The following is another selection of books I’ve read in recent months with brief personal comments and the occasional inclusion of a more professional opinion of the book in question. Books in this post are:
- War of the Windsors by Nigel Cawthorne [2023];
- The Big Treasury of Australian Folk Lore: Two Centuries of Tales, Epics, Ballads, Myths & Legends, compiled by A.K.MacDougall [1990];
- Quarterly Essay No: 94 titles ‘Highway To Hell: Climate Change and Australia’s Future’ by Joelle Gergis;
- ‘The Wild Date Palm’ by Diane Armstrong [2024];
- ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Lee Harper, [1960];
- ‘Legacy of War’ by Wilbur Smith [with David Churchill], [2021];
- ‘Free’ by Meg Keneally [2024];
- ‘The Celts’ by Nora Chadwick, [1971, a Folio Society edition of 1997];
- ‘The Crag’ by Claire Sutherland [2024];
- ‘Quarterly Essay No. 95’ titled ‘High Noon: Trump, Harris and America on the Brink’ by Don Watson [2024]
- ‘Sister Viv’ by Grantlee Kieza, [2024];
1st June
‘War of the Windsors: The inside Story of Charles, Andrew and the Rivalry that has defined the Royal Family’ by Nigel Cawthorne [published in 2023, 311 pages] – a rather eye-opening read.
An initial reaction – I always had a lot of respect for the late Queen Elizabeth – after reading this book, I’m afraid my level of respect for both Charles and Andrew is severely diminished! My main criticism of the Queen is that she didn’t demonstrate very good mothering skills or empathy towards Charles and Anne, but she had turned that around by the time Andrew came along, he became the ‘apple of her eye’ and despite all his adult ‘troubles’ basically remained that way. Even Prince Phillip’s approach to the young Andrew, and then Edward, was much more conciliatory than his often ‘harsh’ attitude to what he expected the young Charles to accept in his growing and schooling years.
“But as this book has tried to demonstrate, the two brothers are more alike than they know – petulant, churlish, self-regarding, self-important, self-serving, self-aggrandising, grasping, greedy, amoral and corrupt. Addicted to pomp and uniforms. They acquire wealth, privately and publicly; as if no amount of money is ever enough. If they weren’t living the high life as royals, protected by their royal status, they would surely have suffered much worse fates for their misbehaviour. As I also hope this book proves, they are everything their mother was not. Where she commanded respect, they get sycophancy. They can’t understand why she was loved and they’re not…” [page 309].
‘Raised for vastly different futures, one burdened with the responsibility of becoming the future king and the other destined to live in his shadow, Charles and Andrew have spent their lives on different sides of the same coin’
The book the story of their lives from children to modern day, this fascinating and revelatory new book looks at the fraught relationship (and fiery rivalry) between King Charles and Prince Andrew. For the first time [apparently], it is described as the complete story of Charles and Andrew from their diverging childhoods to their current struggles. It looks at the distinct but overlapping stories of the two heirs, Charles and Andrew, who have spent their lives on different sides of the same coin. Yet ostensibly separated in their early years and the Queen’s supposed overindulgence of Andrew to the competition for Lady Diana and finally, Charles’ ascension to throne while his brother is stripped of Royal duties. And it explores whether, with the scandals around Andrew still fresh in public memory, Charles will ever let his brother back into the family.
The author’s extensive research and expert sourcing, reveals the inside story of a family in turmoil. Recounting the highs and lows of a brotherhood then turned into a rivalry, royal author and journalist Nigel Cawthorne looks at the makings of a decades long feud and questions whether, ultimately, the brothers will one day band together again……………………….
4th June
A book I purchased many years ago, though don’t recall when or where from, but at the time I started to read it and finally got back to it a few weeks ago, reading a few pages at a time – The Big Treasury of Australian Folk Lore: Two Centuries of Tales, Epics, Ballads, Myths & Legends, compiled by A.K.MacDougall, and printed by The Currawong Press, 1st published in 1990 by Reed Books, this edition 1992, published by Currawong Press, an imprint of Reed Books, 320 pages
Some interesting historical reading of Australian heritage, legends and stories.
An anthology of the tales, ballads, epics, myths and legends inspired by two hundred years of white settlement in Australia. Chapters include Slanguage’, Good sports’ and Conflict and strife’. Illustrated with photographs and line drawings. In a beautifully illustrated volume, we find the essence of much of Australia’s rich and unique ‘Folklore-tall Tales And True One’s of many of our legendary characters and deeds, ballads and songs of bush heroes, stories of shipwrecks and sagas of the Australian outback, together with grim echoes of the convict days.
