Memoir/Biography

Memoir/Biography

Looking for Elizabeth by Helen Trinca

Reviewed by Ian Lipke Helen Trinca’s powerful novel binds the reader’s attention to the page with arms of steel. While novels of this sort often hold attention readily enough, Trinca’s text never lets go. She holds until readers realize that s/he has no wish to see the book abandoned. Rather she has become fully involved

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

Leonardo da Vinci: An Untraceable Life by Stephen J. Campbell

Reviewed by Ian Lipke Stephen J. Campbell’s reading of Leonardo da Vinci requires the widest possible circulation, not because his argument is utterly convincing but because he comes so close to doing just that. He leaves the reader gasping at the audacity of his proposals but also wondering if he might in fact be right,

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

Talk Your Way Out of Trouble by Jahan Kalantar

Reviewed by E B Heath Something that hurts one of us, hurts all of us. Jahan Kalantar Talk Your Way Out of Trouble – a memoir of Jahan Kalantar’s professional life as a barrister and lawyer.  In the Prologue readers will learn about the inner workings of ‘the eye’ – it’s a lawyer-y thing.  Apart

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

Annette Kellerman by Grantlee Kieza

Reviewed by Ian Lipke Annette Kellerman had little hope of living a normal, suburban life, at least that’s the way Grantlee Kieza tells her story in his latest biography. The granddaughter of a grandmother and mother who could be classed only as odd, and a grandfather who, in his eccentricity, chose to live his life

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

Unsettled by Kate Grenville

Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The title, Unsettled, poses questions that Kate Granville’s personal history of the last 200 years seeks to offer with powerful insights into our own relationship with the land which was ‘settled’ by the English in 1788. The crushing defeat of the referendum in 2023 compels those who were disappointed and deeply

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

The Correspondent by Peter Greste

Reviewed by Norrie Sanders Journalists are prolific story tellers. Their profession is demanding and stress is no stranger. But that can go to another level when they become the story. Particularly when that story involves incarceration in a foreign jail. Working for an Arab news service, Peter Greste suddenly went from relative obscurity in Australia

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

Three Wild Dogs and the Truth by Markus Zusak

Reviewed by Antonella Townsend Three Wild Dogs – and the Truth – a memoir about the life and times of the dearly departed Reuben and Archer; concluding chapters are dedicated to Frosty who is still living the dream.  The dream is having a loving, no-matter-what-happens, loyal carer, some might say owner, but I’m not sure

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

Australia’s Greatest Stories by Graham Seal

Reviewed by Richard Tutin Stories tell us much about a nation’s identity. Having been passed down in oral or written forms, they help shape both where a nation has come from and where it is going. The challenge is often to have these stories in a permanent form, so they are not forgotten. There have

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

Gutsy Girls by Josie McSkimming

Reviewed by Rod McLary Dorothy Porter is one of Australia’s most esteemed poets who received, among many other awards, the Christopher Brennan Award for a lifetime achievement in poetry.  Dorothy – or Dod as she was affectionately called by her family – was ‘fuelled by a lusty human humour and a generously sharp-tongued spirit’ [Michael

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

Brainstorm by Richard Scolyer

Reviewed by E B Heath Dr. Richard Scolyer is a world-renowned melanoma pathologist and one of the world’s top melanoma researchers.  He is co-director with Georgina Long at the Melanoma Institute Australia.  In 2021 he was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia for his outstanding service to medicine in the field of melanoma and

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

Mr & Mrs Gould by Grantlee Kieza

Reviewed by Norrie Sanders The endangered Gouldian finch is one of Australia’s prettiest birds and was named after Elizabeth Gould, by her husband John in 1841. He was already famed as “the Bird Man” (of England), yet in typical fashion, his claim on the finch conveniently overlooked the facts that it had been discovered already

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

Out of the Blue by Anthony Field

Reviewed by Norrie Sanders Nicole Arthur of the Washington Post once wrote that there are two types of people. “Those who have never heard of the Wiggles and those who know all the words to “Fruit Salad”. There’s a word for those in the latter group: parents” [p151]. For those of us who have reared 

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

My Brother Jaz by Gideon Haigh

Reviewed by Rod McLary On 13 August 1987, seventeen-year-old Jasper Haigh died following a car accident in Geelong.  Jasper – or Jaz – was the younger brother of Gideon Haigh the well-known author and journalist.  As would be expected, the sudden death of his young brother had a significant impact on the life of Gideon

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

No Autographs Please by Katherine Wiles

Reviewed by Norrie Sanders Next time you find yourself doing some mundane work, imagine what it would be like to be paid to step onto the stage of the Sydney Opera House every night, to perform in front of a cheering audience. A recent French TV series portrayed an opera company as a hotbed of

Read More »
Memoir/Biography

The Golden Gang by Ian W. Shaw

Reviewed by Wendy Lipke According to the promotional material provided, this book is the first comprehensive biography of the godfather of Australian bushranging – Frank Gardiner – leader of the Lachlan gang and mastermind of the largest gold heist in Australian history. The author, Ian W. Shaw, has published over a dozen books. He believes

Read More »
Scroll to Top