Robert Phiddian is Professor of English at Flinders University. He has taught renaissance and eighteenth-century literature and has a special interest in political satire, parody and humour.
Books & arts
By his fruits shall we know him?
Robert Phiddian
29 July 2026
J.D. Vance follows Hillbilly Elegy with a tale of religious revelation
Books & arts
He’s not the Messiah
Robert Phiddian
23 May 2024
A former prime minister ponders providence
Books & arts
Born to laugh
Robert Phiddian
22 March 2024
Is British comedy pervaded by the worldview of the Oxbridge graduate?
From the archive
Yes, it is funny
Robert Phiddian
5 September 2023
How the comic genius of John Clarke found its anchor
Essays & reportage
Petty’s golden thread
Robert Phiddian
12 April 2023
The brilliant cartoonist illuminated Australia as it is, and as it could be
Books & arts
The scalpel and the axe
Robert Phiddian
5 November 2021
Bill Leak’s biographer offers a sympathetic but unflinching account of the controversial cartoonist’s life
Books & arts
A year of living dangerously
Robert Phiddian
13 November 2020
Like the rest of us, cartoonists lived through a gruelling 2020
Books & arts
Risky business
Robert Phiddian
4 January 2019
Books | A year of cartoons reveals almost as much about the media as it does about politics
Books & arts
Cartoonists go back to class
Robert Phiddian
7 June 2016
Books | A new collection of cartoons reveals a struggle to find the comic essence of Malcolm Turnbull, writes Robert Phiddian
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