NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED
Head Trauma – The Bruising Diary of a Head Teacher By Nick Smith Michael O’Mara Books Limited 2022 ISBN 978-1789293692 RRP: $34.99 (HB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson This is a book for those who despair of any news that teaching is more than a losing battle in the achievement of high [...]
BRENDA NIALL’S ACCIDENTAL BUT BRILLIANT & SELF IMPORTANT CAREER – AS TOLD BY BRENDA NIALL
MY ACCIDENTAL CAREER By Brenda Niall Text Publishing, 2022 ISBN: 9781922458148 RRP: $34.99 (pb) Reviewed by Gerard Henderson Thanks to the (anonymous) Private Eye (4 November 2022) reviewer of Suleika Dawson’s The Secret Heart: John Le Carré: An Intimate Memoir for reminding readers of the old gag: Question: “How do [...]
FROM ANTI-CONSCRIPTIONIST TO WARTIME PM
JOHN CURTIN By David Lee Connor Court Publishing (Australian Biographical Monographs 16), 2022 ISBN - 9781922815095 RRP: $19.95 (pb) Reviewed by Keith Harvey What a great idea Connor Court’s Australian Biographical Monographs are. They are short, readable biographies of notable Australian politicians designed to present an introductory overview of each [...]
FROM MIDDLE BROW TO HIGH REGARD – THE AGATHA CHRISTIE PHENOMENON
AGATHA CHRISTIE – A VERY ELUSIVE WOMAN By Lucy Worsley Hodder & Stoughton 2022 ISBN: 9781529303889 RRP: $34.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson Dr Lucy Worsley is joint chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces but best known as a presenter for BBC TV of a number of series on historical topics and in particular historical [...]
BOB HAWKE – LARGER THAN LIFE, IN BRIEF
Bob Hawke By Mike Steketee Connor Court Publishing Pty Ltd, 2022 ISBN: 9781922815200 RRP: $19.95 (pb) Reviewed by Paul Henderson The Australian Biographical Monographs series covers the lives and roles of many Australian political leaders. As Mike Steketee, a former chief political correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald base in Canberra [...]
THROUGH THE HOUR GLASS AND ON TO ATOMIC CLOCKS
ABOUT TIME – A HISTORY OF CIVILISATION IN TWELVE CLOCKS By David Rooney Penguin Books 2022 ISBN: 978 0 241 37051 3 RRP: $22.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson In Lewis Carroll’s classic story of Alice and her adventures in Wonderland, time is a key player. The white rabbit that lures [...]
AT WAR IN A WORLD OF WOKE
THE WAR ON THE WEST – HOW TO PREVAIL IN THE AGE OF UNREASON By Douglas Murray HarperCollins Publishers 2022 HB – ISBN 978-0-00-849249-6 PB – ISBN 978-0-00-849279-3 RRP: $34.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson In ancient times, seers and prophets traversed the countryside warning communities of impending doom or wayward [...]
LONDON’S D’OYLY CARTE LEGACY
SECRET LIFE OF THE SAVOY By Olivia Williams Headline Publishing Group 2020 ISBN: 978 1 4722 6980 5 RRP: $32.95 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson The cover is certainly tempting, with its photo of Marilyn Monroe whispering in the ear of co-star Sir Laurence Olivier in a photo shoot for their [...]
NO MARRIAGE OF POLITICAL MINDS BUT A STRONG PARTNERSHIP
The Art of Coalition: The Howard Government Experience, 1996-2007 By David W. Lovell and Andrew Blyth UNSW Press. 2022 ISBN: ISBN : 9781742237626 RRP: $39.99 (pb) Reviewed by Paul Henderson The Art of Coalition has two overall editors for the whole book, as well as others who have contributed to a number of [...]
SHATTERED LIVES, SHATTERED COUNTRY – LIFE WITH MAO TSE TUNG
Pink Flower. Growing Up in Mao’s China by Amei Li & Rafe Champion First Mate Publishing 2022 ISBN-13 978-1922729019 RRP $32.99 (PB) Reviewed by William Coleman This strongly felt memoir recounts how the Cultural Revolution shattered the lives of the author and her classmates at the Beijing Fifteenth Girls High School. [...]
