A TALE OF SURVIVAL – JUST FOR FUN
A TALE OF SURVIVAL – JUST FOR FUN LUNA PARK – The extraordinary story of the showmen, shysters and schemers who built Sydney’s famous park By Helen Pitt Allen & Unwin 2026 ISBN: 978 1 76106 511 8 RRP: $34.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson The Victorian age of industrial expansion left [...]
SURVIVING THE INVERTED WORLD OF POLITICAL REPRESSION
SURVIVING THE INVERTED WORLD OF POLITICAL REPRESSION AN UNLIKELY PRISONER – How an eternal optimist found hope in Myanmar’s most notorious jail By Sean Turnell Viking 2023 ISBN: 978 1 76134 292 9 RRP: $35 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson Literature over decades has left many records of the individual experiences of [...]
TIED TOGETHER IN WAR THEY FACED EACH OTHER
TIED TOGETHER IN WAR THEY FACED EACH OTHER THE LAST TITANS: CHURCHILL AND DE GAULLE by Richard Vinen Bloomsbury Publishing 2025 ISBN: 9781526668936 RRP: $44.99 (HB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson One was short and rotund with an infectious personality, the other was tall and statuesque with little public show of emotion. They [...]
HOW WRONG CAN AN AUTHOR BE? THE ERRORS ABOUND IN REMEIKIS’ BOOK ON HOWARD
HOW WRONG CAN AN AUTHOR BE? THE ERRORS ABOUND IN REMEIKIS’ BOOK ON HOWARD WHERE IT ALL WENT WRONG: The Case Against John Howard By Amy Remeikis Scribner Australia/Simon & Schuster, February 2026 ISBN: 9781761822117 RRP: $29.99 Reviewed by Gerard Henderson Question: Where did it all go wrong? Answer: At the very beginning. [...]
MYTH AND HISTORY – SEEKING THE END OF THE TZARS
MYTH AND HISTORY – SEEKING THE END OF THE TZARS RASPUTIN AND THE DOWNFALL OF THE ROMANOVS By Antony Beevor Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2026 ISBN- 978 1 3996 1762 8 RRP: $55 (HB) By Anne Henderson Increasingly stories and events of the past are being rewritten or revamped as the modern era [...]
TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HEROES OF STALIN’S TERROR
TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HEROES OF STALIN’S TERROR TO THE SUCCESS OF OUR HOPELESS CAUSE, THE MANY LIVES OF THE SOVIET DISSIDENT MOVEMENT by Benjamin Nathans Princeton University Press, 2024 ISBN: 9780691117034 RRP: $79.99 (HB), eBook AUD $27.99 Reviewed by Keith Harvey. To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives [...]
THE ROYAL COMMISSION, THE BISHOP, AND THE UNCHALLENGED EVIDENCE
THE ROYAL COMMISSION, THE BISHOP, AND THE UNCHALLENGED EVIDENCE THE ROSE AND THE FIRE: A BIOGRAPHY OF ALFRED AND JOY HOLLAND By Jonathan Holland Connor Court, 2025 ISBN: 9781923568198 RRP - $39.95 (pb) Reviewed by Michael Giffin In the Introduction to his deeply moving biography of his parents - Alfred and Joy [...]
THE SAS, THE COMMANDOS AND THE MAKING OF A VICTORIA CROSS
THE LAST BATTLE – AUSTRALIAN SAS, COMMANDOS AND OUR GREATEST VICTORY IN OUR LONGEST WAR By Aaron Patrick Pan Macmillan Australia 2025 ISBN: 9781761776533 RRP: $39.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson In 1966, a DeLuxe Colour film What did You do in the War Daddy? came out of Hollywood. It was a [...]
REVIEW OF TONY ABBOTT’S AUSTRALIA: A HISTORY
AUSTRALIA: A HISTORY By Tony Abbott HarperCollins 2025 ISBN: 9781460718995 RRP: $50 Reviewed by Gerard Henderson Without question, Tony Abbott, Australia’s 28th prime minister, is a great communicator. As a politician this was evident when leading the Liberal Party/Nationals Coalition to victory over the Kevin Rudd-led Labor Party government in September 2013 Abbott [...]
A WOMAN OF HER TIME AND BEYOND TIME
JOAN LINDSAY – THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE WOMAN WHO WROTE PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK By Brenda Niall Text Publishing Melbourne Australia 2025 ISBN: 9781923058019 RRP: $36.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson In these days of personal intrusion – on social media and much more - on the lives of the famous [...]
A MEDIA CREATED ARISTOCRACY
EMPIRE OF THE ELITE – INSIDE CONDÉ NAST, THE MEDIA DYNASTY THAT RESHAPED THE WORLD By Michael M Grynbaum Coronet (Hodder & Stoughton) 2025 ISBN: 9781399707220 RRP: $34.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson When the movie The Devil Wears Prada, featuring lead character Miranda Priestly as a fictional Anna Wintour, editor of [...]
A MODERN PILGRIMAGE SEEKING CLOSURE
UNSETTLED – A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME AND PLACE By Kate Grenville Black Inc 2025 ISBN: 9781760645649 RRP: $36.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson As Chaucer in his Prologue to The Canterbury Tales wrote, the coming of spring “longen folk to goon on pilgrimages”. The ancient notion of pilgrimage was a journey to [...]
DOES GOODNESS IN A POLITICIAN MATTER?
PAUL HASLUCK by Anne Henderson Reviewed by Geoffrey Lehmann What emerges from Anne Henderson’s masterly 85-page biographical monograph on Paul Hasluck is how principled he was – how essentially good. Hasluck must rate a high distinction for goodness. As I read Henderson’s short book, I could not stop rating Hasluck’s contemporaries. In [...]
