Wakefield Press

Gallienus by John Bray & A Portrait of John Bray edited by Wilfred Prest

September 1997, no. 194

Alex Castles reviews 'Gallienus: A study in reformist and sexual politics' by John Bray and 'A Portrait of John Bray: Law, letters, life' by Wilfred Prest (ed.)

Gallienus is hardly the best known Roman Emperor. The records of his reign from 235 to 268 are so fragmentary that even the date of his assassination can only be approximated as taking place during a six-month period.

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Guilt Edge

by J.R. Carroll •

September 1992, no. 144

The remarkable Peter Corris has done it again, producing his third book this year, with probably a couple still to come. I say remarkable because, with the occasional lapse, he manages to maintain a high standard of entertainment despite being prolific. No real writer, of course, would countenance publishing one book a year, let alone four or five, but fortunately for crime buffs this is not a problem for Mr Carris, who, one suspects, would happily produce a book every month if the publishers let him.

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Bleak Rooms by Peter Goldsworthy

by Susan Lever •

May 1988, no. 100

Susan Lever reviews 'Bleak Rooms' by Peter Goldsworthy

Peter Goldsworthy uses the short story to examine and question elements of the kind of life he leads. There is an attractive lack of pretence in his kind of story; Goldsworthy sketches social situations clearly and succinctly so that he can move on to probe the weaknesses in his characters’ otherwise complacent lives. As the back cover tells us, and the stories reveal, Goldsworthy is a medical practitioner in Adelaide and his fiction is in a tradition which begins with social experience and reflection on it.

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Unsettled Areas: Recent South Australian short fiction edited by Andrew Taylor

by Sandra Moore •

February–March 1986, no. 78

Sandra Moore reviews 'Unsettled Areas: Recent South Australian short fiction' edited by Andrew Taylor

A reviewer is bound to behave as a different kind of reader from others, especially when dealing with a mixed collection like Unsettled Areas. Other readers can pick and choose, skip the duller bits, and take as long as they like, whereas I’ve read closely every story, at least twice, in the space of two days. Then I’ve let them settle into my imagination for another day or so to see what impressions have lasted, before taking another look. I looked especially hard at the ones I found unsatisfactory, in case my mind had changed. I’ll leave these until later.

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The Orange Tree: South Australian poetry to the present day edited by K.F. Pearson and Christine Churches

by Barbara Giles •

February–March 1986, no. 78

Barbara Giles reviews 'The Orange Tree: South Australian poetry to the present day' edited by K.F. Pearson and Christine Churches

Anthologists face more than one dilemma of choice, beside that of personal preference. Is it better to show more of fewer poets, and give a true picture of their qualities and scope, to range widely across the landscape of the art, or reach a compromise between these methods? There are excellent anthologies in each genre.

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