An Exercise in Hero Worship of Jim Cairns
A critical review of Rene Dowsing’s Acacia Press biography of Jim Cairns argues the work is an uncritical hagiography. It portrays Cairns as a near saint while omitting a balanced assessment of his career and policy shifts, especially on Vietnam and tariff policy.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Cairns
Dowsing
Jim Cairns
John Curtin
Melbourne
DLP
Tariff
McEwen
Sally
Country Party
Perils of property and Nihilqn satire in three novels
A critic surveys three novels by Jack Gratus Jacky Giller and Alan Sillitoe, pairing The Perils of Property with Jo Appel, a London teacher navigating rent, class, and Maoist students. War Baby follows Garbie’s rise and fall amid British class tensions and radical ideals. Nihilon portrays a satirical future where chaos is tightly regulated through media and state control, seen through five outsiders discovering the system’s quirks and grip.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Jack Gratis
Hietchinson
Jacky Giller
Gollanez
Alan Silkee
W. HH
Allen
Canberra
Jack Gratus
London
Jo Appel
George Orwell
Ivan
Tran
Mao
Profens
Appy
Horace
Betty
Arnold
Colin
Jack
Cissy
Sussex
Beryl
Garbie
Gara Ne Wes Eee
Aunt Betty
Freddy
Lse
Nihilon
Nil
Adam
Jamin Smith
Jaquiline
Edgar Salt
Richard Lope
Alan Sillitoe
Australian seal books add colorful picks for readers
Rigby’s Seal Books introduces Australian themed titles and reissues. Douglas Lockwood’s I, the Aboriginal about Phillip Roberts uses 100 hours of interviews. Patsy Adam Smith’s Hear the Train Blow recalls outback Victoria life. Thiele’s Blue Fin follows a boy’s fishing adventure. Clara Morison by Catherine Helen Spence is a 19th century social history novel with ANU introduction.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Douglas Lockwood
Advertiser Festival of Arts
Phillip Roberta
Arnhem Land
Lockwood
Roberts
Patsy Adam Smith
Victoria
William Joy
Colin Thiele
Couraae
Clara = Morison
Catherine Helen Spence
Miss Spence
Australia
South Australia
Susan Eade
Australian National University
Centenary of Shaw Neilson Celebrated At National Library
A centenary tribute invites readers to inspect Manuscript Collection 1145 at the National Library. Item No. 6, Shaw Neilson Autobiography 1934, reveals a life of itinerant work and poetry, with amanuenses transcribing letters that chart his long years as a bushman and prolific employment history.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
National Library
Neilson
Morocco
Shaw Neilson
Suburbia
Dad
South Australia
Haw Neilson
Country Roads Board
Melbourne
Unpublished tale of a bush poet and hardship
Narrative excerpt recounts Shaw Neilson's austere life and struggles on mallee blocks from 1890s droughts to bushfires. It notes family poverty, failing eyesight, and reliance on improvised remedies, with critique of publishing avenues for Australian verse and a call for DIY press efforts.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Mother
Maggie
Shaw Neilson
Ordinary but intimate art in a suburban novel critique
A literary review praises Frederic Raphael for portraying the ordinary suburban life with precise plain language. The critic compares his focus on static, unresolved moments to Beckett and Pinter and notes the book’s strength lies in understated dialogue and intimate social detail. The piece also references Eric Berne’s Layman’s Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis as a long-selling companion work.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Beckett
Pinter
Frederic Raphael
Eric Berne
Penguin
Also Mentioned on This Page
Ye Cairns
Byrene
Acacia Press
Brazil
Jirina Kaplicka
Rudolf Subik
Barry Munns
Righy Instant Books
By Shirley Despoja
Building Society
Fir Tree Avenue
Iran Cist
All About
Rigby
Seal
Joseph Furphy
G. W. Turner
Kevin Gilding
Henry Lawson
Hal Porter
Laurie Lee
Rosie
Bag Gee
NYONE
Tme
Sea Lake
Jessie
The
Mitchell
National
James Devaney
Devaney
IBM
Raphael
Weskerville
Salzsman
Lola
Amsterdam
This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!