“CONSCIOUS OF WRITING ABOUT PURE EVIL”
FLY, WILD SWANS by Jung Chang HarperCollins Publishers Australia - 2025 ISBN: 9780008661083; ISBN 10: 0008661081 RRP: $37.99 PB, E-book $19.99 “CONSCIOUS OF WRITING ABOUT PURE EVIL” Chinese-born writer Jung Chang is perhaps best known as the author of Wild Swans – Three daughters of China, first published in 1991, which has sold millions [...]
THE POWER OF RESILIENCE AND RESOLVE
THE POWER OF RESILIENCE AND RESOLVE A MEMOIR OF FREEDOM By Cheng Lei HarperCollins 2025 ISBN: 9781460766576 ; ISBN 10: 1460766571 RRP: $35.95 (PB) Reviewed by Keith Harvey Chinese-born Australian Cheng Lei’s memoir of her three years and two months spent in detention in China is a powerful tale of her arbitrary [...]
AGING AS HUMOUR – WITH A MESSAGE
AGING AS HUMOUR - WITH A MESSAGE CHALK AND CHEESE: A FABRICATION By Ross Fitzgerald & Ian McFadyen Hybrid, August 2025 ISBN: 9781922768469 RRP: $24.9 (PB) Reviewed by Eamonn O’Hanlon After suffering a stroke, veteran conservative commercial radio broadcaster Bill Bradley is admitted to an aged care facility, only to find that [...]
THE PARADOXES OF WAR
THE PARADOXES OF WAR THE CAUSES OF WAR (Fourth Edition) By Geoffrey Blainey, Scribner 2025 ISBN13: 9781761635236 RRP $49.99 (HB) Reviewed by Geoffrey Lehmann Geoffrey Blainey’s The Causes of War, was first published in 1973. Now in its fourth edition in 2025, it has been updated for the wars in Ukraine and [...]
WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS OF CHINESE COMMUNISM
WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS OF CHINESE COMMUNISM BOMBARD THE HEADQUARTERS! THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN CHINA By Linda Jaivin Black Inc Books, Old Street Publishing, 2025 ISBN: 9781760645601 RRP: $26.99 (PB) THE PARTY’S INTERESTS COME FIRST. THE LIFE OF XI ZHONGXUN, FATHER OF XI JINPING By Joseph Torigian, Stanford University Press, 2025 [...]
FATHER OF LAND REFORM – AN ECONOMIST’S ASSESSMENT
FATHER OF LAND REFORM – AN ECONOMIST’S ASSESSMENT JOHN ROBERTSON – LIBERAL OF THE PEOPLE Australian Biographical Monographs 25 By William O Coleman Connor Court 2025 ISBN- 9781923224612 RRP: $19.95 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson Knowledge of Australian history among the young is fading. Whether this is a failure of curricula or [...]
A WRITER, A PUZZLE AND A SEARCH
A WRITER, A PUZZLE AND A SEARCH LOOKING FOR ELIZABETH - THE LIFE OF ELIZABETH HARROWER By Helen Trinca La Trobe University 2025 ISBN: 9781760645755 RRP: $36.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson There were many conundrums in the life of Australian writer Elizabeth Harrower. She produced five novels, largely based on her Australian [...]
ROBERT MANNE: A POLITICAL MEMOIR – INTELLECTUAL COMBAT IN THE COLD WAR AND CULTURE WARS
ROBERT MANNE: A POLITICAL MEMOIR – INTELLECTUAL COMBAT IN THE COLD WAR AND CULTURE WARS By Robert Manne La Trobe University Press (in conjunction with Black Inc), 2025 ISBN: 9781760645069 RRP: $59.99 (hb) Reviewed by Gerard Henderson Former treasurer Peter Costello launched Frank Knopfelmacher: Selected Writings (Connor Court) in Melbourne last year. [...]
TALES OF TWO POLITICIANS: A FRACTION TOO MUCH FACTION?
TALES OF TWO POLITICIANS: A FRACTION TOO MUCH FACTION? RACE MATHEWS – A LIFE IN POLITICS by Iola Mathews Monash University Publishers 2024 ISBN: 9781922979810 RRP: $36.99 (pb) A LONG MARCH by Kim Carr Monash University Publishers 2024 ISBN: 9781922979872 RRP: $49.99 (hb) Reviewed by Keith Harvey Late in [...]
TAKING ON THE MASTERS OF CRITICAL THEORY IN LITERATURE
TAKING ON THE MASTERS OF CRITICAL THEORY IN LITERATURE INTERPRETING LITERARY TEXTS – A POST-KANTIAN VIEW By Michael Giffin Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2024 ISBN: 978 1 0364 1050 6 RRP: £69.99 (HB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson Scholars continue to debate the impact of German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) on the way [...]
BREAKING THROUGH THE CORDON OF SILENCE
BREAKING THROUGH THE CORDON OF SILENCE MATTERS OF THE HEART – A MEMOIR By Jacinta Nampijinpa Price HarperCollins Publishers 2025 ISBN: 978 1 4607 6676 7 RRP: $36.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson This is a remarkable book, not just for its dramatic and honestly told life story but for what it [...]
HOLY LAND. HOLY WAR – THE SEEDS OF A CONFLICT
HOLY LAND. HOLY WAR – THE SEEDS OF A CONFLICT GHOSTS OF A HOLY WAR – THE 1929 MASSACRE IN PALESTINE THAT IGNITED THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT by Yardena Schwartz Union Square & Co New York 2024 ISBN: 978 1 4549 4921 3 RRP: $55.99 (HB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson How does anyone [...]