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Archive

Canto of Slipping at Night

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June 2007, no. 292
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dream aboriginal family at buckingham palace

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March 2010, no. 319
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Wreck at Coogee Beach (1905–)

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July-August 2009, no. 313
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The Observatory: Selected poems by Dimitris Tsaloumas, translated by Philip Grundy

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October 1983, no. 55
Philip Martin reviews 'The Observatory: Selected poems' by Dimitris Tsaloumas, translated by Philip Grundy

Migrant writing in this country isn’t just burgeoning, it has begun to flourish. The writing itself and the study of it begin to look like a ‘growth industry’. What I know of it is varied both in kind and quality, but I’ve no doubt at all that the poetry of Dimitris Tsaloumas is an important achievement by any standard.

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A good innings on a sticky wicket

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October 1983, no. 55

Looking back over what I guess is my literary life (so hard to distinguish from the other that it’s a bit like leaving a forest and, in a clearing, trying to pick out the path among the trees!). I suppose I could lay claim to being one of the least disappointed or frustrated writers around the place. In part, this may be a tribute to my limited expectations which were nothing if not a reflection of a 1930s childhood when, if it was working-class and semi-itinerant, the philosophy one imbibed was not to ask too much. My brother who with my mother was the essential fountain from which I drew that sustenance which comes in the guise of folk wisdom, was fond of saying: ‘They (meaning whoever the authority-figure was) never put the roof on my lavatory!’ The sacred places were sacralised by a sense of independence which, now I come to think of it, depended upon what seems to me a very traditional Australian view not to expect too much whose lugubrious extreme is summed up in the national beatitude: Blessed is the pessimist, for he shall not be disappointed …

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Law, Capitalism and Democracy: A sociology of Australian legal order by Pat O'Malley

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October 1983, no. 55

A few years ago my publisher suggested that I write a book on sociology of law in Australia. My reply was that there existed far too little research to adequately deal with the topic. I therefore approached O’Malley’s book with a little bit of jealousy. He has written a book I would have liked to have written.

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The Origins of Political Surveillance in Australia by Frank Cain

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September 1983, no. 54
Alex Sheppard reviews 'The Origins of Political Surveillance in Australia' by Frank Cain

This is such a good book, written in the best military fashion, with all points assembled in proper order but written with the wit and irony usually missing from military historians, that it is a pity it is not better designed. The title page really lacks finesse. But the illustrations and notes are very well-chosen and easy on the eye. It deals equally with civilian surveillance as with military surveillance over, and the reduction of, the rights of others.

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Self-portraits

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September 1983, no. 54

So, my lad, you’ve got yourself born. It happens to all of us, and say what they will, those Deep-South Born-Again Americans, it is a-once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. One birth, one life, one death. You are fortunate; you have a good, a very good pair of parents, you have a strong body, and a questing mind. I had the same, a firm base from which to start out. I had ...

Publishing or perishing

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June 1983, no. 51

Over the last few years Australia has undergone a nationalistic cultural renaissance. Just as manufacturers have discovered that the addition of the Advance Australia logo has added a healthy percentage to retail sales, so too the ‘manufacturers’ of popular culture have discovered a more receptive home market, which has helped them weather the recession better than other industries.

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Truth Will Out: ASIO and the Petrovs by Michael Thwaites

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June 1980, no. 21
John Stubbs reviews 'Truth Will Out: ASIO and the Petrovs' by Michael Thwaites

When I was in London working on a book that Nicholas Whitlam and I wrote on the Petrov Affair, I became friendly with Dr Michael Bialagouski. Bialagouski and I went out several times with our wives to places selected by Michael; a gambling club that had once been run by George Raft, a Chinese restaurant that had a reputation in intelligence circles, that sort of thing.

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