PETER BEILHARZ and SIAN SUPSKI (eds) The Work of History: Writing for Stuart Macintyre. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
These essays are a tribute to one of Australia’s most significant historians, Stuart Macintyre. Stuart Forbes Macintyre has the distinction of being Australia’s leading historian of the last half century. Born in Melbourne in April 1947, educated at Scotch...
DENNIS ALTMAN God Save the Queen: The strange persistence of monarchies. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
Dennis Altman’s new book isn’t a hatchet job on the Queen but a captivating and reasoned analysis of monarchical systems around the world. Distinguished professorial fellow Dennis Altman is quick to declare his republican sympathies in his introduction, describing...
DBC PIERRE Big Snake Little Snake: An inquiry into risk. Reviewed by Ann Skea
The Booker-winning author of Vernon God Little turns his attention to philosophy, mathematics, and the nature of cause and effect. DBC Pierre was in Trinidad to make a short commercial film with a parrot. Living in a house on a hill, beside which ‘someone had thought...
NATHAN HOBBY The Red Witch: A biography of Katharine Susannah Prichard. Reviewed by Kathy Gollan
Nathan Hobby explores the life of one of Australia’s most controversial writers. Katharine Susannah Prichard’s novel Coonardoo is her best-known and most accomplished work. Published in 1929, and serialised in the Bulletin, it’s a tragedy about sexual longing...
DAVID McRANEY How Minds Change. Reviewed by Ann Skea
David McRaney explores how to convince people to change their views. The blurb on the back of this book states: ‘Our most deeply held opinions and beliefs can change – here’s how.’ It turns out that for some of the people whose stories science journalist David McRaney...
MATTHEW RICKETSON and PATRICK MULLINS Who Needs the ABC? Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Matthew Ricketson and Patrick Mullins make the case for Australia’s public broadcaster. If the title of Matthew Ricketson and Patrick Mullins’s book is a question, the subtitle – ‘Why taking it for granted is no longer an option’ – implies the answer: everyone....
MARK WORMALD The Catch: Fishing for Ted Hughes. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Mark Wormald follows Ted Hughes through rivers and streams to provide insights into his life, his poetry – and fishing. Mark Wormald is a scholar, a poet and a fisherman. In 2012, he made his way to the British Library to begin some research on the work of the poet...
BARRY NICHOLLS The Establishment Boys: The other side of Kerry Packer’s cricket revolution. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
An important book about the Australian Test team during the tumultuous years of World Series Cricket from the author of Second Innings. The major split in Australian cricket occurred 45 years ago when overtures were made to leading players to join media magnate Kerry...
GREGORY DAY Words are Eagles. Reviewed by Paul Anderson
Gregory Day’s writing is inextricably bound with the landscape in this collection. Words are Eagles is a tonic selection of Gregory Day’s various non-fiction published in Australian journals, magazines and newspapers over recent years (roughly the period 2015 to...
DEIRDRE O’CONNELL Harlem Nights: The Secret History of Australia’s Jazz Age. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Deidre O’Connell recounts how an American jazz band caused panic in White Australia. In the latter part of the 1920s, the JC Williamson Company was on the lookout for American talent to attract patrons to vaudeville shows at their Tivoli Theatres. One of the...
TRENT DALTON Love Stories. Reviewed by Suzanne Marks
The bestselling novelist brings together real-life love stories in this collection. How this book came together is as intrinsic to its existence as the 150 love stories it contains. It opens with Dalton’s letter to his friend Kathleen Kelly, who has ‘bowed out to...
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