Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood audiobook review – a dryly funny memoir
The Handmaid’s Tale author reflects on her loves, losses and literary achievements in a memoir that showcases her wisdom and witMargaret Atwood had to be persuaded to write a memoir. The thought of writing about herself initially seemed “dead boring. Who…
Sleeping Beauties by David Byrne review – a quirky journey through the afterlife of invention
The Talking Heads frontman considers dormant ideas that made a comeback – from Indian irrigation to KafkaThere’s barely been a moment in the last half-century when David Byrne hasn’t been zinging about, dancing forward, opting odd. The art-school…
I was focused on becoming the first Aboriginal tennis champion. Then one remark changed something in me
As a teenager in Sydney, the would-be Wimbledon champion was working towards a singular goal when an act of racism shattered her naivetyIt was a regular match. Until it wasn’t. In 1969, I was 17 and had been living in Sydney with my tennis coach, Vic…
Can’t Get You Out of My Head by Michael Cragg review – what’s the secret of Kylie’s genius?
The pop star emerges as a great unifier in this in-depth yet heartfelt portrait of an Aussie icon‘There’s an anxiety in declaring oneself a Kylie fan,” wrote the late San Francisco poet Kevin Killian (who nonetheless once published an entire collection…
‘And you will be the People’s Earl’ – Charles Spencer’s Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, digested by John Crace
The earl on his globally lauded eulogy for Diana, King Charles’s sausage fingers and toxic Raine, topped off with a lavish sprinkling of adverbsCheers were heard up and down the land. Halley’s comet made an unscheduled appearance in the ethereal night…