A trio with brio, and verve
Carmel Bird, Love Letter to Lola, Spineless Wonders: Sydney, pp 223, $ 24.99;Megan Rogers, The Heart Is a Star, Fourth Estate: Sydney, pp 291, $ 32.99;and Emily O’Grady, Feast, Allen & Unwin: Sydney, pp 291, $ 32.99ROSS FITZGERALDSuperstitious people say that bad things come in threes. But I can testify that good things can also come in threes.
An excellent example is this trio of spine-tingling, quirky, fictions, all by women.I’m referring to Love Letter to Lola, The Heart Is a Star, and Feast.The first is …
ROSS FITZGERALDAlthough I disagree with the federal Coalition about some key policies, I do support Peter Dutton’s proposed gambling advertising bans.
In particular, I applaud the proposal of stopping all gambling advertising during sporting events in Australia, including half and quarter time breaks, and also from an hour before the start of live sporting events to an hour after such widely watched events.
Hence, I urge prime minister Anthony Albanese and the federal ALP government to work cooperatively with the Coalition and some members of cross-bench, and implement these much-needed policies.
Most Australian …
NSW STATE MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR JOHN OLSEN, MONDAY 29 MAY 2023 ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
Some words from MC Michael Yabsley:
“We are here to honour the memory of Dr John Olsen AO OBE, a man of talent, charisma, generosity, and humility. He was a master of the brush, a truly great explorer and interpreter of everything from beloved massive Australian landscapes to, in the words of his friend, Professor Ross Fitzgerald, “the chaotic splendour of his own kitchen.”
As Prof Fitzgerald wrote about John, his son Tim Olsen often talked …
Final portrait of an artist and old friend
The legendary Australian artist John Olsen with history professor and old friend Ross Fitzgerald. Photo by Tim Olsen.
By ROSS FITZGERALD
A state memorial for my friend, the great Australian artist John Olsen, will be held on May 29 at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney.
Olsen told me last year that he hoped to die like Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who on his last day painted his final picture, put down the brushes, sighed and said: “I think I’m beginning to learn something now.”
I …
It was pleasing to read Andrew Horner’s correction of Oscar Humphries’ claim that the family’s choice of Sydney over Melbourne for Barry Humphries State Memorial wasn’t a repudiation of his own hometown. ( ‘Humphries’ request to ‘snub’ Melbourne’, May 13.)
As a friend of 61 years, I can attest that it is true that Barry was saddened by the increasingly woke Melbourne Comedy Festival removing his name from the event he co-founded, and disappointed that the Victorian government didn’t intervene.
But there is more to the story. In recent years, Barry often …
Barry Humphries and I drank together and got sober together
Ross Fitzgerald and Barry Humphries at Sydney’s Catalina restaurant in 2019.
Barry Humphries and I were friends for more than 60 years.
We first met at the Notting Hill Hotel, which was the nearest pub to Melbourne’s Monash University where I was then an often drunk student.
Barry and I drank together and got sober together.
In late 1969 we were both admitted to a suburban Melbourne alcoholic and drug addiction hospital called Delmont. The wonderful lead psychiatrist there, Dr John Moon, was a strong …
Joy Damousi,The Humanitarians: Child War Refugees and Australian Humanitarianism in a Transnational World, 1919-1975Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-108-83390-5Nonfiction, pp 347, $125.Reviewed by ROSS FITZGERALDFirst published by Cambridge University Press in 2022, this important but extremely expensive publication spans six decades from the formation in Australia in 1919 of the Save the Children Fund to our humanitarian interventions during the controversial war in Vietnam.Written by Professor Joy Damousi, Dean of Arts at the Australian Catholic University, The Humanitarians could be of considerable interest to some readers of The Weekend Australian. Its …
AUSTRALIAN BOOKSPolitical Lives: Australian Prime Ministers and their Biographers by Chris WallaceUNSW Press,2023, ISBN 9781742237497, pp 314, pb $39.99.
eviewed by ROSS FITZGERALDHistorian, Chris Wallace, who currently holds a professorship at the Faculty of Business, Government and Law at the University of Canberra, rightly argues that writing biographies of prime ministers is a unique form of political intervention.Formerly a longstanding member of the Canberra Press Gallery, Wallace who was writing a biography of then prime minister Julia Gillard, did something unusual. In 2011 she cancelled her contract with Allen & Unwin, …
GRAFTON EVEREST MEETS THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAYThe Lowest Depths by Ross Fitzgerald & Ian McFadyenHybrid Publishers, Melbourne 2021RRP: $24.99 (pb)Reviewed by Alan GregoryGraham Green’s term “An Entertainment”, probably best sums up this beautifully produced book.The Lowest Depths is a very good read, with equal elements of a socio-politico farce and of a spy thriller, plus a touch of sci-fi!As with its predecessor, The Dizzying Heights, this book featuring Dr Professor Grafton Everest is written by two Melbourne High School old boys – Ross Fitzgerald and Ian McFadyen. Ross Fitzgerald AM is …
COLD WAR AND ITS SECRETS
THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE FIVE EYES: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPY NETWORK
By Richard Kerbaj.
Blink Publishing
RRP $34.99
Reviewed by Ross Fitzgerald
COLD WAR AND ITS SECRETSThe Sydney Institute Review, 29 March 2023, Issue 25THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE FIVE EYES: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPY NETWORKBy Richard Kerbaj.Blink PublishingRRP $34.99Reviewed by Ross FitzgeraldRecently released in the United Kingdom, Richard Kerbaj’s, ‘The Secret History of The Five Eyes: The untold story of the international spy network’ is a fascinating account of the Western world’s most powerful, …
What will we do without religion?
John Carroll
The Saviour Syndrome: Searching for Hope and Meaning in an Age of Unbelief
Sutherland House: Toronto
pp 264, $ 29.99
reviewed by ROSS FITZGERALD
The Saviour Syndromeposes a crucial question, especially for people searching for hope in their lives: “What can replace religion?”
Another, related question might be: “Who do we look up to now?”
These questions are relevant to those who believe that the message of Jesus is obsolete or eclipsed. The author, John Carroll, maintains that humans are, by their nature, “saviour-seeking”. As he puts it, a saviour …
