by NRB | 27 Feb 2018 | Non-fiction |
There It Is Again is an anthology of Don Watson’s sharp-eyed observations on political and social issues in the 21st century. While Australia is the prime focus, the first of these 47 essays, ‘Rabbit Syndrome’ is devoted to American politics, and the United...
by NRB | 19 Jan 2018 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
For the first time in my life I have been threatened with a fine for not voting in an election. This has caused me a little shame. I had to wait until I was 21 to vote (the voting age was not lowered to 18 until 1974), but ever since I’ve voted enthusiastically in...
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 | 28 Jul 2017 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
How many newspaper headlines can you remember? For obvious reasons I remember ‘FRED DIES’ emblazoned on a Sydney tabloid when Professor Fred Hollows died, and no one can forget the nefarious London Sun’s headline ‘GOTCHA’, celebrating the sinking of an Argentinian...
by NRB | 25 Nov 2016 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
I’ve met three prime ministers: one serving and two ex. I nearly met another one and I’ve also met a couldabeen – probably a shouldabeen. The first was Gough Whitlam when he launched a 1978 edition of Frank Hardy’s The Unlucky Australians to which he had contributed...
by NRB | 15 Mar 2016 | Non-fiction |
Part polemic, part memoir, Stan Grant’s new book is a passionate account of the toll of a lifetime of negotiating between two cultures. The contradictions of being black in Australia, shown so vividly in this book, are there right from the beginning, in the...
by NRB | 8 May 2015 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
‘It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.’ Lyndon B Johnson on J Edgar Hoover Most authorities agree that the greatest of all political insults in the English language came from the 18th-century radical John...
by NRB | 6 Sep 2013 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
The first Federal election I remember was in 1960. It was the one Robert Menzies won by one seat – the ‘Killen, you are magnificent’ election.* I couldn’t vote, being only 18 (the voting age for Federal elections was not lowered from 21 to 18 until 1973) but my...