I normally have a pile of books waiting to be read. Today's no exception - the pile currently includes the following:
Having read After America, Weapons of Choice, Designated Targets and Final Impact, I am a big fan of Australian author John Birmingham. Alas, I haven't read 'He died with a falafal in his hand' yet but I have now purchased Leviathon as of December 2016 and it is in the queue.
Paul Keating - The Biography by David Hay
Paul Keating and Gough Whitlam are my favourite two Australian Prime Ministers. In my opinion, they stand as giants in a sea of mediocracy, with Kevin Rudd the only recent PM to come anywhere near them in intellectual rigour and charisma.
Without doubt, Keating was one of the most significant political figures of the late twentieth century, firstly as Treasurer for eight years and then Prime Minister for five years. Although he has spent all of his adult life in the public eye, he has eschewed the idea of publishing his memoirs and has discouraged biographers from writing about his life.
Undaunted, best-selling biographer David Day took on the task of giving Keating the biography that he deserved. Based on extensive research in libraries and archives, interviews with Keating's former colleagues and associates, and walking the tracks of Keating's life, Day's book, published in 2015, painted the first complete portrait of Paul Keating, covering both the public and private man.
This book goes a long way to explaining the enigma that is Keating. All of those great lines are there, but also the challenges he supposedly faced as a young man (see below for a further explanation of this). The battle with Hawke for the top job is described with great intensity and the Keating Prime Ministership is examined without fear or favour. The man was impressive, whether you loved or hated him, you'd have to admit that. And any book which brings us closer to the truth of the man is to be applauded.
But that's not the end of the story. No sooner had the book hit the bookshops than Keating took exception to the premise that he had suffered from the reading and comprehension disorder known as dyslexia as a young man and that this had a significant impact on his later life. The stoush intensified from there and quickly became lawyers at 20 paces. This led eventually to a spectacular capitulation by HarperCollins Australia who apologised and agreed to pulp unsold copies of its flagship 2015 release. At its culmination Mr Keating branded the award-winning historian an "also-ran" and a "humbug", who, in the search for a new angle, had succumbed to "cussedness and ... crude prejudice".
Needless to say, I have not pulped my copy but will read it with the knowledge that it's is only a partially correct biography.
I also have the following two books about Paul Keating and have read them previously
After Words - The Post-Prime Ministerial Speeches by TJ Keating
The Book of Paul - The Wit and Wisdom of Paul Keating compiled by Russell Marks
Leviathan: The Unauthorized Biography of Sydney by John Birmingham
An electrifying, epic history of the city of Sydney as you have never seen her before.'To peer deeply into this ghost city, the one lying beneath the surface, is to understand that Sydney has a soul and that it is a very dark place indeed.' Beneath the shining harbour, amid the towers of global greed and deep inside the bad-drugs madness of the suburban wastelands, lies Sydney's shadow history.
He spent four years researching the history of Sydney for Leviathan which won Australia's National Prize For Non-Fiction in 2002.
Having read After America, Weapons of Choice, Designated Targets and Final Impact, I am a big fan of Australian author John Birmingham. Alas, I haven't read 'He died with a falafal in his hand' yet but I have now purchased Leviathon as of December 2016 and it is in the queue.
Paul Keating - The Biography by David Hay
Paul Keating and Gough Whitlam are my favourite two Australian Prime Ministers. In my opinion, they stand as giants in a sea of mediocracy, with Kevin Rudd the only recent PM to come anywhere near them in intellectual rigour and charisma.
Without doubt, Keating was one of the most significant political figures of the late twentieth century, firstly as Treasurer for eight years and then Prime Minister for five years. Although he has spent all of his adult life in the public eye, he has eschewed the idea of publishing his memoirs and has discouraged biographers from writing about his life.
Undaunted, best-selling biographer David Day took on the task of giving Keating the biography that he deserved. Based on extensive research in libraries and archives, interviews with Keating's former colleagues and associates, and walking the tracks of Keating's life, Day's book, published in 2015, painted the first complete portrait of Paul Keating, covering both the public and private man.
This book goes a long way to explaining the enigma that is Keating. All of those great lines are there, but also the challenges he supposedly faced as a young man (see below for a further explanation of this). The battle with Hawke for the top job is described with great intensity and the Keating Prime Ministership is examined without fear or favour. The man was impressive, whether you loved or hated him, you'd have to admit that. And any book which brings us closer to the truth of the man is to be applauded.