The thing that needs to be remembered in reading through these stories, that in the main, they are written and told solely from the perspective of the ‘European’ colonisers and settlers, etc, with little credence given to the original inhabitants of this land, the Indigenous people who were here for many thousands of years before the white man came.
So while there is some entertaining reading in this volume, that latter statement needs to be kept in mind.
16th June
June saw the release of Quarterly Essay No: 94 titled ‘Highway To Hell: Climate Change and Australia’s Future’ by Joelle Gergis – a very interesting, very disturbing and insightful discussion on this ongoing crucial topic.
From the Promo: Australia is in peril. Do we truly grasp the impact of a warming planet – in particular, what it will mean for our sunburnt country? As temperatures rise, the climates of our capital cities will change. The sea will rise, and we will see increased fire and drought.
In this powerful essay, Joëlle Gergis, a leading climate scientist, depicts the likely future in vivid and credible detail. Working from the science, she discusses the world and Australia’s efforts to combat climate change. She outlines how far Australia is from keeping its promises to cut emissions. She takes aim at false solutions and the folly of “adaptation” rather than curbing fossil fuel use. This is an essay about government paralysis and what is at stake for all of us. It’s about getting real, in the face of an unprecedented threat.
“How many disasters does it take to wake people up to the fact that Australia’s climate is becoming more extreme, with today’s destruction set to be dwarfed by things to come? Do people realise that adapting to climate change won’t be possible in some parts of the country?” — Joëlle Gergis, Highway to Hell.
There are many disturbing, albeit fascinating statements of scientific fact that come out of this essay, too many to try and quote here, but for anyone who has been trying to make sense of the debate over the past two decades, it’s well worth working your bad through Gergis’s arguments and proposals.
Additionally, this publication included some very interesting responses to the previous Essay ‘Bad Cop’ [about Peter Dutton, by Lech Blaine].The comments of one responder, Paul Strangio [author or editor of a dozen books on Australian politics] in which he is comparing former Whitlam government minister, Bill Hayden with Peter Dutton, I thought worth sharing. Strangio writes:-
“While Hayden’s expansive legacy as Labor leader laid the groundwork for the Hawke/Keating reform era, marking him out as possibly Australian’s finest Opposition leader who never became prime minister, Dutton’s mission in opposition appears aimed at debauching the national political conversation, and about sidling into office by frightening voters into submission”…..He goes on “So, despite the similarities in their back stories, the differences between Hayden and Dutton could hardly be starker. Arguably, the contrast is a disturbing marker of the degeneration of the political class across generations, of the retreat from a milieu of enlightened social-democratic optimism to irrational conservative populist pessimism, and of the decline of a political sensibility of compassion and empathy to one of stony-heartedness”.
Strangio also talks about leadership styles, using three examples delineated by Australia’s Graham Little – – strong, inspirational and group. Strong leaders were people like Howard, Abbott, and now Dutton. In contrast, Labor leaders are more likely to fall into the latter two categories.”What particularly defines the strong leader is their trading in fear and insecurity. They project the world as a menacing place, with competition the primary motor force of human relations. These are the hallmarks of Dutton’s politics. The challenge for the strong leader is to conjure up and orchestrate community anxieties, to identify threats and to establish themselves as a decisive counter-agent to those threats…”
26 June
‘The Wild Date Palm’ by Diane Armstrong, published in 2024, 363 pages – this proved a wonderful, if not tragic story, another historical novel based on true events, again, situated in the Middle East during World War And once again, featuring the courage and determination of a lone woman trying to save the future of her Jewish community, in a Turkish controlled small outpost of the Ottoman Empire. Interesting that many of the military personnel and civilians such as Lawrence of Arabia, the Australian Light Horse, etc, all become featured during the story – in other words, I have once again revisited the environment and times of that period from other fiction and non-fiction books read and noted on these pages in recent months.. As the cover suggests, a novel which explores the fate of ordinary people whose mission collides with the secret agenda of powerful countries, such as Britain, France & Turkey and the associated Arab people of that area. And when life is at stake, how far will we go to reach the limits of our dreams?
