Peter FitzSimons, author of Eureka Stockade: The Unfinished Revolution, answers Six Sharp Questions

Posted on November 15, 2012 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

The Booktopia Book Guru asks

Peter FitzSimons

author of Eureka Stockade: The Unfinished Revolution, Mawson, Batavia, Kokoda and many more…

Six Sharp Questions

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1. Congratulations, you have a new book. What is it about and what does it mean to you?

Eureka Stockade: The Unfinished Revolution, details the birth of democracy in Australia. Our version of the Boston Tea Party, it was the moment when Australians insisted that they had rights, rights that they were prepared to fight for, the British bayonets notwithstanding.

2. Time passes. Things change. What are the best and worst moments that you have experienced in the past year or so?

The best moment was being at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in London. The worst moment? I dinkum can’t think of anything particularly bad this year – touch wood!

3. Do you have a favourite quote or passage you would be happy to share with us?

Yes, I love this part, where one of the diggers, is exhorting his brethren to take it further, and fight!

Typically, Thomas Kennedy goes further.

“The press,” he says, “has called us demagogues, who must be put down. But I for one will die a free man, though I drink the poison as Socrates of yore. We have come 15,000 miles, and left the enlightenment of the age and of the press, not to suffer insult, but to obtain greater liberty. We want men to rule over us, [not such as we have.] Most of all, we have to think of our children, who will grow up in this great colony, and all of us must never forget their own dearest interests.”

And yet, he asks, is this the way to proceed? Constantly signing petitions and passing resolutions, all for no result?

“Moral persuasion,” Thomas Kennedy says, with everyone leaning forward as before, to catch every word, “is all humbug. Nothing convinces like a lick in the lug!”

Love that “lick in the lug,” line! It wonderfully summed up the view of the vast body of diggers – we have had a gutful, and are now going to take arms against a sea of troubles.

 4. Writers have often been described as being difficult to live with. Do you conform to the stereotype or defy it?

I don’t really think I am – primarily because I love what I do. Though, I must say, when I am in full writing mode, I am doing one of two things: either writing my book, or resenting the fact that I am not writing my book. I am involved in many activities and travel a lot, but wherever I am, I always have my laptop close, and write my books in planes, trains, automobiles and hotel lobbies, as well as at home, lying supine on the coach. Overall, though, I have noticed that I am at my most productive when on long-haul flights, where there are no interruptions.

5. Some writers claim not to be influenced by the needs of the marketplace, while others seem obsessed by it. Would you please describe how the marketplace affects your writing (come on, tell the truth!).

Writing books is hard. Of course I want my books to sell. Thus, in the range of the many subjects I want to write about, I do choose the ones that will sell well in the marketplace.

6. Unlikely Scenario: You’ve been charged with civilising twenty ill-educated adolescents but you may take only three books with you. What do you take and why?

Charles Dickens -  Great Expectations: most impressive novel ever written, in my view.

Kahlil Gibran -  The Prophet – the values it evinces, without any religious gibberish, are wonderful.

Bob Dylan -  The Complete Lyrics of Bob Dylan. Even without him singing, and instrumentals, his lyrics are poetry for the soul:

Suddenly, I turned around, and she was standing there,

With silver bracelets on her wrist, and flowers in her hair,

She walked up to me so gracefully, and took my crown of thorns,

Come in, she said, I’ll give ya, shelter from the storm.”

Peter, thank you for playing.

Click here to buy Eureka: The Unfinished Revolution from Booktopia,
Australia’s No.1 Online Book Shop

Filed under: Australian Author, Author Interview, Book Recommendations, Book Talk, History, Writing Style, Writing tips | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Chris Hammer, author of The Coast and The River, answers Ten Terrifying Questions

Posted on October 10, 2012 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

The Booktopia Book Guru asks

Chris Hammer

author of The Coast and The River

Ten Terrifying Questions

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1.  To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

I was born in Tasmania, grew up and schooled in Canberra. I went to uni in Bathurst and, later did a second degree at the ANU in Canberra.

I’ve been a journalist for the past 25 years or so, mostly covering federal politics and international affairs.

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?

At twelve I wanted to be a test cricketer. At eighteen I wanted to be a film director. At 30 I wanted to be a foreign correspondent. Strangely enough, I was a pretty good cricketer and loved playing it, but it didn’t tick all the boxes. As I grew older, I became more and more interested in marrying together creativity with intellectual challenges. That’s why I became a journalist. I did become a foreign correspondent, travelling the world for SBS, but daily journalism, even long-form journalism, doesn’t give you the freedom or the canvas of writing a book: that’s something special.

3.  What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?

That I had all the answers – or at least had a fair chance of finding them. As if.

