From our archives: "My school had quite an influx of young teachers around that time, and my new young Form Five English teacher used George MacBeth’s anthology Poetry 1900 to 1965 only once or twice, and ignored George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London completely. But those two books changed my life"

George Thomas: My school had quite an influx of young […]

Saxby Pridmore has been one of Tasmania’s leading psychiatrists since […]

What sets Jane Harper apart, beyond from her deft plots and turn of phrase, is a complete lack of political correctness. Not that she is politically incorrect, but simply that she manages to avoid completely the fashionable display of virtuous opinion that drags down contemporary Australian writing of all kinds

Being smart doesn’t make psychiatrists, as a body at least, immune to irresponsibility and foolishness. One of author Tanveer Ahmed's pet peeves is the way every mental affliction, from sadness upwards, is being medicalised, labelled a condition and therefore in need of treatment

Jennifer Morag Henderson has written what is, surprisingly, the first biography of a writer much appreciated in life and oft overlooked in death. Throughout her novels genuineness battles phoniness and secrets are revealed-- an irony, really, given that MacKintosh herself remains such an elusive presence

His Own Executioner: The Life of Nigel Balchin by Derek […]

One of the strongest memories of my state-school education in […]

This Tattooed Land by Derek Parker Publisher’s Apprentice, 2014, 130 […]