Courage is being scared to death … and saddling up anyway.                                                    —John Wayne From the 1930s to the 1960s, the western was the most popular Hollywood movie genre. At its high point, in the 1950s, westerns outnumbered all other genres combined. Stagecoach, by John Ford, was the biggest hit of 1939, and made John […]

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Ignore the naysayers. The inspiring story of how Michelle Payne won the Melbourne Cup on 100-1 shot Prince of Penzance is likely destined, in the tradition of 'Phar Lap', to become an Australian classic

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Dead Mother Dead mother is a doll, with a doll’s face, left neatly unwrapped, in the creamy quilted case. Someone has positioned a hair of silver chain, and clasped it, across her fist, but she can’t really grasp it. The calligrapher has stitched Going Home, in white silk, and I Love You Grandma welts from […]

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'History seen through a half-open door' is the way writer Stephen Poliakoff describes his account of the little known and less remembered Prince John, autistic son of George V, who died in 1919. It's also a label that might well be applied to 'Summer of Rockets', a six-part BBC mini-series of twists and intrigue set in the UK of the Cold War

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Brokenheart Singing in her song she died. —Tennyson Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Brokenheart Syndrome. Not blockage. Heart stunned by adrenaline. Left ventricle balloons out. Named for resemblance to Japanese octopus-trap. Chest pains, shortness of breath, often mistaken for attack. Death rare. Reversible. Almost exclusive domain of women, at 90%— Little Ann, in Where the Ferns Grow, Lady […]

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The people behind 'Downton Abbey' have turned back the clock even further, illustrating the big story of America's birth in 1606 via the lives of the little people who brought it about. 'Jamestown' is more fun than high culture or history lessons -- a lush, sumptuous and expensive soap, in other words

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Twain on the Murray I wish that Time could bring again To Letters—and so give to Art— The healthy humour of Mark Twain, The kindly scamps of poor Bret Harte! —Henry Lawson, 1908 Off the plank of the Warrimoo, Stepped Samuel Clemens’ polished shoe, Daughter Clara, arm and arm, His first impressions of Sydney’s charm— […]

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Alcoholic Nose Rhinophyma, subtype of skin condition, rosacea, chronic inflammation, swollen nose, red and bumpy, once thought due to alcoholism— that theory debunked. Definitive cause a mystery. Evidence points to genetics, in family members of English, Scottish, ethnic Eastern European descent. For those with rosacea, alcohol worsens symptoms, enlarging blood vessels, creating a flushed look— […]

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There has been great public fascination with the story of the Plantagenet super-dynasties, and particularly, the House of Tudor, since William Shakespeare’s play Henry VIII (also known as All Is True) and its infamous performance in 1613 when a special-effects cannon-shot started a fire that burned the Bard’s Globe Theatre to the ground. Samuel Johnson […]

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I'm glad friends encouraged me to persevere with the five-part HBO dramatisation. Indeed, I now consider it one of the most important works I have seen this year, despite facts being bent and characters presented as other than their real-life selves. Those quibbles aside, it remains a drama much greater than the sum of its parts

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