4.  What were three big events – in the family circle or on the world stage or in your reading life, for example – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced you in your career path?

Nothing. I grew up in a loving and secure family in Canberra in the sixties and seventies, so nothing ever happened. Ask anyone who was there. The world washed over me. Man landed on the moon when I was nine, but I didn’t think it was such a big deal.  I was  incensed at the injustice of the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa, but that was a long way away from my own experience. I was simultaneously precocious and phlegmatic. Then  puberty hit and the decline set in. I’ll never again be as smart as I was at age twelve.

But I was an early and avid reader. The books that caught my imagination at a very early age were the legends of King Arthur. I’m not sure the subject matter is as important as the fact that these were the books that hooked me. If I were a kid today, it would probably be Harry Potter.

My daydreams of retirement centre around writing and reading, that magical swirl of words.

5.  Considering the innumerable electronic media avenues open to you – blogs, online newspapers, TV, radio, etc – why have you chosen to write a book? aren’t they obsolete?

As a journalist/video producer I have worked for newspapers, television, magazines and on line. So I haven’t lacked opportunity. But none of them provide the freedom, the length or the purity of writing a book. The pleasure found in writing a book is similar in some ways to the pleasure derived from reading one: being able to engage your imagination and immerse yourself totally. I think that’s why books aren’t obsolete and aren’t likely to become obsolete: they provide an unrivalled immersive experience. Film and video can be powerful, but by their nature most of the  imagining is done by the producers, not the viewers. With books, the imaginative process is more equally shared between writer and reader.

6.  Please tell us about your latest book…

It’s called The Coast: a Journey Along Australia’s Eastern Shores. It’s travel writing, but travel writing with a purpose. I travel down the east coast of Australia, from the Torres Strait to Tasmania, exploring environmental issues. It’s not an essay. It’s more of a celebration of the coast and the people who live along it, how fortunate we are and why we should cherish it.

(BBGuru: publisher’s blurb -

The Coast and its people help define our identity. Most Australians live in suburbia, but our hearts are elsewhere.

From the winner of the ACT Book of the year Award for his first book, The River, comes this celebration of the Australian seascape, from its natural grandeur to the quirky individualism of those who live beside it. It is also the heartfelt and pertinent story of the issues facing our coast today and the resilience of communities at a turning point.

Chris Hammer travels the length of the east coast of Australia on a journey of discovery and reflection, from the Torres Strait to Tasmania; from an island whose beach has been lost forever to the humbling optimism of the survivors of Cyclone yasi; from the showy beaches of Sydney to a beautiful village that endures despite the loss of its fishing fleet.

This is a relevant, satisfying and highly readable book, imbued with a sense of optimism and humour. Even as new economic imperatives emerge and the shift in our climate becomes apparent, we can revel in the heritage and character of our shores, reminding us why The Coast is so important to all of us.)

Click here to buy The Coast from Booktopia,
Australia’s No.1 Online Book Shop

7.  If your work could change one thing in this world – what would it be?

I don’t set such lofty ambitions for my books.  If they provide readers with some pleasure, some food for thought, and some temporary relief from the mad vortex of daily life, then they may have assisted in some incremental way in our ongoing struggle against the banal, the vapid and the incessant noise of consumerism.

8.  Whom do you most admire and why?

I’m not much impressed by celebrity, material success or high office.

I’m more impressed by those selfless people who freely give of their time to care for others – I’m far more selfish.

But I guess I’m most impressed with people who are comfortable in their own skins, who don’t care what others might think of them, and who set their own priorities. There’s a certain grace in that, I think.

9.  Many people set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

To write books full time. In Australia, that’s pretty ambitious.

I’m not much taken by ambition as defined by the traditional notions of getting ahead. I work in parliament house in Canberra, which is chock-a-block with politicians (and journalists) who are more interested in personal advancement than in producing anything worthwhile. I’d much prefer to produce work that I’m proud of than getting ahead.

10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?

Write what you’d like to read, with honesty and authenticity, rather than try to write what you think will appeal to publishers or readers.

Having a book published is a wonderful experience, but don’t let it be an aim in itself; what’s the point if it’s not written from the heart?

Chris, thank you for playing.

Click here to buy The Coast from Booktopia,
Australia’s No.1 Online Book Shop

Filed under: Australian Author, Author Interview, Current Affairs, History, Travel Writing | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

David Day, author of Antartica: A Biography, Claiming a Continent, John Curtin: A Life, and more, answers Ten Terrifying Questions

Posted on August 16, 2012 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

The Booktopia Book Guru asks

David Day

author of Antartica: A Biography, Claiming a Continent, John Curtin: A Life, and more,

Ten Terrifying Questions

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1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

I had more schools than most because my father worked for the Bureau of Meteorology and was shifted around Australia. Although born in Melbourne, I spent six years of my childhood in Charleville in far west Queensland and only returned to Melbourne via Adelaide when I was about 10. I went to Kew State School, East Kew Central, Watsonia High School and University High School. After being almost constantly barefoot and casual in Charleville, it was a shock to be wearing a cap and tie in Melbourne.