Set from 1910 to 1917 with a more contemporary view in 1967 to round out the tale and shed light on some of the mysteries, the novel is a powerful telling of the machinations of world powers in this much disputed region. It’s a very timely written book, when one considers the current Middle East conflict, as it speaks of the many migrations and expulsions of people of different faiths that have led to today’s political picture.
The author, Diane Armstrong is a child Holocaust survivor who arrived in Australia from Poland in 1948, and is now an award-winning journalist and bestselling author, who currently lives in Sydney.
From the generally accepted promotional description of the book, we read that –
From a bestselling Australian author comes a gripping novel of espionage, passion and sacrifice set in the Middle East during World War I. Based on an astonishing true story, it asks what are you willing to die for?
During a train journey across Turkey’s Anatolian Plain in 1915 during World War I, Shoshana Adelstein witnesses the slaughter of the Armenians and knows she has just come face to face with her destiny.
Convinced that her Jewish community in a small outpost of the Ottoman Empire will soon meet a similar fate, she is desperate to save her people. With Turkey and Britain locked in a global conflict, she orchestrates an audacious plan. Enlisting a group of co-conspirators who include her charismatic lover Eli and her impetuous brother Nathan, this young woman forms a clandestine spy ring. Conquering almost insurmountable obstacles, they risk betrayal, torture and death to spy on the Turks and pass on intelligence to the British to help them win the war.
From a Review by Norrie Sanders of the Queensland Reviewers Collective [April 2024]
Some true stories deserve a novel. This is one of them. Even the title of Diane Armstrong’s latest novel is a clever and poignant take on a date palm that did not exist when the story took place, and an historian might overlook, but a novelist could see the romantic symbolism.
Palestine in 1910 was a place where Jews and Arabs co-existed under the watch of the once mighty Ottoman empire. The last desperate kick of that empire was a particularly nasty one – the forced expulsion and mass murder of Armenians, a large Christian minority within Anatolia. In fear of reprisals against other minorities, one small group of Jews in a Palestinian village saw the outbreak of the Great war as both threat and opportunity.
The opportunity was to help the Ottoman’s enemies – notably Britain – to defeat them and to perhaps secure a permanent homeland in the middle east. The central figures are Jews from a village south east of Haifa (now in Israel), who decide to spy on the Turks and send vital military intelligence to the British.
At the same time, another minority in the empire, formed the Arab revolt under the leadership of Faisal ibn Hussein (later King of Iraq) and guided by the British officer, T.E. Lawrence [Lawrence of Arabia]. The Jews and the Arabs had a similar intent to overthrow the Ottomans, but both had their eyes on the same homeland, sowing the seeds for future conflict.
The facts and circumstances of the Jewish spy ring (Nili) are well documented and the main protagonists are important historical figures, particularly in Israel. The plot of the novel appears to adhere to the historical accounts,
‘Shoshana’ and her brother ‘Nathan’ (Sarah and Aaron Aaronsohn) dominate the book, but for most of the time are in different countries. The novel form permits the exploration of topics only hinted at in the historic accounts – the dread of discovery by the Turks, frustrations with British incompetence, conflicts amongst the villagers, Shoshana’s relationship with her sister ‘Leah’ and lover ‘Eli’ and the rivalry with Lawrence.
[The author wrote in a note on page 362] World War 1 in the Middle East offers a rich and unfamiliar tableau of exciting action and larger than life characters. One of them is Lawrence of Arabia. While researching this novel, I was fascinated to learn that he had actually visited Atlit and sketched the ruined crusader castle that dominates the coastline. But did he ever meet Sarah? We know that he met Sarah’s brother in Cairo and that during her visit to Cairo, British officers praised her beauty and courage, but the trail ends there, offering a writer of historical fiction the opportunity to explore the potential. [p362, Author’s note].
The Wild Date Palm is a skilfully constructed story of a seminal time in Middle Eastern history. The re-creation of the human element – and particularly the bravery and single-minded determination of Shoshana – brings the narrative to life. Diane Armstrong may not have added to the historical record, but she has transported readers into a fascinating and dangerous world and celebrated the lives of some true heroes.
July 14th
‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Lee Harper, published in 1960 [this copy was a Vintage Publication from 2004, with 307 pages]. I don’t know why I have never read this before, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Anyway, well worth the delayed reading where the author explores the issues of race and class in the Deep South of the USA in the 1930s, and centred around a town ‘steeped in prejudice and hypocrisy’, a story generally told through the eyes of a pre-teen girl, who we would probably have been described in those times as a bit of a ‘tom boy’!
