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A pen on fire

The enduring appeal of Inga Clendinnen
by
June 2021, no. 432

Inga Clendinnen: Selected writing edited by James Boyce

Black Inc., $32.99 pb, 400 pp

A pen on fire

The enduring appeal of Inga Clendinnen
by
June 2021, no. 432

It is wonderful to immerse oneself for days in the precise, elegant, passionate words of historian Inga Clendinnen (1934–2016), as this welcome collection of her writings enables one to do. Clendinnen’s distinctive voice comes through: warm, confidential, witty, and driven by a fierce intelligence. All her major writings are here – essays, articles, lectures, memoirs, and extracts from her books – deftly selected by James Boyce, a historian thirty years younger than Clendinnen and himself a highly original thinker and writer. As Boyce observes in his perceptive introduction, ‘Clendinnen’s subject was nothing less than human consciousness.’

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Comment (1)

  • Thank you for a superb and insightful review! Having read and admired a number of Inga Clendinnen's works, I am now inspired to buy this collection of her writings.
    Posted by Anne Whitehead
    03 June 2021

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