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?

It was hard to imagine being anything when I was twelve. By the time I was eighteen, I thought of becoming, of all things, an accountant. I even did accountancy in sixth form and began a commerce degree at university before the Vietnam War got in the way.

3 .What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?

When I was eighteen, I still believed that owning an MGB would be the ultimate in life’s achievements. I never got to own one.

4. What were three big events – in the family circle or on the world stage or in your reading life, for example – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced you in your career path?

The Vietnam War had a profound effect on me, leading to a couple of brief stints in gaol for resisting conscription. Along the way, it prompted me to write a brief history of Laos, which was then being bombed by the United States. Although I did not realise it, that booklet was the start of my career as an historian. The second big event was being re-admitted to Melbourne University to do an Arts degree after failing to complete my Commerce degree and being expelled for occupying the Vice-Chancellor’s office. The third big event was marrying Silvia, whose love and support has been instrumental in all that I have managed to achieve.

5. Considering the innumerable electronic media avenues open to you – blogs, online newspapers, TV, radio, etc – why have you chosen to write a book? aren’t they obsolete?

Books continue to be important as the main means of communicating big ideas. However, I also write for newspapers and magazines and consult on television documentaries.

6. Please tell us about your latest book…

Antartica: A Biography is the result of some five years research and writing. It was an exciting journey that took me to some fascinating places around the world, although not to Antarctica itself. There was always a more important place to go, whether it was the whaling museum in Norway, the Explorers Club in New York or the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge. The resulting book provides the first major international history of Antarctica. It takes the reader from the voyages of Captain Cook to the campaigns of Greenpeace, revealing how the ownership of the continent has been fought over for two centuries by explorers and diplomats. Antarctica remains the only significant land mass without owners.

(From the publisher:

A groundbreaking history of human interaction with Antarctica, the last continent on earth.

“This is an intoxicating book by Australia’s greatest historian.” – Peter FitzSimons

For centuries it was suspected that there must be an undiscovered continent in the southern hemisphere. But explorers failed to find one. On his second voyage to the Pacific, Captain James Cook sailed further south than any of his rivals but failed to sight land. It was not until 1820 that the continent’s frozen coast was finally discovered and parts of the continent began to be claimed by nations that were intent on having it as their own.

That rivalry intensified in the 1840s when British, American and French expeditions sailed south to chart further portions of the continent that had come to be called Antarctica.

On and off for nearly two centuries, the race to claim exclusive possession of Antarctica has gripped the imagination of the world. Science was enlisted to buttress the rival claims as nations developed new ways of asserting territorial claims over land that was too forbidding to occupy. Although the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 was meant to end the rivalry, it has continued regardless, as new nations became involved and environmentalists, scientists and resource companies began to compete for control.

Antarctica: A Biography draws upon libraries and archives from around the world to provide the first, large-scale history of Antarctica. On one level, it is the story of explorers battling the elements in the most hostile place on earth as they strive for personal triumph, commercial gain and national glory. On a deeper level, it is the story of nations seeking to incorporate the Antarctic into their national narratives and to claim its frozen wastes as their own.)

Click here to order Antartica: A Biography from Booktopia,
Australia’s No. 1 Online Book Shop

7. If your work could change one thing in this world – what would it be?

This book is the third one that I have written about the methods humans employ to seek exclusive possession of the places they happen to inhabit. It reveals that the drive for territorial acquisition was just as fierce in Antarctica as elsewhere. Yet nations have so far agreed to share the continent rather than fight over it. It would be good if this book encouraged those in other lands to follow the recent example of nations in Antarctica.

8. Whom do you most admire and why?

I admire the boy who dared to say that the emperor had no clothes. In the present context, that would be Julian Assange.

9. Many people set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

My goals are to write all the books I have in mind, to learn French, to catch a ten kilogram salmon in a Canadian river and to run ten kilometres in under fifty minutes.

10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?

Just write.

David, thank you for playing.

Click here to order Antartica: A Biography from Booktopia,
Australia’s No. 1 Online Book Shop

Filed under: Australian Author, Author Interview, History | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Michael Winkler, editor of Kick it to the Shithouse: Great Sporting Quotes, answers Ten Terrifying Questions

Posted on August 5, 2012 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

The Booktopia Book Guru asks

Michael Winkler

editor of Kick it to the Shithouse: Great Sporting Quotes

Ten Terrifying Questions

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1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

I grew up in country Victoria then moved to Melbourne aged 17. At the time that seemed quite old. It wasn’t.