According to a note in Wikipedia, when it was published in July 1960, the book became instantly successful, and at the time was widely read in schools, becoming a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee Harper’s observations of her family, her neighbours and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama in 1936, when she was ten.
The primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the Deep South, with lessons from the book emphasizing tolerance and the rejection of prejudice. With those subjects in mind, brief reference is made late in the story to the developing persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany, and the growth of Hitler’s power in that nation.
As Penguin Books summarise the story – ‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’ ‘A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee’s classic novel – a black man falsely charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man’s struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story, an anti-racist novel, a historical drama of the Great Depression and a sublime example of the Southern writing tradition’.
Or from ‘Amazon’ – ‘The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it’,
A synopsis of the novel –
The story, told by Jean Louise Finch, takes place during three years (1933–35) of the Great Depression in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, the seat of Maycomb County. Nicknamed Scout, the narrator, who is six years old at the beginning of the book, lives with her older brother Jeremy, nicknamed Jem, and their widowed father Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. They also have a black cook, Calpurnia, who has been with the family for many years and helps Atticus raise the two children.
Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt each summer. The three children are terrified, yet fascinated, by their neighbour, the reclusive Arthur “Boo” Radley. The adults of Maycomb are hesitant to talk about Boo, and many of them have not seen him for many years. The children feed one another’s imagination with rumours about his appearance and reasons for remaining hidden, and they fantasize about how to get him out of his house. After two summers of friendship with Dill, Scout and Jem find that someone is leaving them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place. Several times the mysterious Boo makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, he never appears in person.
Judge Taylor appoints Atticus to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Although many of Maycomb’s citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom to the best of his ability. Other children taunt Jem and Scout for Atticus’s actions, calling him a “nigger – lover”. Scout is tempted to stand up for her father’s honour by fighting, even though he has told her not to. One night, Atticus faces a group of men intent on lynching Tom. Scout, Jem, and Dill unexpectedly show up, and Scout inadvertently breaks the mob mentality by recognizing and talking to a classmate’s father, causing the would-be lynchers to disperse.
Atticus does not want Jem and Scout to be present at Tom Robinson’s trial. No seat is available on the main floor, but the Rev. Sykes, the pastor of Calpurnia’s church, invites Jem, Scout and Dill to watch from the coloured balcony. Atticus establishes that Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob, are lying. It is revealed that Mayella made sexual advances toward Tom, resulting in her being beaten by her father. The townspeople refer to the Ewells as “white trash” who are not to be trusted, but the jury convicts Tom regardless. Jem’s faith in justice is badly shaken. Atticus is hopeful that he can get the verdict overturned, but Tom is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison.
Despite Tom’s conviction, Bob Ewell is humiliated by the events of the trial. Atticus explains that he destroyed Ewell’s last shred of credibility. Ewell vows revenge, spitting in Atticus’ face, trying to break into the judge’s house and menacing Tom Robinson’s widow. Finally, he attacks Jem and Scout while they are walking home on a dark night after the school Hallowewen pageant. Jem suffers a broken arm and is knocked unconscious in the struggle, but amid the confusion, someone comes to the children’s rescue. The mysterious man carries Jem home, where Scout realizes that he is Boo Radley.
Sheriff Tate arrives and discovers Ewell dead from a knife wound. Atticus believes that Jem was responsible, but Tate is certain it was Boo. The sheriff tells Atticus that, to protect Boo’s privacy, he will report that Ewell simply fell on his own knife during the attack. Boo asks Scout to walk him home. After she says goodbye to him at his front door, he disappears, never to be seen again by Scout. While standing on the Radley porch, Scout imagines life from Boo’s perspective.
Overall, enormously popular, it was translated into some 40 languages, sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, and was one of the most-assigned novels in American schools, a novel was praised for its sensitive treatment of a child’s awakening to racism and prejudice in the American South.
