In a recent issue of the British ‘Bookseller’, a columnist wishing to explain the apparent lack of success in UK of Anthony Grey’s attempt to convince people that the late Harold Holt was a spy for the Chinese said ‘the fact is that the British public does not give a damn for Australian Prime Ministers’. Perhaps the reason for the comparative failure of the same book in Australia is that the Australian public does not give a damn for the views of pommy journalists.

Monash University bookshop, which has had nearly as many managers in its short history as Melbourne University in its much longer period of glory, may well have found the best in Jim McGrath, who recently took up the appointment. Jim, who was successful in educational books for Nelsons and Prentice Hall, is reputedly very happy to have made the change from poacher to game-keeper.