2. What did you want to be when you were 12, 18 and 30? And why?

I always wanted to be a writer. It seemed a romantic idea. Even when the reality of what being a writer meant finally struck, it was still what I wanted to be. When I was young, perhaps a few years younger than 12, I was also keen on the idea of becoming a criminal.

3. What strongly held belief did you have at 18 that you do not have now?

Very nearly all of them.

4. What were three big events – in the family circle or on the world stage or in your reading life, for example – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced you in your career path?

I think character is destiny, more or less, so the first key event was being born with the mental and emotional habitus that frames who I am. The next most important moment in my life was learning to read. The third key moment was meeting my partner. The single best thing you can do to ensure a better life is find the right person to spend it with.

5. Considering the innumerable electronic media avenues open to you – blogs, online newspapers, TV, radio, etc – why have you chosen to write a book? Aren’t they obsolete?

I have written for the internet since its first florescence in Australia the late 1990s. I’ve written for newspapers and magazines, I’ve worked in commercial television and for ABC radio. I suspect that in as little as 10 or 15 years most commercial publishing will be primarily electronic and old-style dead-tree books will be the domain of small specialist production houses. Despite all this, I will go to my grave loving traditional paper books over every other medium.

6. Please tell us about your latest book…

Kick it to the S#!thouse is a collection of memorable quotes from Australian sportspeople, ranging from the obscure to the obtuse (and occasionally the borderline obscene).

(BBGuru: Blurb - Whether it’s through banter, trash talking, the perfectly timed barb, a witty observation or the crude but effective sledge or counter-sledge, Aussies make taking the piss an art form, especially in the sporting arena. Here, from the MCG to the SCG, golf courses and racing tracks, comes the best witticisms, classic insults and brutal take-downs to ever cross the lips of our favourite sportspeople. And let’s not forget the downright hilarious things that come out of the mouths of our commentators and coaches. )

Click here to buy Kick it to the Shithouse, from Booktopia,
Australia’s No.1 Online Book Shop

7. If your work could change one thing in this world – what would it be?

The grotesque inequality in economic and personal power that exists between people across the globe. I think it’s a fair bet that this book won’t have much impact on that, though.

8. Whom do you most admire and why?

Pastor Sir Doug Nicholls for his work ethic, compassion and vision. I have him in a dead-heat with Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop as the greatest Australian who has ever lived.

9. Many people set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

To write fiction half as well as David Mitchell.

10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?

There is no law that says publishers have to publish your work, or that readers have to read it. If it is what the market wants, it will find an audience. Just because you think your writing deserves to be read doesn’t mean it will be. That’s a tough thing to discover. Rejection is incredibly painful, and it doesn’t hurt any less as you get older. Still, writing is something you have chosen. No-one has a knife to your throat telling you that you have to write. If you think there is any chance that the world might not want or need your work, perhaps you should hedge your bets and do something else useful with some of your time. It is valuable insurance against the inevitable ‘I’ve just wasted two decades of my life’ blues!

Michael, thank you for playing.

Filed under: Australian Author, Author Interview, History, Humour, Sport, Writing tips | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Rolling Stones Celebrate 50 Years of Gathering No Moss (and there is only one book every fan must have)

Posted on July 12, 2012 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

Written by the Stones, curated by the Stones, and featuring the very best photographs and ephemera from and beyond their archives: here is the official, authorized story of fifty fantastic years of the greatest rock’n’roll band the world has ever known!

“This is our story of fifty fantastic years. We started out as a blues band playing the clubs and more recently we’ve filled the largest stadiums in the world with the kind of show that none of us could have imagined all those years ago. Curated by us, it features the very best photographs and ephemera from and beyond our archives.” (Mick, Keith, Charlie & Ronnie).

On Thursday 12 July 1962 the Rolling Stones went on stage at the Marquee Club in London’s Oxford Street. In the intervening fifty years the Stones have performed live in front of more people than any band…ever. They’ve played the smallest blues clubs and some of the biggest stadium tours of all time. They’ve had No.1 singles and albums in every country that has a popular music chart and have helped define global popular culture. A phenomenal half-century later, they now look back at their astounding career. Curated, introduced and narrated by the band themselves, The Rolling Stones 50 is the only officially authorized book to celebrate this milestone.

