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Follow the sheep

An unflinching contribution to frontier history
by
October 2023, no. 458

Killing for Country: A family story by David Marr

Black Inc., $39.99 pb, 432 pp

Follow the sheep

An unflinching contribution to frontier history
by
October 2023, no. 458

Forty-three years ago, David Marr – journalist, broadcaster, biographer, political commentator, and public intellectual – published his first book, a sharp, memorable biography of Garfield Barwick, former Liberal attorney-general and chief justice of the High Court. After the appearance of Patrick White: A life in 1991, long considered one of the best biographies ever written in Australia, he might well have followed the more predictable path of the serial biographer. But Marr’s trajectory has proved to be anything but predictable.

As with the best writers, his work has always been driven by a restless curiosity and a readiness to go anywhere in pursuit of a story. As he explained in the introduction to My Country (2018), his collection of essays, articles, and speeches: ‘[Australia] is the subject that interests me most, and I have spent my career trying to untangle its mysteries.’ Over the past four decades, those mysteries have included political censorship (The Henson Case, 2008); the politics of race (Dark Victory, with Marian Wilkinson, 2003); the failures of clerical authority (The Prince: Faith, abuse and George Pell, 2014); and the lives of political leaders: Quarterly Essays on John Howard (2007), Kevin Rudd (2010), Tony Abbott (2012), Bill Shorten (2015), and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (2017).

Mr. David MarrDavid Marr (Lorrie Graham via Black Inc.)

 

Even with this impressive array of publications, few would have expected frontier history to be Marr’s next port of call. Yet, despite its radical departure in subject matter, Killing for Country: A family story is entirely consistent with Marr’s modus operandi. Remain focused. Track down every last detail. Compile, sift, and test the evidence. Write with razor-like clarity. Don’t waste a word. Know the law. Scrutinise the press. Closely examine the words and self-serving manoeuvrings of those in power. And follow the money – or, in this case, the sheep.

Killing for Country: A family story

Killing for Country: A family story

by David Marr

Black Inc., $39.99 pb, 432 pp

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Comments (2)

  • At the risk of being labelled an intellectual snob in these strange times, I must say it was a little jarring to read Marr cite Wikipedia as his first port of call for information about his family.

    Wikipedia is an unruly jungle overseen by nameless nobodies. The ease with which it is possible to publish something inaccurate by citing an unobtainable reference is extraordinary. The more obscure a page, the more unlikely a false edit will be allowed, as there will be a mere handful of editors watching or none at all.
    Posted by Patrick Hockey
    26 October 2023
  • In the July edition of the 'Literary Review', the novelist Sarah Dunant proposed that our 'fierce moral certainty' about the past was interfering with her capacity to publish non-sympathetic novels. What a bizarre idea. Surely it is only correct that the present looks upon the past with a degree of horror.
    Posted by Patrick Hockey
    16 October 2023

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