24th August
‘Legacy of War’ by Wilbur Smith [with David Churchill], published in 2021, 459 pages – another thriller by this author [now deceased] but with a more modern approach set mainly in Africa in the C20th. In broad terms, ‘the war is over, Hitler is dead, and yet his evil legacy lives on – while further afield in Kenya, the last outcrop of the colonial empire is feeling the stirrings of rebellion. Saffron Courtney and her beloved husband Gerhard only just survived the brutal conflict, but Gerhard’s Nazi-supporting brother, Konrad, is still free and determined to regain power. As a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse develops, a plot against the couple begins to stir. One that will have ramifications throughout Europe. Further afield in Kenya, the last outcrop of the colonial empire is feeling the stirrings of rebellion. As the situation becomes violent, and the Courtney family home is under threat, Leon Courtney finds himself caught between two powerful sides – and a battle for the freedom of a country.
As usual with Smith’s novels, a fair degree of brutal violence, etc is depicted, which admittedly in my later years, has disturbed me a little more than it did in the past. Nevertheless, a fast-reading novel, action always happening, as the storyline progresses.
However, an historical thriller set in the aftermath of World War II. Legacy of War is a nail-biting story of courage, bravery, rebellion and war from the master of adventure fiction. A bit of lighter reading, albeit, somewhat brutal in many parts of the story.
30th August
‘Free’ by Meg Keneally, published in 2024, 328 pages: – from horse thief to the merchant queen of Sydney Cove – how did one woman rise so far?
It is a harsh land – yes, for you especially – but people can also rise here …’
Born into poverty in eighteenth-century England, her future was predetermined. But throughout her life Molly Thistle refused to follow the path laid out before her. Her headstrong nature, disdain for convention and desire for freedom were always destined to determine her fate.
Following her involvement in a fatal childhood prank, Molly dresses as a boy and flees on a stolen horse. Her new-found freedom ends with her arrest and an uncertain journey towards Britain’s farthest prison colony.
Undaunted, Molly navigates her way through a society that denies power to her sex and scorns those who have not ‘arrived free’. Her quick wit, resilience and ambition will attract the love of her life and the opportunity to forge a commercial empire. And those very same characteristics will create enemies intent on destroying all that she has battled to build for herself and her family.
Inspired by historical figures and actual events, Free shines a light on the indomitable figure who first made her appearance in The Wreck. In a story told with warmth and compassion for those who struggled, survived and sometimes even prevailed – and for those who did not – Meg Keneally once again brings the complexity and brutality of colonial Australia vividly to life.
A wonderful read. One reviewer describing the book wrote – Meg Keneally brings to vivid life one of the most extraordinary stories in Australia’s early history, and we can’t help but fall in love with her heroine – brave, feisty and, despite all the odds, utterly determined to allow nothing, and no one, to stand in her way. An enthralling journey into a world that fascinates, and horrifies, by turn.’ Or as Collins Book Shops describe it “…a story told with warmth and compassion for those who struggled, survived and sometimes even prevailed – and for those who did not..”
6th September
‘The Celts’ by Nora Chadwick, first published in 1971, this edition a Folio Society edition of 1997; 317 pages, another book published many years ago. I purchased this copy some considerable years back, started to read it at the time, but found it heavy going, put it aside for other reads. This time around – still heavy going, but interesting nevertheless, especially the first few chapters dealing with the history, development and spread of the Celts throughout Europe and across to Britain. Chadwick’s detailed descriptions of evidence of aspects of Religion and Mythology, Christianity, Art and Literature were at times a little over-whelming with much in the way of Celtic and Irish definitions, sometimes with the English equivalent specified but less often in my view. She obviously has an Irish background, and with the Irish and Welsh dialects in particular regularly used, her writing was given the appearance that she assumed all her readers had the same background!!
Irrespective of all that, a broad description as depicted by many book sellers and reviewers, sums the book up as follows –
A history of Celtic culture in Britain from its origins to its transformation under the Romans and Saxons.
The Celts possessed a self-contained and remarkable culture whose influence is by no means restricted to those parts of Britain traditionally regarded as ‘Celtic’. A proud and independent nation developed from a number of smaller states; brilliant art and a unique way of life flourished, although the evidence of this, unfortunately, is often sketchy. A noted Celtic scholar, Nora Chadwick spent much of her life researching this field. Here she describes the rise and spread of the Celts and their arrival in the British Isles in about the eighth century BC. Chapters on their literature and art, their institutions and religion, punctuate the historical narrative and provide an illuminating insight into the Celtic way of life.
The Celtic period was one of tremendous expansion, the last phase of European material and intellectual development before the Mediterranean world spread northwards over the Continent and linked it to modern times.