With privileged access to a wealth of unseen and rare material, it is packed with superb reportage photography, contact sheets, negative strips, out-takes and so much more, from every period in the bands history. With more than 1,000 illustrations, it also features some of the most rare and interesting Stones memorabilia in existence: international posters, draft record cover art, bubblegum cards, jigsaws and other previously unpublished treasures specially photographed for this volume.

Additional contributions by photography legends Gered Mankowitz, Jean-Marie Perier, Dezo Hoffmann, Michael Cooper, Terry ONeill, Bent Rej, Philip Townsend and many others make this the definitive book to celebrate fifty years of The Rolling Stones.

Click here to order your copy from Booktopia

From Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie here is one spectacular thank you to their fans all over the world.

I’ve loved it all, I can’t define why, I couldn’t pick it to bits. Charlie and I were talking about it the other day, the variety of pictures in this book, the places and things you’d forgotten.’

‘A lot of the time you never realised there was a camera around. You just got used to it. It’s unique. you know, that you can pick up a book and see your whole life before you. I’m really digging it. I’m hoping we can still do enough to make another one.’

Keith Richards in The Daily Mirror

This is important > About the Authors

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood are the Rolling Stones. Oh Yeah!

The Rolling Stones 50: The Making of the Cover

The Rolling Stones 50 video: On the press

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David W. Cameron, author of The Battle for Lone Pine, Gallipoli, and ‘Sorry, Lads, But the Order is to Go’, answers Ten Terrifying Questions

Posted on June 28, 2012 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

The Booktopia Book Guru asks

David W. Cameron

author of The Battle for Lone Pine, Gallipoli, and ‘Sorry, Lads, But the Order is to Go’

Ten Terrifying Questions

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1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

I was born in Sydney (Bondi) and later moved into the western suburbs of Sydney, Campbelltown (when it actually was a town with about 10,000 people, if that). I graduated from the University of Sydney with First Class Honours in Archaeology.

2. What did you want to be when you were 12, 18 and 30? And why?

An archaeologist – I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my then hero Louis Leakey.

3. What strongly held belief did you have at 18 that you do not have now?

That politics was a worthy profession.

4. What were three big events – in the family circle or on the world stage or in your reading life, for example – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced you in your career path?

My father’s love of reading, which he passed onto me; my first trip to Gallipoli (from then on I wanted to know more); and my research career, which gave me the confidence to write my first book.

5. Considering the innumerable electronic media avenues open to you – blogs, online newspapers, TV, radio, etc – why have you chosen to write a book? Aren’t they obsolete?

I strongly believe that books will never be obsolete, they may change in form, style and length (to take into account the entrenchment of texting, blogging etc) but books will always be around. A book has gravitas that no other form of media can hope to approach. There is nothing like sitting down with a good book in a comfortable chair. It’s like being a kid and opening that first Christmas present.

6. Please tell us about your latest book, The Battle for Lone Pine: Four Days of Hell at the Heart of Gallipoli…

It tells the story of a number of individuals during the battle for Lone Pine at Gallipoli – Australian and Turk. Not only those in the front line, but also those supporting them in the rear areas, including nurses, cooks, sappers, engineers, stretcher-bearers etc.  It follows a number of individuals through those four terrible days of slaughter in August 1915. It is the first book to deal specifically with this battle and the consequences for those involved.  It is not just a ‘battle’ book but an intimate narrative of a number of individuals.

(From the publisher: Most Australian have heard of Lone Pine. Too few know why.

Over four days in August 1915, Australians and Turks were thrown into some of the fiercest fighting of the war, on a small plateau in Gallipoli known as Lone Pine. Thousands of lives were lost. Seven of Australia’s nine Gallipoli VCs were earned during brutal hand-to-hand combat in dark tunnels and in trenches just metres apart, bombarded by terrifying volleys of grenades.

The Battle for Lone Pine is the first book devoted to this cornerstone of the Anzac legend, drawing on unforgettable first-hand accounts scratched into diaries and letters home. The stories of the diggers, as well as the engineers, nurses, sappers, commanders and more, provide an invaluable record of the battle and serve as moving testimony to their courage in appalling conditions.

Today, pine trees are planted in remembrance around Australia. In Gallipoli, the Lone Pine Cemetery and Memorial attracts large crowds to commemorate Anzac Day. David W. Cameron’s absorbing history reveals the fate of those who fought on the ground where they gather.)

Click here to buy The Battle for Lone Pine from Booktopia,
Australia’s No. 1 Online Book Shop

7. If your work could change one thing in this world – what would it be?

It draws attention to the need for the appropriate conservation and preservation of the Anzac battlefields of 1915.

8. Whom do you most admire and why?

My parents.  They were battlers who made good and were always there in support and taught me the value and importance of family.

9. Many people set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

To write a best seller.

10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?

