Present in Spirit

It was Keith Windschuttle’s idea. The sainted editor of Quadrant invited a group of friends and admirers of the late Christopher Pearson to a lunch on Fort Denison to celebrate the man and his writings, especially the posthumous book A Better Class of Sunset (Connor Court). It was a magnificent spring day on magnificent Sydney Harbour, with yachts, sailing boats, speedboats, ferries and water taxis everywhere. Christopher, despite his fondness for winter, would have loved it.

In editing the book, Nick Cater selected some 140 of Pearson’s columns from the Australian, added some essays, arranged for Introductions by Tony Abbott (who launched the book in parliament in October); Jack Snelling (Minister for Health and Ageing in the South Australian government); Peter von Fritz (old friend and sponsor of this Festschrift); and Nick Cater himself. Other friends—Christopher’s doctor, the novelist and poet Peter Goldsworthy, his aesthetic adviser Peter Jenkinson, and writer Andrew…