by NRB | 23 Nov 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
Back when my series characters Ray Crawley, Luke Dunlop and Richard Browning were losing favour with readers and publishers, a few people suggested I should have published the books under pseudonyms. It was well-meaning advice but it wouldn’t have worked. Pseudonyms...
by NRB | 16 Nov 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
I’ve been translated into six languages, seven if you count American* – French, German, Swedish, Japanese, Russian and Serbian. This is the kind of information some writers and publishers put on their websites. It sounds impressive in this globalised age, but is it?...
by NRB | 9 Nov 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
Memory is a fragile thing. If anyone had asked, ‘Did you and Jean Bedford ever write to Al Grassby, Minister for Immigration in the Whitlam government, in protest against a move to prevent the Rolling Stones from touring Australia?’ I would have denied it. But I’d...
by NRB | 2 Nov 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
Getting titles right is important. I remember a stand-up comic speculating on how novels with titles like Mister Zhivago or The Sun also Sets would have fared. How about Lucky James? The working title I had for the first Cliff Hardy book was so bad it could have...
by NRB | 26 Oct 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
Like many, perhaps most, scribblers who’ve been at it a long time, I have written books that will never be published. Generally speaking, this is a good thing for the writer and readers. Nothing of Hemingway’s published posthumously enhanced his reputation and the...
by NRB | 19 Oct 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
I’m often asked why more Cliff Hardy novels haven’t been filmed or made for television. Good question, but it’s a long story. The idea of a Hardy film came up quite early when only three of the books had been published. Director Stephen Wallace responded to my agent...
by NRB | 12 Oct 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
In 1958, when I was sixteen, I was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus. In those days methods of injecting insulin and monitoring blood sugar levels were much cruder than they are now and maintaining good metabolic control was difficult. That I did so for the next few...
by NRB | 5 Oct 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
In Sydney I’ve only ever lived in the inner-west, but it took me a while to find my way to Newtown. I had short stints in Redfern and Balmain in 1970 before going overseas, returning to Canberra, surviving two years in Victoria and then heading to Sydney. In late 1975...
by NRB | 28 Sep 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
Dedicating books is one of the few ways an impecunious writer can do something nice for people. Publishing around 80 books has given me ample opportunity to acknowledge family, friends, helpers and people I’ve admired. Not that every book of mine has a dedication;...
by NRB | 21 Sep 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
Patrick White worried about his drinking. He told biographer David Marr there were times when he drank half a bottle of spirits a day and wine as well. He consulted doctors, almost hoping, Marr suggests, for a diagnosis of alcoholism, which would relieve him of...
by NRB | 14 Sep 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
I came to book reviewing in a bizarre way. In 1975 I was teaching at a CAE in Gippsland, Victoria, and hating it, when I read a newspaper review by Olaf Ruhen of a book on Pacific history. I was affronted. I’ve forgotten the book’s title, but I thought the review poor...
by NRB | 7 Sep 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
My medications and health support devices sit on top of the filing cabinet in my workroom. A Type 1 diabetic, I have two insulin injection pens and a glucometer to check my blood sugar three or more times a day. The glucometer uses strips contained in a small plastic...
JUNE WRIGHT Mother Paul series. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm6 December 2024June Wright has faded from view, but in 1948 her novel Murder in the Telephone [ … ]
ANDREW O’HAGAN Caledonian Road. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey5 December 2024This new novel from the author of Mayflies is set in London, but Glasgow is [ … ]
IAIN RYAN The Dream. Reviewed by Ben Ford Smith3 December 2024Iain Ryan’s latest novel continues his fascination with 1980s Queensland and [ … ]
MARINA YUSZCZUK Thirst. Reviewed by Ann Skea28 November 2024Argentinian writer Marina Yuszczuk puts her twist on the vampire novel in [ … ]