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Christopher Bantick

Christopher Bantick is a Melbourne-based writer.

Christopher Bantick reviews ‘Thylacine: The tragic tale of the Tasmanian tiger’ by David Owen and ‘The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The history and the extinction of the thylacine’ by Robert Paddle

August 2003, no. 253 01 August 2003
The Tasmanian Tiger or thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) continues to stalk the Tasmanian imagination. Miasmas resembling it figure in reports from tourists and bushwalkers, who happen upon the slinking apparition in the wilderness. Fanciful meanderings of wishful hearts and minds? Perhaps. Tantalising suspicions that the thylacine may still exist will not go away. No matter that the last thylac ... (read more)

Christopher Bantick reviews ‘More Than a Game: The real story of the Australian Rules Football’ edited by Rob Hess and Bob Stewart

October 2004, no. 265 01 October 2004
In his spirited foreword, well-known football writer Martin Flanagan notes that ‘More Than a Game is in the best traditions of Australian football writing. It is unauthorised, a necessary virtue given the blurring of the Australian media with the corporate interests behind football.’ Flanagan also knows that writing about football in Australia has become a dignified and scholarly pursuit. Stil ... (read more)

Christopher Bantick reviews 'The Colour of Walls' by Janet Kelly

April 2004, no. 260 01 April 2004
In her searing novel, The Colour of Walls, Janet Kelly writes about child abuse and incest with clarity and understanding. The subject matter alone is disturbing, and the sense of cyclical hopelessness is both enduring and arresting. Still, Kelly brings us to a faintly optimistic resolution. This somewhat redeems an otherwise bleakly realistic story. The narrative begins with a deceptive lyricism ... (read more)