledge that anyone who pronounced 'aitch' as 'haitch' was of blue collar, Catholic background - as I'm now in my... } – The Godfather: Peter Corris on accents, 23 Feb 18, 1:41 pm 
{ I would add that any politician who feels the need to be accompanied at a television interview by a 'noddy', or even worse, two 'noddies'... } – The Godfather: Peter Corris on disqualifications, 16 Feb 18, 1:53 pm 
{ Agree wholeheartedly - especially point #3 } – The Godfather: Peter Corris on disqualifications, 16 Feb 18, 11:01 am { What did you think of the TV series of "Bosch", Peter? I found the first episodes difficult - as the splendidly named actor playing Harry... } – The Godfather: Peter Corris on retrospectives, 09 Feb 18, 8:44 pm