RICHARD GILL Give Me Excess of It. Reviewed by Tony Bremner
This memoir is a passionate account of a conductor’s lifetime enthusiasm for music. Give Me Excess of It is an immensely enjoyable book. Richard Gill and I are much of an age, both NSW Conservatorium students (though we never met there), and so many of his...MINKY WORDEN (ed.) The Unfinished Revolution: Voices from the Global Fight for Women’s Rights. Reviewed by Sophie Read-Hamilton
According to Germaine Greer, the revolution for women’s equality hasn’t even begun. Whether you agree with Greer or not, The Unfinished Revolution: Voices from the Global Fight for Women’s Rights makes it abundantly clear that the revolution is nowhere near...LUCY NEVILLE Oh Mexico: Love and Adventure in Mexico City. Reviewed by Suzanne Rath
In this memoir, Lucy Neville finds love in a city of kidnappers. Mexico City has a population of almost nine million people and boasts the second highest rate of kidnappings in the world. On the other hand, Blackheath, a sleepy town in the Blue Mountains of New South...GERARD WHATELEY Black Caviar: The Horse of a Lifetime. Reviewed by Candida Baker
The champion who won our hearts – and every race she entered. Black Caviar. Even the name is special, isn’t it? It rolls around your tongue, like caviar itself – rich, exotic, luxurious. It reminds me of a vodka and caviar bar that was once all the...PETER ACKROYD Tudors: The History of England Volume II. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
The Tudors are endlessly fascinating. This new history examines the effects of one small family on a nation’s identity. Tudors, Volume II in Peter Ackroyd’s planned six-part history of England, has a different tone from that of Volume I, Foundation. In both...DAVID MARR Political Animal: the Making of Tony Abbott (Quarterly Essay 47). Reviewed by Linda Funnell
He’s anti-abortion and his career owes a debt to Alan Jones. Does Tony Abbott have a problem with women? There’s an unsettling recent tradition of the political subjects of Quarterly Essays meeting with ill fortune. Think of Annabel Crabb’s profile of then-Opposition...NELLIE BENNETT Only in Spain: In Search of My Heart’s Desire. Reviewed by Jody Lee
This warm-hearted memoir of an Aussie girl learning flamenco in Spain may inspire you to run away with the gypsies … or at least a handsome Basque chef. How many times has that little voice sounded in your head, suggesting that you ‘just do it’? Nellie Bennett...EVELYN JUERS The Recluse. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
The search for Newtown’s Miss Havisham. There are several urban myths about Newtown’s famous reclusive spinster, Elizabeth (Eliza) Emily Donnithorne. The most persistent, and attractive, is that she was one of the models for Miss Havisham in Great...JOHN SUTHERLAND Lives of the Novelists: a history of fiction in 294 lives. Reviewed by Peter Corris
Alcoholism, neurosis, venereal disease … this fascinating compendium of writers’ lives contains plenty of cautionary tales. John Sutherland, an academic himself, seems to have set out to annoy his colleagues. Not for him an analysis of the text with the...FRANCESCA RENDLE-SHORT Bite Your Tongue. Reviewed by Annette Hughes
This fictonalised memoir is a book of revelations. Two little girls, sisters, dare each other to touch tongues. I’ve done it, but always thought we were the only ones! The description of the act recalls vividly the singular weirdness of the Tongue Touch – the...ABIGAIL SOLOMON-GODEAU Rosemary Laing. Reviewed by Annette Hughes
The art and times of Rosemary Laing. I’m looking at a 100-year-old black and white photograph of a man riding a bicycle. It is on the cover of a biography of Alfred Jarry, author of Ubu Roi and one of the bright young literary lights of the turn-of-the-century...
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