Read – Read – Read.

Write – Write – Write.

PS: Don’t let the blank screen phase you – just start writing and keep writing.  Half the fun is going back and editing your work. The end product is never like the original – so just start!  (and keep the water on the boil.)

David, thank you for playing.

Click here to buy The Battle for Lone Pine from Booktopia,
Australia’s No. 1 Online Book Shop

Extract

Prologue

A rush of adrenaline mixed with fear gripped 27-year-old Private Cecil McAnulty, from Middle Park, Victoria, as he and his mate Frank charged across no-man’s-land, on a plateau in the hills of the Gallipoli Peninsula not far from the coast, towards the Turkish stronghold nicknamed Lone Pine. As members of the 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion, they were in the (more…)

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REVIEW: Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady (Guest Blogger: Booktopia’s Sarah McDuling)

Posted on May 29, 2012 by booktopiaadministration

In Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady, Kate Summerscale casts a spotlight on a little known chapter in history. This is a very thoroughly researched case study detailing the true story of an unhappily married woman in Victorian Society.  In this, the age of Cougar Town, Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives, when women are applauded for chasing younger men and practically expected to experience dissatisfaction in their marriage, the idea of a woman keeping a diary of her extra martial affairs is not really very shocking. In fact, it sounds like the plot to the next Katherine Heigl movie.

In 1850s England, however, such an idea was enough to stop the press. Although a woman sat on the throne, this was an age in which woman did not yet have the right to vote. As Kate Summerscale’s research shows us, this was also an age in which any woman who was known to desire a man she was not married to was deemed to be suffering from sexual mania, in which PMS was actually considered to be a mental disorder that might land a woman in an asylum. Most of all, it was an age in which a lady’s husband was her lord and master.

Marriage, in the words of Queen Victoria herself, can be “a very doubtful happiness”. Still, in Victorian England, divorce was very rare. Not only did the social stigma of a failed marriage make divorce virtually unthinkable, most people simply couldn’t afford to get divorced. Divorce was such a lengthy and expensive process that it simply wasn’t an option outside of the aristocracy, who were ironically less inclined to go through the scandal of a divorce than unhappily married people of the lower classes. In the 1850s new laws were passed in order to make divorce cheaper and therefore more accessible to the middle class.

The first half of Summerscale’s book outlines the true story of Isabella Robinson, a women in her early thirties who had just entered into her second marriage. Like most marriages of the time, it was a marriage of convenience. Isabella’s husband could provide her with financial security, but very little else. Being an intelligent and passionate woman at her sexual peak, Isabella (trail blazing for generations of “cougars” to follow) soon finds herself lusting after a young man ten years her junior. Her obsession with him begins to rule her life and she pours all her repressed passion and frustrated sexual energy into her diary. When her husband finds her diary, he announces his intention to divorce her.

The second half of the book follows the explosive divorce trial. The case rests on proving whether or not Isabella’s diary is true. If it was true then she cheated on her husband and he can therefore divorce her on the grounds of adultery. If it’s not true then (according to Victorian society) she is obviously a madwoman suffering  from a sexual mania such as erotomania or nyphomania and therefore cannot be held legally responsible for her actions.

Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady might be non-fiction but it reads very much like a novel. For those who see the words “historical non-fiction” and immediately start snoring – don’t be too hasty to judge! This is an exciting story of scandal and intrigue, as well as a riveting courtroom drama. And on top of that, it is truly a revealing snapshot of Victorian times with cameo appearances from notable historical figures such as Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens.

Summerscale’s research is impressive. She has gone to extraordinary lengths compiling letters, newspaper clippings, public records and census information in order to build a really solid social and historical framework through which to view Mrs. Robinson’s story.

Still, throughout everything, Isabella Robinson remains something of a mystery. With her original diary lost, sadly all that remains of her words are the sections that were printed in the newspapers during the divorce trial. From Summerscale’s account, Isabella emerges as a woman full of contradictions. Impulsive and creative, selfish and hysterical, in ways born ahead of her times and in others wholly a product of her times – all that can be said for certain about Isabella Robinson is that she was very unhappy in what she called “the bonds of a dreaded wedlock”.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady is that it gives readers a rare glimpse into the sheer wealth of feeling that went unspoken during this time period. Here is proof that people in Victorian times were not really all that different from people nowadays. Isabella Robinson was an emotionally intense woman who either led a very rich fantasy life, or conducted multiple extra martial affairs (it is unclear how much of her diary was true and how much was simply “make-believe”). Either way, she clearly had just as many issues going on as the average modern woman. She was simply better at hiding her issues because she lived in a society in which any kind of strong emotional display was considered “bad manners”. This was a time when one avoided airing ones dirty laundry at all costs, let alone plastering it all over Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The idea of a Victorian woman obsessing over a younger man and feverishly detailing her sexual fantasies about him in her diary is just… well it’s like imagining Queen Victoria shopping for naughty lingerie, or Charles Darwin reading dirty magazines. It’s shocking, and fascinating and strangely comforting. It’s nice to think that perhaps our ancestors weren’t quite as stuffy and dull as they appear to be in all those old back and white pictures.