THE BIG FELLA WRIT SMALL
JACK LANG BY David Clune Australian Biographical Monographs – Connor Court 2022 ISBN – 9781922815019 RRP: $19.95 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson In Dame Enid Lyons’ memoir So We Take Comfort, she wrote of how her husband Joseph Lyons, following one of his first acts as Prime Minister, had said that: [...]
“HE’S NOT THE MESSIAH. HE’S A VERY NAUGHTY BOY!”
Bob Hawke: Demons and destiny, the definitive biography By Troy Bramston Viking 2022 ISBN: 9780143788096 RRP $49.99 (HB) Reviewed by Keith Harvey The introduction to Troy Bramston’s Bob Hawke: Demons and Destiny contains a content warning. The author advises that this unsanitised look at both the public but also the personal aspects [...]
THE FRASER GOVERNMENT – NOVEMBER 1975 TO MARCH 1983
FRASER IN OFFICE by Denis White Connor Court Publishing Pty Ltd, 2022 ISBN:9781922449580 RRP: $24.95 (pb) Reviewed by Paul Henderson Malcolm Fraser is a well-known politician. He was Prime Minister of Australia for over seven years, during which he won three elections (1975, 1977 and 1980). This is something achieved by [...]
NOT ALWAYS SUCH A SAFE HARBOUR
ACTS OF CRUELTY – AUSTRALIA’S IMMIGRATION LAWS AND EXPERIENCES OF PEOPLE SEEKING PROTECTION AFTER ARRIVAL BY PLANE By Aileen Crowe Palaver 2022 ISBN-13: 9780645588101 RRP: $29.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson For some years, during the Howard Government, I unwittingly found myself as a personal advocate for a number of asylum [...]
THE GOD THAT FAILED – STUART MACINTYRE’S COMMUNIST PARTY OF AUSTRALIA
THE PARTY – THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF AUSTRALIA FROM HEYDAY TO RECKONING by Stuart MacIntyre Allen & Unwin 2022, ISBN: 9781760875183 RRP $49.99 Reviewed by Keith Harvey The Party is Stuart MacIntyre’s second volume of his history of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). It will also be his last as, sadly, [...]
ROBERT MENZIES AT THE MICROPHONE
MENZIES: THE FORGOTTEN SPEECHES By David Furse-Roberts Jeparit Press, 2017 ISBN-10: 1925501507 ISBN-13: 978-1925501506 RRP: $68.44 (HB) Reviewed by Paul Henderson This book is about many of the forgotten speeches and broadcasts produced by Australia’s longest serving prime minister, Robert Menzies. Before they were recently published, they have been preserved in [...]
A PERSONAL VENDETTA IN AUSTRALIAN MILITARY HISTORY
LAVARACK: RIVAL GENERAL By Brett Lodge Robinson Reynolds London 2021 ISBN: 978 1 914973 50 5 RRP: $32.95 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson He held a distinguished military record in World War I and rose in the ranks, taking time after the war to remain in Britain with the Australian Imperial [...]
WHEN FAITH RULED AUSTRALIA
GOD AND MENZIES - THE FAITH THAT SHAPED A PRIME MINISTER AND HIS NATION by David Furse-Roberts Jeparit Press, 2021 ISBN: 9781922449641 RRP: $34.95 (pb) Reviewed by Paul Henderson Probably, there have been more biographies written about Sir Robert Menzies than any other Australian politician. This is not surprising in that [...]
THE FLIPPING OF A COIN – AND THE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS
TOM STOPPARD – A LIFE By Hermione Lee Faber & Faber 2020 ISBN: 978 0 571 31443 0 RRP: $59.99 (HB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson It’s a big book, a bit short of 1000 pages with notes and index taken into account. At times, it seems to offer up compendium qualities [...]
STANDING DOWN AND SELLING OUT
TRAITOR KING - THE SCANDALOUS EXILE OF THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF WINDSOR By Andrew Lownie Bonnier Books UK 2021 ISBN: 978 1 78870 487 8 RRP: $32.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson In his Traitor King – The Scandalous Exile of The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, author Andrew Lownie [...]