Nora Chawick (1891-1972) spent most of her life studying Celtic (or, modern conveyance, “Keltic”) history. She wrote many books and articles on the topic As the Folio Society described it – Licentious pagans or mystical druids? Rapacious vandals or noble adversaries? The images we have of the Celts are certainly dramatic, and in this highly acclaimed account, Nora Chadwick reveals the truth about their lives. With its copious illustrations and handsome binding, this newly revised Folio edition pays homage to a classic account. Also included is a preface and introductory chapter by Sir Barry Cunliffe.
9th September
‘The Crag’ , a debut novel by Claire Sutherland, published a few weeks ago, in 2024, with 314 pages.
Easily read over a day or so, probably unlikely to win any literary prizes, but an enthralling little contemporary crime/mystery novel – the story is set around the Wimmera region of western Victoria, and specifically centred around the crags and immediate area of Mount Arapiles, but with plenty of casual reference to the towns between there and Melbourne. Fairly simply written with a completely unexpected twist and outcome, which I won’t give away. I congratulate the author on keeping us ‘page turning’ as her story continues.
Basically, the storyline from general promotional material reads thus – ‘While walking on an isolated track in the windswept Wimmera, rock-climber Skye discovers the body of a young woman. The body has injuries that suggest a rock-climbing accident, but it’s been found more than 5km from the nearest cliffs at Mount Arapiles. The local police ask Skye to help them navigate the perilous world of rock climbing as they try to unravel what happened. Skye is secretly thrilled to be part of the investigation, but as it becomes clear that a killer is on the loose, all thrill turns to fear. In the isolated crags of the mountain, stark beauty can conceal horrific truths’,,
As the front cover suggests ‘Sometimes the truth is just out of reach…’
Fiona Hardy of Readings Books wrote the following review of ‘The Crag’
Mount Arapiles, in Western Victoria, is a haven for climbers – hundreds of metres of rugged cliff faces and outcrops for all who love the sport, from beginners to experts breaking records with new routes. Paramedic Skye Sayers and her partner Callum live for the exhilaration and focus of climbing, having moved from Melbourne to a more easygoing lifestyle in nearby Horsham – a haven threatened by Skye’s discovery of a dead body while she is walking their dogs. When the police discover that the body shows signs of death by climbing fall, Detective Elly Shaw calls on Skye’s expertise to assist her in the field. As the two of them travel back and forth from Melbourne to Horsham and up and down the rockface searching for the truth, their determination reveals the cracks in their own lives and their insecurities.
Elly is a skilled detective who lives a solitary life, afraid of letting anybody in, afraid of revealing her worst self-doubt. Skye’s decision to start a family with Callum fills her with both hope for the future and a fear of his past, and of his inability to remove himself fully from the grip of his brother Andrew, a man about to be sentenced for a drug-fuelled hit-and-run. The two women circle each other, Elly pushing back against Skye’s eagerness, and Skye pushing all of Elly’s boundaries, both unsure of the friendship that blossoms. The Crag is both a thrilling police procedural set against the backdrop of Arapiles’ unsettling, looming beauty, and a simmering exploration of the cruelty that women can face from men: from the everyday dismissal of a friend’s bad behaviour towards women, to a disturbing look into job offers for tourists and refugees in regional Australia, and, finally, to murder. This is for readers who love Margaret Hickey, Adrian Hyland, Dervla McTiernan, or a gripping read that traverses the Australian landscape.
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24th September
September saw the publication of ‘Quarterly Essay No. 95’ titled ‘High Noon: Trump, Harris and America on the Brink’ Is the United States disintegrating?
In ‘High Non’ Don Watson offers a report from the United States that catches the madness and theatre of an election like no other.
This is a historically informed, mordant account of Donald Trump, Kamala Harris and a country approaching democratic high noon. From Los Angeles to New York, from Detroit to Kalamazoo, Watson observes America in all its diversity and conflict, reality and unreality. Above all, he sees the threat posed by Trump and his movement, with its blend of menace and glee, Great Replacement theory and electoral malpractice. Do Harris and the Democrats have what it takes? Can America mend its divisions? Do enough of its voters even want to?
An essential essay about a crucial moment of choice, and of course, very topical.
Certainly a wide-ranging piece of writing, and for a while I wondered when Watson was going to get to the point of the Essay, interesting historical perspective leading up to both candidates.
