Revelations ebb and flow in Ann Patchett’s new novel. Ideally, a family exists for the common good of its members. In this engrossing novel, the principal two families are fractured so that the members, in particular the children, no longer...
I went to the RTA Centre in Marrickville to renew the photo ID card issued to non-drivers and accepted by all and sundry. The very pleasant female clerk asked whether I wanted it to extend for five or 10 years. My first impulse was to opt for...
This is an outstanding biography of Australian lithium pioneer John Cade, whose life merits major recognition. Let’s start with a statistic. The year 1948 marked a peak for deaths in Melbourne asylums, 183 at the Royal Park Mental Hospital alone,...
The Foundation is the first book in a fun and gripping thriller series featuring a tough and resourceful Australian journalist. We first meet Jack Emery in The Foundation as he wakes from a drunken slumber, late for his morning meeting at his...
I’ve written before about being permitted to become a grumpy old man, and now I claim the right to complain about certain household items that annoy me. In no particular order they are: * CD cases. I have many that have stood the test of...
This new biography of Brett Whiteley is completely compelling. Brett and I were close. Geographically. He lived just around the corner in Raper Street, Surry Hills. I would often see that compact, woolly-haired, tightly-wound man barrelling down...
