Gerald Murnane

In the mid-1980s, Paul Carter and I used to meet and talk from time to time. On a hot day just before the Ash Wednesday fires, I mentioned to Paul that I was becoming disappointed with the book of fiction that I was then writing. Paul said much in reply to this, but all I remembered afterwards was his opening sentence: ‘The only material any writer has is his thoughts and feelings.’ What Paul ... (read more)

As I write these words, I have just read the first forty-five pages of Murray Bail’s novel. Those pages are mostly about the Shadbolt family of Adelaide. I spent twenty-four hours in Adelaide during February 1986. 1 had never been there before, but instead of looking around the city I kept mostly to my room in the Grosvenor Hotel. I had only once before occupied a hotel room, and I found much t ... (read more)