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Brent Crosswell

Brent Crosswell reviews 'Back from the Dead: Peter Hughes’ story of survival and hope after Bali' by Patrick Lindsay

December 2003–January 2004, no. 257 16 January 2024
Patrick Lindsay’s Back from the Dead, one of the first books published on the Bali bombing, is primarily an evocation of the inferno and its aftermath, through the eyes of those who survived it. There is ‘Peter’s story’ (the author’s central focus), ‘Nashie’s story’, ‘Col’s story’ and so on, all interpolated with extensive quotes, mostly from the victims of the blast. Despite ... (read more)

Brent Crosswell reviews 'A Game of Our Own: The origins of Australian football' by Geoffrey Blainey

September 2003, no. 254 01 September 2003
Australian football has lost its magic, a unique quality existing in the 1950s, and even as late as the 1970s. It derived from the fixed positions that players adopted and from their physical diversity. In their competing forms, they became metaphysical constructs – good versus evil, beauty versus ugliness, benign innocence versus malevolent experience – constructs limited only by the human im ... (read more)