by NRB | 24 Nov 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
I’ve written about meeting (and almost meeting) Australian prime ministers, and it occurred to me to make a list of notable people I’ve met in other walks of life. This isn’t to big-note myself but just an exercise of Socrates’s axiom that the unexamined life is not...
by NRB | 17 Nov 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
We have 149 CDs on our shelves (I culled quite a few when we left Newtown for Earlwood; those that I’d tired of or that had become damaged). They are organised thus: 56 male vocal; 23 female vocal; 39 groups; 17 compilations; 14 classical. The male vocal section is...
by NRB | 10 Nov 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
Some time ago I wrote a column called ‘The Umbrellas of Newtown’, hoping people would get the reference, although the film (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) was back quite a way. I wrote about the variability of the spring season – how a day could change suddenly from a...
by NRB | 3 Nov 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
I’ve written before about my admiration for Somerset Maugham’s short stories and how, after selling off my entire library when I could no longer read print, the only three volumes I kept were the set of Maugham’s stories. I was in the habit of reading a couple of my...
by NRB | 27 Oct 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
Eventually the endless media discussion about power prices got to me and, in an idle moment, I fell to counting up the number of sources of electricity and appliances in our relatively spacious one-bedroom flat which is, mercifully, fairly easy to heat and cool. Here...
by NRB | 20 Oct 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
This may seem to be an unusual heading given my stated political leanings and the observable political facts, but bear with me. It’s based on a single premise, which will become clear. Turnbull, although he claims to have been raised in somewhat straitened...
by NRB | 13 Oct 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
I was recently honoured by the Australian Crime Writers Association with an award commending me for my long career as a writer in the genre. Michael Robotham, himself deservedly a past winner of Best Fiction awards*, spoke of my work in a way that touched me deeply....
by NRB | 6 Oct 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
Do popular writers in particular, but other writers in general, compete with each other? This thought was prompted by a quote from historical novelist Bernard Cornwell, which I’ll return to. Did Georgette Heyer compete with Baroness Orczy for top spot in the Regency...
by NRB | 29 Sep 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
My maternal grandfather Robert Kennedy was a Scot hailing from the north of the country, possibly from a fishing community. Somehow he managed to get training as a chef. A story in the family mentioned Europe – Belgium – but there are no details. Some time before...
by NRB | 22 Sep 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
Quirks, I suppose we all have them. A friend insists that the toilet paper roll be positioned so that the paper comes down from behind the roll rather than the front. To continue in that vein, I knew someone who, physically and psychologically, could not defecate in...
by NRB | 15 Sep 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
I’ve written on this subject before but something I heard on radio and a recent experience of mine have brought it back to my attention and prompted some historical reflections. When you come to think of it, the process of Americanisation started very early. When the...
by NRB | 8 Sep 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
I finished 44th out of 114 players in my AFL tipping competition. A mediocre result and well below my personal best. The winner of the competition averaged slightly under six correct tips per round, well down on previous winning scores. It was an unusual season, with...
NRB readers’ favourite reviews of 202419 December 2024Welcome to our most popular reviews of the year. Is your favourite among them? [ … ]
RONNI SALT Gunnawah. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm17 December 2024Ronni Salt’s debut is historical crime fiction at its best, with a strong [ … ]
TIMOTHY SNYDER On Freedom. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck12 December 2024Historian Timothy Snyder asserts that freedom is something we must work for – [ … ]
SUE PRIDEAUX Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin. Reviewed by Ann Skea11 December 2024Sue Prideaux separates the man from the myth in this new account of the [ … ]