Vashti Farrer

Sophie Masson’s first novel deals with the probing of emotional wounds. It alternates from present to past as a journalist goes back to her village to write a story on a Family Court tragedy about people with whom her past is inexorably entangled. Set in northern New South Wales and Sydney, it examines the slow death of the rainforest areas and their rebirth as alternative lifestyle habitats for ... (read more)

Feminism is one of the great, enduring intellectual movements of the twentieth century. This collection of essays, mainly by academics, examines how that movement has advanced to date and where it appears to be headed. Australian women have been attending international conferences on feminism since the 1890s when their high international profile was at odds with their lack of parliamentary repres ... (read more)

Harley Morrison has never had much luck with women. His mother, a specialist in family law, abandoned him at a tender age and then when he began following her around, at the height of the bomb threats to Family Law Court judges, she called him a little sneak and threatened to sue his father. Now his wife is having an affair with his business partner and he feels a failure, but all that is about t ... (read more)

Comedy and violence co-exist happily in this delightful first novel about a group of weekend bird watchers who themselves become the objects of scrutiny. Written in the form of bird Watchers’ journals, the characters are introduced individually, their distinctive features listed as if they too are birds. Their colourful plumage, raucous behaviour, underlying tendencies towards violence, their a ... (read more)