Interesting that this afternoon, after reading the essay, I for some reason found myself watching a Trump rally, and later, part of a rally by his opponent in the upcoming US election Trump had nothing good to say about anyone not on his side, and that attitude dominated much of his 90 minutes. Kamala Harris not to the same degree. Anyone who is an opponent of Trump should fear for their future should Trump win the election – vindictive, unforgiving, revengeful. In both cases, one has to admit that the mass rallies of supporters was somewhat infectious – or could we say more accurately, certainly in Trump’s case, perhaps, brainwashed.
26th September
Another book about an inspiring Australian woman – titled ‘Sister Viv’ by Grantlee Kieza, [published in 2024, of 344 pages] – this is the heart-rending, yet inspirational story of the nursing hero who survived a wartime massacre and dedicated her life to saving others.
Bangka Island, 1942: Australian Army nurse Vivian Bullwinkel was just twenty-six when Japanese soldiers marched her and her fellow nurses into the shallow waters of a remote beach to be executed.
Earlier, when the Japanese attacked Singapore in 1942, she and sixty-four other nurses were ordered to evacuate, but soon their ship was bombed by enemy aircraft. Some of the women drowned, but Viv made it to Radji Beach on Bangka Island, off Sumatra, with twenty-one of her nursing colleagues………………………………………………
There Japanese soldiers forced the women to wade back into the sea, and as Vivian felt a bullet slam into her back, she fell face down into the water then waited to die as the soldiers bayonetted survivors. Somehow Vivian lived. For the next three and a half years Viv was a prisoner of war in a series of brutal Japanese camps where she helped other inmates survive the horror [and believe me, reading this book, it was so often, unimageable horror]. When peace was restored, she went on to become a giant of Australian nursing – and was a key driver of Operation Babylift, the mass rescue of young orphans during the Vietnam War. For her extraordinary efforts, Vivian was awarded numerous honours, but she never forgot her fallen colleagues, whose lives she paid tribute to with her service to nursing.
On a personal note, my Father was a returned serviceman from World War Two where he was part of the Australian forces defending New Guinea and potentially Australia from the invading Japanese forces, a service which included a period with Field Ambulance divisions. Dad had a gentle Christian soul, who in his brief post-war life, as well as being a loving and devoted father, husband son and brother, dedicated most of his spare hours to caring for others less fortunate than himself, including the disturbed and mentally ill, especially young people. And yet despite the kindness in his heart to all he met, he would find it, in those early post war years, so difficult to forgive the Japanese soldiers and their leaders for their brutality and inhumanity during the 2nd World War, and in the years previous as Japan invaded and ravaged with equal brutality, the people of China. This book makes it easy to understand why forgiveness would be so difficult at that time.
In retrospect, had he been given the opportunity of an extended life, I’m certain those difficulties would have faded, and his views become more moderate with the new generations of Japanese people. Perhaps at the time of his passing, those views, some 24 years after the war’s end, already had changed.
Reading ‘Sister Viv’ is not a pleasant exercise. In addition to the 21 nurses on the beach, so many of her other associate nurses who survived the early escape from Singapore, and ended up with Viv in the Japanese POW camps, did not survive that ordeal, whether through torture, execution, starvation, or disease.
On the 18th September, 1945 [my Dad’s 24th birthday], the Age newspaper reported that – “Further graphic stories which revealed their fortitude during three years and a half of terrible trials as prisoners of war were related today by a party of 24 nurses, who were liberated in Sumatra only 48 hours ago…….The nurses are survivors of a party of 65 evacuated from Singapore on February 12, 1942. Of the remaining 41, 33 were either drowned off Banka Island [after their ‘escape’ vessel was bombed] or else shot or bayoneted to death in a mass murder on the seashore near Mundok on February 15, 1942, and eight died in the Sumatra prison camp this year of malnutrition and cerebral malaria. Among the rescued nurses is Staff Nurse V. Bullwinkel, who is the only survivor of the Mundok horror……..She was shot through the side, fell into the water, and lost consciousness, but she was washed ashore. Later, she recovered, and struggled into the jungle. Realising that starvation was near, she surrendered to a Japanese naval officer [she surrendered together with a seriously wounded young English soldier, she had earlier found hiding in the jungle, who’d also being shot on the beach, but survived].
Not sure if the world has learnt much about the sanctity of life since that time, as we watch daily on our TV screens, etc, the horrors currently been carried out in Ukraine, the Middle East, the Sudan, and Myanmar to name a few.
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