But that's not the end of the story. No sooner had the book hit the bookshops than Keating took exception to the premise that he had suffered from the reading and comprehension disorder known as dyslexia as a young man and that this had a significant impact on his later life. The stoush intensified from there and quickly became lawyers at 20 paces. This led eventually to a spectacular capitulation by HarperCollins Australia who apologised and agreed to pulp unsold copies of its flagship 2015 release. At its culmination Mr Keating branded the award-winning historian an "also-ran" and a "humbug", who, in the search for a new angle, had succumbed to "cussedness and ... crude prejudice".
Needless to say, I have not pulped my copy but will read it with the knowledge that it's is only a partially correct biography.
I also have the following two books about Paul Keating and have read them previously
After Words - The Post-Prime Ministerial Speeches by TJ Keating
The Book of Paul - The Wit and Wisdom of Paul Keating compiled by Russell Marks
Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History and Gough Whitlam: His Time by Jenny Hocking
These books form the definitive 2 Volume biography of Australia's 21st Prime Minister Gough Whitlam (1972-1975). On Tuesday 21 October 2014, Gough died, aged 98. It is fair to say that no Australian PM changed Australia more than Gough. It is time I read his biography!
I picked up these 2 books for $10 each at the Book Grocer in Melbourne in July 2015. What a bargain.
The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz
When the Millennium Trilogy was published postumously, it seemed that that would be the last of the series, created by the now deceased Stieg Larsson. But lo and behold, the Estate has authorized distinguished Swedish author David Lagercrantz to write a follow-up in which Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist return for a further adrenalie-charged adventure. Thanks to my son Chris for getting me this for Father's Day 2015. I look forward to the read.
The Ode Less Travelled – by Stephen Fry
The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within is a book by author, actor, comedian, and director Stephen Fry about writing poetry. Fry covers metre, rhyme, many common and arcane poetic forms, and offers poetry exercises, contrasting modern and classic poets.
I've got my Palomino Black Wing 602 pencil. Now I must get my moleskine notebook, read the book and then put pencil to paper and try my hand!
The Explorers by Tim Flannery
Found this in my favourite second hand bookshop in Moonee Ponds in June 2015. Published in 1998, I got it for only $7.50. What a bargain. Starting with Willem Jansz (1606) and going right though to Robyn Davidson (the Camel Lady) (1977) and W. J.Peasley (1977), it covers just about everyone of significance except for Lasseter!
The Explorers tells an epic story of courage and suffering, of dispossession and conquest. This bestselling anthology, brilliantly edited and introduced by Tim Flannery, documents almost four centuries of exploration and takes us beyond the frontier into a world of danger, compassion, humour, brutality and death. The Explorers includes the work of Wills, Giles, Leichhardt, Sturt, Eyre and Mitchell, and a host of other fascinating figures. Here, in one place, is the most remarkable body of non-fiction writing ever produced in Australia.
Gold! by David Hill
In the 1840s, Victoria’s population was less than 80,000, with just 23,000 living in Melbourne.
It’s hard to believe that within a decade of the gold finds, Victoria’s population was more than half a million. Melbourne overtook Sydney to become Australia’s biggest city for more than 50 years.
Drawing on diaries, journals, books, letters, official reports, Parliamentary enquiries and newspaper reports, Hill shows how the gold rushes became a monumental turning point in the country’s history, tripling its population, driving the last nail in the coffin for convict transportation and subverting the hierarchical British class system.They laid the foundations of the egalitarian ethos that characterises our Australian way of life, and stimulated the ideas that led to the establishment of a democratic Australian federation.
Hill weaves a story that begins with Edward Hargaves’ discovery of gold in western New South Wales in 1851 – and there’s quite a story there too, as it wasn’t just a chance find. It was a calculated mission to claim a reward that the Government had promised, and his right to claim the reward was hotly contested for many years after.
The story continues to Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory, before heading down to Tasmania and across to Western Australia. As Hill vividly describes the goldfields, they were some of the coldest, hottest, wettest and driest places, populated by fortune hunters who were often wild and dangerous.
There’s a full chapter on the Eureka Rebellion, of course, and much mention of bushrangers and conflict over the large number of Chinese prospectors who flocked to the diggings.
The final chapter is on the ill-fated adventures of Harold Lassiter and his famous “Lost Reef” of gold. It ends with a poignant entry from Lassiter’s journal, written as he lay dying in the desert.
The Silent Service by T. M. Jones and Ian L. Idriess (1944)
Wow, another Aussie gem from the Moonee Ponds second hand bookshop, Originally published in 1944, I have the second edition from 1952 (minus dust cover unfortunately). It covers many of the great naval encounters of the Second World War, told from the point of view of those who were there. Great reading.
To quote the dustcover (alas, missing in my case)
Torpedo-Man T. M. Jones has seen seventeen years' naval service in various classes of ships from submarine to battle cruiser. Ion L. Idriess is a bushman who can claim some knowledge of sailormen and of the sea, even to a shade of naval action.
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These books form the definitive 2 Volume biography of Australia's 21st Prime Minister Gough Whitlam (1972-1975). On Tuesday 21 October 2014, Gough died, aged 98. It is fair to say that no Australian PM changed Australia more than Gough. It is time I read his biography!
I picked up these 2 books for $10 each at the Book Grocer in Melbourne in July 2015. What a bargain.
The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz
When the Millennium Trilogy was published postumously, it seemed that that would be the last of the series, created by the now deceased Stieg Larsson. But lo and behold, the Estate has authorized distinguished Swedish author David Lagercrantz to write a follow-up in which Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist return for a further adrenalie-charged adventure. Thanks to my son Chris for getting me this for Father's Day 2015. I look forward to the read.
The Ode Less Travelled – by Stephen Fry
The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within is a book by author, actor, comedian, and director Stephen Fry about writing poetry. Fry covers metre, rhyme, many common and arcane poetic forms, and offers poetry exercises, contrasting modern and classic poets.
I've got my Palomino Black Wing 602 pencil. Now I must get my moleskine notebook, read the book and then put pencil to paper and try my hand!
The Explorers by Tim Flannery
Found this in my favourite second hand bookshop in Moonee Ponds in June 2015. Published in 1998, I got it for only $7.50. What a bargain. Starting with Willem Jansz (1606) and going right though to Robyn Davidson (the Camel Lady) (1977) and W. J.Peasley (1977), it covers just about everyone of significance except for Lasseter!
The Explorers tells an epic story of courage and suffering, of dispossession and conquest. This bestselling anthology, brilliantly edited and introduced by Tim Flannery, documents almost four centuries of exploration and takes us beyond the frontier into a world of danger, compassion, humour, brutality and death. The Explorers includes the work of Wills, Giles, Leichhardt, Sturt, Eyre and Mitchell, and a host of other fascinating figures. Here, in one place, is the most remarkable body of non-fiction writing ever produced in Australia.
Gold! by David Hill
In the 1840s, Victoria’s population was less than 80,000, with just 23,000 living in Melbourne.
It’s hard to believe that within a decade of the gold finds, Victoria’s population was more than half a million. Melbourne overtook Sydney to become Australia’s biggest city for more than 50 years.
Drawing on diaries, journals, books, letters, official reports, Parliamentary enquiries and newspaper reports, Hill shows how the gold rushes became a monumental turning point in the country’s history, tripling its population, driving the last nail in the coffin for convict transportation and subverting the hierarchical British class system.They laid the foundations of the egalitarian ethos that characterises our Australian way of life, and stimulated the ideas that led to the establishment of a democratic Australian federation.
Hill weaves a story that begins with Edward Hargaves’ discovery of gold in western New South Wales in 1851 – and there’s quite a story there too, as it wasn’t just a chance find. It was a calculated mission to claim a reward that the Government had promised, and his right to claim the reward was hotly contested for many years after.
The story continues to Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory, before heading down to Tasmania and across to Western Australia. As Hill vividly describes the goldfields, they were some of the coldest, hottest, wettest and driest places, populated by fortune hunters who were often wild and dangerous.
There’s a full chapter on the Eureka Rebellion, of course, and much mention of bushrangers and conflict over the large number of Chinese prospectors who flocked to the diggings.
The final chapter is on the ill-fated adventures of Harold Lassiter and his famous “Lost Reef” of gold. It ends with a poignant entry from Lassiter’s journal, written as he lay dying in the desert.
The Silent Service by T. M. Jones and Ian L. Idriess (1944)
Wow, another Aussie gem from the Moonee Ponds second hand bookshop, Originally published in 1944, I have the second edition from 1952 (minus dust cover unfortunately). It covers many of the great naval encounters of the Second World War, told from the point of view of those who were there. Great reading.
To quote the dustcover (alas, missing in my case)
Torpedo-Man T. M. Jones has seen seventeen years' naval service in various classes of ships from submarine to battle cruiser. Ion L. Idriess is a bushman who can claim some knowledge of sailormen and of the sea, even to a shade of naval action.
