Books & arts
      
        
      The biggest stage
    
    
      Brett Evans 
    
    
      12 November 2015    
    
      Books | Brett Evans follows Peter Garrett from West Pymble to Canberra, via French’s in Oxford Street    
  
                
                      
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      The stylish portraits of May and Mina Moore
    
    
      Anne Maxwell 
    
    
      12 October 2015    
    
      Two NZ-born photographers created a remarkable body of work in Australia during the first half of the twentieth century
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        From the archive
      
        
      Communist, scientist, lover, spy
    
    
      Klaus Neumann 
    
    
      3 October 2015    
    
      The personal and the political are bound up in the life of anthropologist, Stasi informer and one-time Canberra resident Fred Rose
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Crusader or conspirator?
    
    
      Bruce Duncan 
    
    
      24 September 2015    
    
      Books | Bruce Duncan reviews Gerard Henderson’s biography of B.A. Santamaria    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      The congenial candidate
    
    
      Norman Abjorensen 
    
    
      21 September 2015    
    
      Books | Can Bill Shorten sell an unexciting message? Norman Abjorensen reviews David Marr’s new Quarterly Essay    
  
                  
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      The story behind the story
    
    
      Tom Griffiths 
    
    
      24 July 2015    
    
      Tom Griffiths welcomes a profound exploration of intergenerational memory    
  
                
                      
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      The rise and rise of Narendra Modi
    
    
      Robin Jeffrey 
    
    
      10 June 2015    
    
      Books | What happens when a party of true believers led by a ferociously motivated politician takes on a dying government? Robin Jeffrey charts an enigmatic…    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      Manning Clark and the Man in Black
    
    
      Alan Fewster 
    
    
      25 May 2015    
    
      ASIO’s ambivalence about Manning Clark might not have incited a diplomatic training incident, but Clark’s response was uncompromising
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        From the archive
      
        
      What Julia Gillard couldn’t give us
    
    
      Stephen Mills 
    
    
      20 May 2015    
    
      Michael Cooney’s account of his years as prime ministerial speechwriter helps explain what went wrong
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Achieving luminosity
    
    
      Eleanor Hogan 
    
    
      19 May 2015    
    
      Books | Martin Edmond’s dual biography of Rex Battarbee and Albert Namatjira illuminates a remarkable friendship, writes Eleanor Hogan    
  
                  
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      The life of the author
    
    
      Susan Lever 
    
    
      15 May 2015    
    
      Books | A new biography captures Thea Astley’s idiosyncrasies and contradictions, and the qualities of her fiction, writes Susan Lever    
  
                
                      
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      An un-Australian childhood
    
    
      Amirah Inglis 
    
    
      5 May 2015    
    
      This extract from her award-winning memoir opens as Amirah Inglis and her mother arrive in Melbourne from Europe in 1929
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      Our story
    
    
      Sara Dowse 
    
    
      4 May 2015    
    
      Sara Dowse remembers the writer Amirah Inglis, who died on Saturday
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      The middle man
    
    
      Brett Evans 
    
    
      23 April 2015    
    
      Books | Tony Windsor made an indelible mark on federal politics, writes Brett Evans. And he might be considering a comeback    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Anna Bligh, the story so far
    
    
      Sara Dowse 
    
    
      20 April 2015    
    
      Books | Sara Dowse reviews the autobiography of the former Queensland premier    
  
                  
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      The voice of a generation
    
    
      Brian McFarlane 
    
    
      1 April 2015    
    
      Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth, now in its second screen version, recounts a remarkable life amid the upheavals of a century ago, writes Brian McFarlane    
  
                
                      
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      Learning to think at Oxford
    
    
      Margaret Simons 
    
    
      23 March 2015    
    
      “There was nothing before Oxford, really,” says Malcolm Fraser in this extract from his political memoirs, written with Margaret Simons
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Revolutionary Sydney
    
    
      Andrew Dodd 
    
    
      3 February 2015    
    
      Books | Three men and a city in turmoil. Andrew Dodd reviews two new books about Sydney’s formative years    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Lives in motion
    
    
      Sylvia Lawson 
    
    
      28 January 2015    
    
      Cinema | Sylvia Lawson reviews Wild, Birdman and The Imitation Game    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Strategic omissions
    
    
      Rodney Tiffen 
    
    
      8 January 2015    
    
      Books | John Howard’s view of the Menzies years is partial in important respects, but he offers a valuable perspective on an important period    
  
                  
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      How Hamer made it happen
    
    
      Judith Brett 
    
    
      27 October 2014    
    
      Dick Hamer’s election as Victorian Liberal leader was a seachange in the state’s politics and culture, writes Judith Brett    
  
                
                      
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Girl, twenty-eight
    
    
      Sophie Black 
    
    
      22 October 2014    
    
      Girls creator Lena Dunham has the knack of bottling the essence of the thing, writes Sophie Black    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      The real Julia
    
    
      Sara Dowse 
    
    
      15 October 2014    
    
      Books | What happened to the woman who beguiled on election night 2007?
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Essays & reportage
      
        
      Caught out: Edna and Jack Ryan and the 1951 referendum
    
    
      Lyndall Ryan 
    
    
      13 October 2014    
    
      Expelled from the Communist Party for not toeing the line, Lyndall Ryan's parents were faced with a dilemma when Robert Menzies’s government tried to ban the party    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      The making of a great biography
    
    
      Brian McFarlane 
    
    
      23 September 2014    
    
      Jonathan Croall’s new book reveals a talented researcher and writer at work, says Brian McFarlane    
  
                  
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Imperial intimacies
    
    
      Frank Bongiorno 
    
    
      19 September 2014    
    
      Historian John Rickard recalls an Australia in which private lives occasionally teetered on the edge of scandal
    
  
                
                      
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      Money and morality
    
    
      Stuart Macintyre 
    
    
      19 September 2014    
    
      Stuart Macintyre reviews a new biography of the titan of Australian newspaper proprietors, David Syme
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      What makes them run?
    
    
      Brett Evans 
    
    
      5 September 2014    
    
      Three new political biographies reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the genre
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        
      
    
  
  
          
        Books & arts
      
        
      The surgeon as bad-tempered hero
    
    
      Frank Bowden 
    
    
      20 June 2014    
    
      A physician decodes an unsettling memoir of life in and beyond the operating theatre
    
  
                
          
          
  
    
        © 2025 Inside Story and contributors | ISSN 1837-0497