I feel a bit embarrassed writing about myself. It suggests the individual is at the centre, whereas I believe the group or community is. It also directs attention to the person instead of what is written, the thing itself. Also, it extols the artist instead of the tradition which he represents.
What I've written is more important than what I am. ‘I could bear anything in my life,’ a New Yor ... (read more)
Craig McGregor
Craig McGregor (1933–2022) was a journalist and cultural critic. He wrote Time of Testing. His collection of essays, Soundtrack for the ‘Eighties, was published by Hodder in 1983.
Writing a biography of any practising politician is a difficult task: you are more or less beholden to your subject, and the book can end up an exercise in diplomacy instead of perception. Writing a book about Bill Hayden, who has been called an enigma, a Hamlet, and a Cassandra, is double difficult. Writing about Hayden without Hayden’s help (he ‘was able to squeeze in only limited interviews ... (read more)
A Nation Apart is the title of this book of essays on contemporary Australia and it’s a good title because it summarises the fragmentation, the sense of disparateness, which characterizes this nation at the moment – and characterises the book itself.
‘We remain unknown … even to ourselves’, says the editor, John McLaren, in an introduction which sets the tone for the book. It is instruc ... (read more)