Welcome to the June issue of ABR – another highly varied one. Emma McEwin – Douglas Mawson’s great-granddaughter – writes about Mawson’s ‘iron gut’ and his fellow Antarctic explorers’ dietary habits, including a queasy penchant for ‘penguins on horseback’. Miriam Cosic reviews the Coetzee–Auster correspondence, and Pascall Prize-winner Kerryn Goldsworthy reviews Lionel Shriver’s new novel. Brian McFarlane is underwhelmed by Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby. Opera is a major theme this month. World-renowned conductor Jeffrey Tate is intrigued by the controversial new biography of Benjamin Britten, and Peter Rose writes about three productions in Melbourne.