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Ah, the sound of bat on willow. A gin and tonic and feet up in front of the box to watch the Australian test team feted – not for having two senior members as cheats – but for being dinky-di, true blue arrogant millionaires. Me and cricket go back a long way. To the Chappells,…

Shock horror! According to the media, a new author created fake accounts on Goodreads and published one-star reviews of her fellow first-time novelists. Cait Corrain targeted writers who were also signed to her publisher, Del Rey Books, a sci-fi–fantasy imprint of Penguin Random House and used the fake accounts to praise her book, Crown of Starlight,…

This is censorship from people who should know better. The only way to treat bullies is to not buy their products. Hit them where it hurts most, the hip pocket. Prominent Australian artist Mike Parr has had his contract with Anna Schwartz Gallery terminated over a performance work that referenced the Israel-Gaza War. The 78-year-old…

https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-shocking-number-of-australian-men-sexually-attracted-to-children-and-teens-20231117-p5ekum.html This story caught my attention because it’s a classic example of how agenda setting works and how journalism has sunk to the lowest common denominator. In this case it’s the ‘all men are rapists’ meme. “Disturbing research into the extent of child sexual abuse has found almost one in six Australian men have sexual…

Wifedom by Anna Funder was an interesting read and it made me realise the years I studied history at university was all bullshit. Funder uses six letters by George Orwell’s first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, to write a 420 page biography and drip, drip, drip acid on his reputation. Funder claims she’s a fan of Orwell’s….

Before you enrol in an expensive and entirely inappropriate creative writing course, read Sonia Henry’s “Put your feet in the dirt, Girl’. It’s a memoir and not fiction but that doesn’t matter. If you can’t write as well as that, give it away. Her book has forward drive, characterisation through action, excellent dialogue, exceptional scene…

I watched with interest as Leigh Sales delivered the Andrew Olle Media Lecture. When Adam wore short pants to school, I used to be a journalist writing for AAP and AdNews. Note the first 15 or so paragraphs are given over to her accidently parking in Ita Buttrose’s car park at the ABC. It’s a classic…

Jacqueline Maley of the Sydney Morning Age published a story recently which flagged, much like News Corporation flags a sensationalist headline, that we (you and me) should force boys to read women authors. How exactly are you going to ‘force’ them? Hold a plate of Brussel Sprouts to their head? Men read far fewer books…

Let’s cut to the chase. Most literary fiction teachers have sold bugger-all books. They’re not in Premier League. They’re Leigh RMI or Farnsborough, languishing at the bottom of Third division. And you want these people to help you write a novel? Get real. In Australia, the only top shelf writing teacher is JM Coetzee at…

OK. I admit when I picked this book up and I saw she had completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Melbourne Uni and then sat at the feet of a literary parasite of yesteryear to polish the manuscript, I was going to King hit it. Turgid trash. Bum wipe, etc. Then I read the…