BIFF WARD In My Mother’s Hands: A disturbing memoir of family life. Reviewed by Kylie Mason
A family haunted by a tragic death and terrorised by a disease they couldn’t name. Families are as defined by their secrets as they are by their blood ties. The secrets Biff (Elizabeth) Ward’s family kept united them, tormented them and ultimately divided them. Biff...
MORRISSEY Autobiography. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Morrissey presents his case with palpable bitterness in a book that offers validation in the end. Bitterness and revenge inform this eponymous autobiography, or at least large chunks of it. Morrissey disses his bandmates, his record label, the press and the judges of...
SHERI FINK Five Days at Memorial: Life and death in a storm-ravaged hospital. Reviewed by Sonia Nair
This book examines human behaviour and moral choices in a hospital fighting for its patients’ lives and its own in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It was like a knife, death. Always waiting to cut. The medical profession is predicated upon saving lives and...
CLARE WRIGHT The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka. Reviewed by Annette Hughes
This book restores women’s place in an iconic period of Australian history in a tale of grit, suffering and determination. On the cover of the hardback of Clare Wright’s Stella-Prize-winning history is a fragment of the Eureka flag. Tattered and yellowed...
BOEL WESTIN Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words: The authorised biography. Reviewed by Michelle McLaren
The Moomin cartoons were a worldwide phenomenon in the 1950s. Their fascinating artist creator has inspired this detailed, loving biography. Towards the end of her biography of Finnish cartoonist Tove Jansson, writer Boel Westin describes a ‘flowering dream landscape’...
ELIZABETH KOLBERT The Sixth Extinction: An unnatural history. Reviewed by Bec Crew
This book details what may be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. There is nothing more terrifying than the irreversible. Whether it’s an old family photo lost in a move, the death of a loved one, or the trust...
BEN MACINTYRE A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the great betrayal. Reviewed by Peter Corris
The English class system helped Cold War spy Kim Philby, who used his friendships with other agents to thwart their operations. Back when I was working at the National Times, I had the good fortune to meet two men – David Leitch and Phillip Knightley – who’d written...
GABRIELLE CAREY Moving Among Strangers: Randolph Stow and my family. Reviewed by Lou Murphy
Gabrielle Carey searches for clues to the life of Randolph Stow in this treasure hunt of family memoir and literary history. In her determination to ‘know’ Julian Randolph Stow – ‘Mick’ to his family and friends – Carey journeys through both...
MARION MADDOX Taking God to School: The end of Australia’s egalitarian education? Reviewed by Yvonne Perkins
Should religion be part of children’s education? And what kinds of religion are being taught in schools? Marion Maddox makes her case for a more secular system. Australians have never been satisfied with the way religion has been handled in education, but we have...
DAVID ASTLE Puzzled: Secrets and clues from a life lost in words. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
‘Fantastic nude profile plastered in central Tassie’: (13 letters)* – if you don’t know where to start, or even if you do, this is the book for you. David Astle – better known perhaps as the Sydney Morning Herald’s cryptic crossword devil-incarnate ‘DA’ – has been...
ROBERT WAINWRIGHT Sheila: The Australian beauty who bewitched British society. Reviewed by Kylie Mason
More social history than biography, this fascinating book brings to life the glamorous years between the world wars. Born in 1895 on a property near Goulburn, New South Wales, Sheila Chisholm spent her childhood like most other Australians: cavorting outdoors, getting...
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