Deck-Chairs
It seems these canvas contraptions are coming back,
have been sighted in modish homewares stores,
along with designer cushions and every sort of throw.
Deck-chairs! Those favourites of the 1930s,
supporting all those Bloomsbury bottoms
in drowsy summer gardens of the literati.
The famous faces look up at the camera—
Vanessa and Clive and the Woolves, Morgan,
Lytton and Carrington—from panamas,
early sunglasses or thatch of remarkable hair.
Because they are sitting so close to the ground
they seem vulnerable, yet how steadily
photographs record their confident gaze;
we guess the witticism just uttered, the laughter
dissolving in the mild, tobacco-scented air.
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins