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biography
Essays & Reportage
The lost portrait
Sylvia Martin
23 April 2018
A single image can open up an unexplored part of a subject’s life, writes the biographer of writer and activist Aileen Palmer
Essays & Reportage
When did I grow up?
Deborah Cheetham
18 April 2018
Extract
| It’s turned out to be a continuing process, says the composer of
Pecan Summer
, the story of the Cummeragunja walk-off
Essays & Reportage
Murder in bohemia
Gideon Haigh
12 April 2018
Extract
| Hidden behind the scandal of Mollie Dean’s death was a story worth telling
Books & Arts
Parallel lives
Brett Evans
11 April 2018
Books
| The former academic and the pugnacious ex-soldier both tell compelling stories about life before politics
Essays & Reportage
Invisible women
Michelle Scott Tucker
8 April 2018
The story of Elizabeth Macarthur, a driving force in early New South Wales, highlights gaps in the story of colonial Australia
Essays & Reportage
Her childhood friends
Sue Taffe
28 March 2018
Extract
| A new biography probes the remarkable life of the Indigenous rights campaigner Mary Montgomerie Bennett
Books & Arts
The politician as hero
Jane Goodall
19 February 2018
Television
| Bob Hawke was a remarkable politician — but what does that tell us about his impact?
Essays & Reportage
The undiplomatic diplomat
Alan Fewster
8 February 2018
Extract
| Posted to Chungking in 1941, Keith Waller found his allies almost as challenging as the enemy
Books & Arts
Was Derek Freeman “mad”?
Martha Macintyre
28 January 2018
Review essay
| The controversial critic of anthropologist Margaret Mead was a man driven to extremes
Books & Arts
An Iced VoVo and a broken heart
Frank Bongiorno
5 January 2018
Books
| Beyond the headlines it generated, Kevin Rudd’s memoir helps explain why he lost the prime ministership
Books & Arts
The destiny of Eileen Joyce
Andrew Ford
27 December 2017
Music
| Despite her international fame, the Tasmanian-born pianist’s career was cut short by a conservative musical establishment
Essays & Reportage
How Harold Holt was lost
Tom Griffiths
7 December 2017
A chance encounter anticipated the shocking disappearance of a prime minister fifty years ago
Books & Arts
Inside the tent
Jock Given
7 December 2017
Books
| Is Gareth Evans’s “incorrigible optimism” evidence-based?
Books & Arts
Historian of the present
Peter Browne
5 December 2017
Ken Inglis was not only a widely admired historian but also a gifted reporter and a sharp-eyed pioneer of press criticism
Books & Arts
Farewell, Sylvia
Peter Browne
9 November 2017
Over a long career, Sylvia Lawson was a prolific contributor to newspapers and magazines, including the pioneering
Nation
, and
Inside Story
Books & Arts
Demanding the impossible
Tom O'Regan
8 November 2017
An appreciation of journalist, critic and film industry activist Sylvia Lawson, who died this week
Essays & Reportage
A small cedar box
Brenda Niall
3 November 2017
Extract
| A puzzling gift sends one of Australia’s leading biographers on a journey into her family’s past
Books & Arts
A fine balance
Maruta Rodan
15 October 2017
Books
| Sheila Fitzpatrick brilliantly illuminates her subject and his tumultuous times
Books & Arts
The Dasher
Frank Bongiorno
10 October 2017
What will Sam Dastyari do if he’s given a second chance? His autobiography only hints at an answer
Books & Arts
In the long shadow of the Labor split
Paul Rodan
18 September 2017
Brian Burke’s doorstopper of a memoir is a valuable but partial account of a career propelled by an old grievance
Books & Arts
For reasons known only to himself
Norman Abjorensen
24 August 2017
Books
| An outstanding new biography traces the life of the man who dominated early federal politics
Books & Arts
Knocked sideways by luck
Susan Lever
31 July 2017
Three writers explore the mixed inheritances that helped fuel their work
Books & Arts
Dispatches from the home front
Sara Dowse
25 July 2017
Books
| Jack Bowers reveals a remarkable wealth of Australian autobiography
Essays & Reportage
Tearing down and building up
Andrea Gaynor & Tom Griffiths
18 July 2017
Extract
| How Geoffrey Bolton’s environmental history made a difference
Books & Arts
Memory lane
Andrew Ford
3 July 2017
Popular music can be hard to separate from our recollections
Books & Arts
Fortunes of war
Jane Goodall
14 June 2017
A rediscovered memoir and a multi-season French drama point to new ways of thinking about the second world war
Books & Arts
Dragged behind a chariot, watched by the crowd
Jane Goodall
30 May 2017
Books
| In the titanic battle over Greece’s economic sovereignty, the local audience was the big casualty
National Affairs
Mark Colvin, radio’s champion
Andrew Dodd
12 May 2017
And he was no slouch on the TV either. Farewell to a great broadcaster and a great friend – as @Colvinius – of
Inside Story
Essays & Reportage
Menzies in clubland
Sybil Nolan
21 April 2017
When Robert Menzies’s pursuit of political ambitions annoyed key figures in the Melbourne establishment, they made their displeasure known through the city’s most…
Books & Arts
Parallel lives
Graeme Dobell
29 March 2017
Books
| A former journalist and diplomat offers a double-jointed view of Australia’s international role
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