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John Bryson

John Bryson

John Bryson was educated at the University of Melbourne and later became a barrister. He has written several books, the best-known of which is Evil Angels (1985), which went on to be filmed. He lives in Sydney.

John Bryson reviews 'Fate of a Free People: A radical re-examination of the Tasmanian wars' by Henry Reynolds

May 1995, no. 170 24 March 2020
Making the sea passage south to Flinders Island, I began reading this while off-watch, hoping book and destination might augment, but tough weather cancelled free time until after a landfall sleep. I’ve not much enjoyed histories which cast these manuka and granite islands in dismal role, they are shockingly beautiful, but the crowded cemetery wails, the old lath church is empty of joyful song, ... (read more)

John Bryson reviews 'Me and Rory Macbeath' by Richard Beasley

September 2013, no. 354 26 August 2013
In Richard Beasley’s third novel, a friendship between three boys ends violently, and one of them is tragically implicated. The lives of the young teenagers – Jake, Robbie, and Rory – are filled out with street football, driveway cricket, billycarts, fishing trips, slingshot target practice, and the comedy of flatulence. Their world is Rose Avenue during the Adelaide summer of 1977. ... (read more)

'Kindly Death', a new story by John Bryson

December 2012–January 2013, no. 347 28 November 2012
A visitation of Kindly Death is recorded by the Law List in a glass cabinet beside the sandstone doorway of Court Four in the City Courthouse, the sole item for the day’s business, and for many days: Trial: R v Ali Bashir. (1) Murder (2) Assist Suicide. The second count, rather than the first, is the reason for the presence of a dozen people holding a protest across the busy roadway, where the ... (read more)

John Bryson reviews 'From Moree to Mabo: The Mary Gaudron Story' by Pamela Burton

April 2011, no. 330 23 March 2011
Australia’s feisty first female High Court judge John Bryson   From Moree to Mabo: The Mary Gaudron Story by Pamela Burton UWA Publishing, $49.95 pb, 511 pp, 9781742580982   H.V. Evatt, on the hustings during an election campaign, was asked by an eight-year-old girl, ‘What is the Constitution?’ and later mailed her a copy. The girl was Mary Gaudron, whose path to the High Cour ... (read more)