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Pamela Bone

Pamela Bone was a journalist for The Age, joining the profession later in life after working such jobs as night shifts in a fruit cannery. She was the first female leader writer for The Age, and their first female associate editor. Twice Pamela won the Melbourne Press Club's award for best newspaper columnist; and was also received the United Nations Media Peace Prize. She passed away in 2008.

Pamela Bone reviews 'Come With Daddy: Child murder–suicide after family breakdown' by Carolyn Harris Johnson and 'Kangaroo Court: Family law in Australia (Quarterly Essay 17)' by John Hirst

October 2005, no. 275 01 October 2005
He said, she said. Is there any way to talk about this sad subject without taking sides? And a thought for a reviewer: how to resist the temptation to find a book a ‘good book’ if you agree with its arguments, and a ‘bad book’ if you disagree? I disagree with most of what John Hirst has to say in Kangaroo Court: Family law in Australia, but I’m trying to be fair. The essay is lucidly wri ... (read more)

Pamela Bone reviews 'No Time For Dances: A Memoir Of My Sister' by Gillian Bouras

May 2006, no. 281 01 May 2006
When is it morally defensible to take one’s own life? Whenever, might be the first response: it is, after all, one’s own life. While the church still regards it as a grave sin, attempted suicide is not a crime, though helping someone else to commit suicide is. Yet does not a desire to end one’s life at a time of one’s own choosing have to be weighed against the pain it might cause others? ... (read more)

Pamela Bone reviews 'Dying: A memoir' by Donald and Myfanwy Horne

December 2007–January 2008, no. 297 01 December 2007
Eighty-four is a good age. To die then is not a tragedy, or at least no more than that the knowledge we must all die is the great human tragedy (some might think the alternative, to live forever, would be an even greater one). Donald Horne does not consider his death a tragedy, in this account of his dying. What pervades this thoughtful book, written by Donald Horne and his wife, Myfanwy Horne, is ... (read more)