Reviewed by Ian Lipke Catherine Steadman’s book has been touted as a psychological thriller of a very scary persuasion. When I began reading, I discovered that I was just plain bored. The story seemed to have no direction, the heroine appeared to me insipid, and a great lot of nothing was supposed to capture and
Reviewed by Richard Tutin The line “History is written by the Victors” is often attributed to Winston Churchill though its origin is unknown. Even so, the reality of its meaning can often be highlighted when events are put under the spotlight of critical evaluation and interpretation. In recent times, the way history has been taught
Reviewed by Gerard Healy Don Watson, of Paul Keating speechwriter fame, has updated his history book for the young (and the curious). By young, we are assuming around 11 to 14 years of age and, by curious, we mean anyone interested in Australian history. Watson published the original text in 1984 and there have been
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Those Hamilton Sisters is the first novel produced by mother of four, Averil Kenny. Like most successful first writers, she has written about what she knows. This story is created from many of her own experiences of motherhood, love, family bonds and growing up in the lush-enchanted tropics of Australia giving
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve If you can’t afford to live in a New York apartment bordering Central Park, wear couturier gowns, dine in five-star restaurants, but long to savour such a life style, this book is for you. It indulges the dreams of those who regard a life of luxury to be their ideal, a
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Creating God is an attempt to recreate the worlds in which the founders of several major religions lived and laboured. The result is a book rich in detail, consummate in its scholarship, and revelatory in exposing for modern eyes the conditions that allowed religious movements to flourish. Derricourt’s approach is to
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Ethel Rosenberg’s tragic life highlights a dark phase in post-war America. Its political and legal world was dominated by bigotry and fear, stoked by McCarthyism and the looming power of Hoover, head of the FBI. The devastation of the atom bomb, the growing threat of Russia, then Mao’s communism gripping China,
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers is a sophisticated, academic attack on, if not a complete dismantling of, the arguments expressed by Bruce Pascoe in his Dark Emu publication of 2014. Pascoe argued that classical aboriginal society was more sophisticated than present society believed because the evidence showed that they were farming at a
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Kerry McGinnis’s early life has given her a wonderful understanding of people. When her father was left with five young children after the death of his wife, they went bush giving Kerry many experiences that she could draw on for her writing. When asked about the process used when writing a
Michael Robotham has been awarded the 2021 Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for his heart-stopping psychological thriller When She Was Good. This comes a year after Robotham became the first Australian to win the CWA’s prestigious Gold Dagger twice. The Crime Writers’ Association said of When She Was Good that it was,
Reviewed by Ian Lipke I must admit that until now I had never heard the name Hazel Rowley. I did not know that I had been missing the works of a writer of consummate prose. Here I distinguish, as I’m sure the editors do, between writing biographies and biographical writing. The first suggests writers researching,