by NRB | 4 Aug 2022 | Non-fiction |
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...
by NRB | 23 Apr 2020 | Non-fiction |
Derek Rielly’s biography of actor David Gulpilil is a moving testament to a man who has left a unique imprint on Australia’s cultural life for the last half-century. It might seem appropriate that this book should have a subtitle along the lines of ‘the man and his...
by NRB | 19 Jun 2018 | Non-fiction |
The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, the new biography of Australia’s second, fifth and seventh Prime Minister, is a magnificent sweep of a book that demanded to be written. Deakin has been the subject of previous biographies and author Judith Brett quickly establishes her points...
by NRB | 31 Oct 2017 | Non-fiction |
A rivetingly flawed biography of one of the most talented Australian Rules footballers to ever pull on a boot. Let’s begin with the flaws. This is a book with 55 chapters and books with so many chapters usually see me casting them aside – they’re just too bitty. It...
by NRB | 29 Jun 2017 | Non-fiction |
Joyce Morgan’s version of Martin Sharp presents an important portrait of the man and his times. The cultural volatility of the 1960s demanded new ways to express its clashing ideals and philosophies. Late Sydney artist Martin Sharp was one of the key contributors to...
by NRB | 29 Nov 2016 | Non-fiction |
Arnott reveals the literary growth of an important Australian artist, bringing to life a complex, contradictory human being. Georgina Arnott was surprised to realise that existing biographies, autobiographical works and critical studies of Judith Wright merely skimmed...
by NRB | 24 Nov 2016 | Non-fiction |
This biography is a valuable and engrossing contribution to Irish-Australian history. ‘Archbishop Mannix used to live there,’ my Presbyterian grandmother said as we passed the stately mansion Raheen on Studley Park Road. It was the mid-1970s and the Catholic...
by NRB | 15 Sep 2016 | Non-fiction |
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, and John Cade kept a...
by NRB | 8 Sep 2016 | Non-fiction |
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 Crown Street. We never...
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 [ … ]