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John Curtain

John Curtain was Chief Editor Nonfiction at Penguin Books Australia.

John Curtain 'On Fiction and Non-Fiction'

August 1987, no, 93 08 August 2022
About twenty years ago, we were offered a house on Stradbroke Island for a winter holiday. Cheshire, the publishing company I had recently left teaching to work for, was also a bookseller; so not only was there a fortnight, kids willing, to catch up on all those books we had meant to read, but they were available at staff discount. Before we left, I went through Cheshire’s paperback section lik ... (read more)

John Curtain reviews 'The Age Good Food Guide: 7th edition' edited by Claude Forell and Rita Erlich

October 1986, no. 85 01 October 1986
In one of the more matter-of-fact paragraphs of that rare and sentient book, Celebration of the Senses, Eric Rolls reflects on how ‘until the nineteen-fifties eating was seldom an adventure in Australia’. The Greek community had taken over the country town cafes and ‘by serving food that was a parody of the worst Australian food they prospered astoundingly. Slabs of steak fried ten minutes t ... (read more)