Summerscale’s previous book, The Suspicions of Mr Wicher, is said to be a study of the real life detective who inspired the character of Sherlock Holmes. In this same vein, Isabella Robinson could easily be said to have inspired characters like Madame Bovary and Lady Chatterley. But the best thing about Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady is the realisation that Isabella Robinson probably wasn’t all that different from the average Victorian woman. In fact, the only real difference was that the average Victorian woman was a little more clever about hiding her diary.

Guest Reviewer: Booktopia’s Sarah McDuling

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Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady by Kate Summerscale

From the bestselling, multi-award-winning author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher comes a brand new true story of a Victorian scandal.

On a mild winter’s evening in 1850, Isabella Robinson set out for a party. Her carriage bumped across the wide cobbled streets of Edinburgh’s Georgian New Town and drew up at 8 Royal Circus, a grand sandstone house lit by gas lamps. This was the home of the rich widow Lady Drysdale, a vivacious hostess whose soirees were the centre of an energetic intellectual scene.

Lady Drysdale’s guests were gathered in the high, airy drawing rooms on the first floor, the ladies in dresses of glinting silk and satin, bodices pulled tight over boned corsets; the gentlemen in tailcoats, waistcoats, neckties and pleated shirt fronts, dark narrow trousers and shining shoes. When Mrs Robinson joined the throng she was introduced to Lady Drysdale’s daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Edward Lane. She was at once enchanted by the handsome Mr Lane, a medical student ten years her junior. He was ‘fascinating’, she told her diary, before chastising herself for being so susceptible to a man’s charms. But a wish had taken hold of her, which she was to find hard to shake…

A compelling story of romance and fidelity, insanity, fantasy, and the boundaries of privacy in a society clinging to rigid ideas about marriage and female sexuality, Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace brings vividly to life a complex, frustrated Victorian wife, longing for passion and learning, companionship and love.

About the Author

Kate Summerscale is the author of the number one bestselling The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2008, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and adapted into a major ITV drama. Her first book, The Queen of Whale Cay, won a Somerset Maugham award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread biography award. Kate Summerscale has also judged various literary competitions including the Booker Prize. She lives in London.

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Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Book Recommendations, Guest Blog, History, Social Commentary | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

REVIEW: The Office: A Hardworking History by Gideon Haigh

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Booktopia

The following is a short excerpt from an excellent review of The Office by Gideon Haigh in The Sydney Morning Herald, entitled…

Under the white collars
by Jose Borghino

…. Haigh is also an elegant stylist and the opening chapters, because they rely so much on visual art to represent the early history of the office, have the same confident zip and sparkle as writers such as Robert Hughes and Simon Schama at their authoritative, breezy best: ”In one 11th-century Byzantine codex, St Gregory of Nazianzus has his feet on a footrest, his work stored in a doored cabinet and his eye fixed on a bookmount that might almost be a flatscreen monitor … The St Jeromes of Jan van Eyck (c. 1435) and Domenico Ghirlandaio (c. 1480), propped on their elbows over bulky texts, even look a little bored.”

This familiar tone and formidable range of reference is enhanced by The Office’s beautiful production values. There are images everywhere – mostly in black and white – sometimes breaking up the text or occupying the outer margins of the page.

The first half of The Office is an exhilarating sweep through history, outlining the inventions and technology that have made the modern office possible.

Haigh is particularly good on architecture, especially the rise of the skyscraper. But he also devotes considerable space to the development of the elevator, the telephone, airconditioning, the typewriter, email and the cubicle. (There are also asides about staplers, water coolers and the pencil with attached eraser.)

Haigh romps through four millenniums of history with gusto, but always with a journalist’s eye for the telling anecdote and the memorable character…

The Office is not a populist book – it’s too long and too complex for that. But neither is it a dry, academic tome – it’s too well written and engaging. Read more…

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The Office:  A Hardworking History

by Gideon Haigh

The office: for many of us, it’s where we spend more time and allocate greater effort than anywhere else. Yet how many of us have stopped to think about why?

In The Office: A Hardworking History, Gideon Haigh traces from origins among merchants and monks to the gleaming glass towers of New York and the space age sweatshops of Silicon Valley, finding an extraordinary legacy of invention and ingenuity, shaped by the telephone, the typewriter, the elevator, the email, the copier, the cubicle, the personal computer, the personal digital assistant.

