I reviewed Christine Helliwell’s “Semut” for the Canberra Times back in July last year. Review was published in the print edition but not on-line. Putting it up here for posterity. It’s a real achievement of a book.
Read More
Does the Australian government do introspection when it comes to assessing its foreign policy choices? So thick are the drapes on the bureaucratic curtain that it is hard to know. But if ever there is an occasion for self-reflection as to the appropriateness of an approach it is the combustive events last week in Honiara, capital of Solomon Islands.
Read MoreWhen I was a child, my favourite book was the Ladybird version of Treasure Island. I would read the story in bed every night without fail and, now, nearly – gulp – forty years later can still picture how the illustrator rendered Blind Pew, Billy Bones, Jim Hawkins, and Long John Silver, the dank interior of the Admiral Benbow Inn, the red bandanas and thick gold earrings of the pirates, the turquoise sea that lapped the island where the treasure was stashed.
Read More