Her first, Our Sandhill Country, had appeared in 1933 just as curiosity was building among Australians wanting to learn more ...

Language watchers will have noticed the rise of therapy-speak. Boundaries must be maintained, space must be held, gaslighting must be called out, and triggers, traumas and diagnostic terms abound. The ...

Books & arts All the lonely people Nick Haslam 8 September 2025 A Nordic writer foregrounds the social and political causes of loneliness Books & arts Speak, memory Nick Haslam 5 September 2024 Gideon ...

Whether it was intended or not, the latest book by the accomplished Australian journalist and author George Megalogenis was published not long after census night last month. As I thumbed through my ...

Mentioning Australia’s history of literary censorship to people of a younger vintage often causes befuddlement followed by amazement. In its heyday, our censorship system was a nation-building ...

In the beginning, there was a moment when Alexander Downer’s term as foreign minister could have been a mere blip, as short as his leadership of the Liberal Party. Instead of nearly a dozen years as ...

A year ago, in the cabinet room, Australia’s most senior bureaucrat, Steven Kennedy, made some remarks that surprised a few people. Meeting with economy-wide leaders gathered in Canberra for treasurer ...

On the surface, Singapore gleams. It’s wealthy, orderly, safe. The trains (generally) run on time, the amenities are plentiful, and the tiny city-state punches above its weight in international ...

A few months ago, when I was in the middle of a dispiriting time wrestling with words and seriously questioning my professional choices, my friend Siobhán got in touch bearing unexpectedly good ...

Politics in Australia is simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. Measured in terms of their apparent emotional connection to issues and causes, Australians seem more “political” than ever, and yet ...

Some years ago, Belinda Webster, the founder of Tall Poppies Records, received in the mail a cheque for $10,000 from the writer and arts patron Barbara Blackman. It wasn’t payment for a large order of ...