Amid the formality, restraint and order of office life, too, he discovers a world teeming with dramas great and small, of boredom, betrayal, distraction, discrimination, leisure and lust, meeting along the way such archetypes as the Whitehall mandarin, the Wall Street banker, the Dickensian clerk, the Japanese salaryman, the French bureaucrat and the Soviet official.

In doing so, Haigh taps a rich lode of art and cinema, fiction and folklore, visiting the workplaces imagined by Hawthorne and Heller, Kafka and Kurosawa, Balzac and Billy Wilder, and visualised from Mary Tyler Moore to Mad Men, from Network to 9 to 5 – plus, of course, The Office. Far from simply being a place we visit to earn a living, the office emerges as a way of seeing the entire world.

The Office: it’s the history of all of us.

Gideon Haigh has been writing about sport and business for more than twenty years. He wrote regularly for The Guardian during the 2006-07 Ashes series. He has written or edited more than twenty books.

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Gideon Haigh will be speaking at The Sydney Writer’s Festival today

Filed under: Australian Author, Book Recommendations, Business & Management, Cutural Studies, Design and Style, History | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

COMING SOON: Olympic Gold: Our Greatest Individual Olympians Since 1896 (Available 1st June – pre-order now)

Posted on May 16, 2012 by booktopiaadministration

Olympic Gold: Our Greatest Individual Olympians Since 1896 follows the inspirational journeys of Australia’s 74 individual Olympic gold medallists, at both the Summer and Winter Games.

Australia has enjoyed an unbroken involvement in the modern Olympics, from Edwin Flack’s double-gold on the track at the first modern Games in 1896, to Lydia Lassila’s acrobatic feats on the ski slopes of Vancouver in 2010.

Chronicled along the way are Australia’s many famous victories in the swimming pool, alongside the lesser-known triumphs of the likes of Fanny Durack, Australia’s first female Olympic gold medallist and, of course, the era-defining achievement of Cathy Freeman in the Sydney Games in 2000.

Olympic Gold tells the stories of some of the nation’s most iconic sporting heroes, written by authors with an unparalleled insight into their epic achievements, providing a unique perspective on their journey to the top of the podium. The authors range from esteemed journalists and coaches to family members, and in some cases even the athletes themselves.

These are remarkable stories about remarkable people – that elite group of individuals who have reached for the stars, beaten the odds and won gold at the most prestigious sports event in the world.

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Filed under: Australian Author, Book Recommendations, History, Sport | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

The Australian Moment : How We Were Made for These Times by George Megalogenis

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Booktopia

There’s no better place to be during economic turbulence than Australia.

Brilliant in a bust, we’ve learnt to use our brains in a boom. Although the Great Recession continues to rumble around the globe, we successfully negotiated the Asian financial crisis, the dotcom tech wreck and the GFC.
Despite a lingering inability to acknowledge our achievements at home, the rest of the world now asks: How did we get it right?

This is the page-turning story of our nation’s remarkable transformation since the ’70s. One of our most respected journalists, George Megalogenis, traces the key economic reforms and brilliant moments of collective instinct that opened our society to the immigration of capital, ideas and people to just the right degree. He pinpoints the events that shaped our good fortune and national character, and corrects our selective memory where history has been misunderstood or misdirected by self-interested political leadership.

No one writing today is better at reading the numbers and telling the story around them than Megalogenis, and no one else has been able to coax our former prime ministers to candidly re-assess each other’s contribution to the Australian Moment. Fraser, Hawke, Keating, Howard and Rudd, as well as Whitlam’s confidant Graham Freudenberg, go on record for the first time about many aspects of the internal politicking, decision-making and bids for the legacy of our astonishing period of significant reform.

The Australian Moment demands we reconsider what we have achieved and our place in the global economy, and how we might purposefully approach the future. A groundbreaking work in the tradition of The Lucky Country and The End of Certainty.

‘Megalogenis is Australia’s best explainer – a historical bowerbird who has woven a sparkling narrative answering the big contemporary questions of how the hell we got here, and how we go about not buggering it up. A brilliant read.’ Annabel Crabb

About the Author: George Megalogenis is a senior journalist and political commentator with The Australian newspaper, to which he also contributes the much-respected blog Meganomics, and is a regular guest on ABC TV’s The Insiders. He spent over a decade in the Canberra press gallery, and is the author of Faultlines, The Longest Decade and Quarterly Essay 40: Trivial Pursuit – Leadership and the End of the Reform Era.

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Filed under: Australian Author, History, Politics, Social Commentary | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

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