Memoir

Or words to that effect

by John Byron •

July-August 2009, no. 313

And So It Went: Night thoughts in a year of change by Bob Ellis

Viking, $35 pb, 563 pp

Memoir

Or words to that effect

by John Byron •

July-August 2009, no. 313

Bob Ellis’s lightly edited journal alternates between two main timelines spanning 27 June 2007 to 8 November 2008: that is, from the run-up to the last Australian federal election to Barack Obama’s victory. Ellis’s insomniac musings over these sixteen-odd months are brilliant and shambolic, irritating and moving. The book is essential reading, but you have to work hard for the gems.

John Byron

John Byron is Principal Policy Adviser at the Queensland University of Technology. He has 25 years’ experience in higher education and research policy, including as executive director of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and as a federal ministerial policy adviser in the previous Labor government. Most recently he contributed substantially to a major independent review of the Australian Research Council. He has degrees in English Literature from the Universities of Adelaide (BA Hons 1M) and Sydney (PhD). His début novel, The Tribute, was published by Affirm Press in 2021.