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Sydney Morning Herald
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
13 new books to read this month
It may be cold out there, but the books are hotting up. As winter extends its grip on Australia, publishers have got a truckload of books hitting the shops. Here is a selection of only 13 of the many books due out this month. Dry July? Not in the book business. Eden Mark Brandi Hachette, $32.99 Out now Mark Brandi novels are far from conventional crime novels. Indeed, he has an unerring eye for the social context of any skulduggery committed in his pages. If you read his first book, the award-winning Wimmera, you'll recognise a clue on the third page of Eden to the real identity of the main character who has just emerged from jail and has got a job − and a place to sleep − in the cemetery. But there's more than burying the dead going on, and a nosey journalist is on his trail. Deep History: Country and Sovereignty Eds., Ann McGrath & Jackie Huggins UNSW Press, $49.99 July 1 Professors Ann McGrath and Jackie Huggins have collected a group of essays by historians, anthropologists, artists and archaeologists that consider 'how temporality plays out in relation to sovereignty' across Australia, the Pacific Islands, New Guinea and New Zealand. After all, Indigenous people have been making histories and caring for Country 'significantly longer than colonial intruders'. The writers examine place, song, histories, landscape, rock art and more. Your Friend and Mine Jessica Dettmann Atlantic Books, $32.99 July 1 The premise of Jessica Dettmann's fourth novel is delicious: 20 years after the death of her best friend Tess, Margot gets a letter from her via a solicitor inviting her on an all-expenses-paid trip to London. The pair had long ago planned to visit Tess' home, but life and death got in the way. This trip, however, is no sightseeing tour − Tess had a number of tasks in mind for Margot to undertake. There's the question of Tess' ashes, revenge to be gained on cruel lovers, and more. This at-times wistful and tender romp is a hoot. The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson Belinda Lyons-Lee Transit Lounge, $34.99 July 1 Belinda Lyons-Lee's second historical novel − her first was about that wizard of waxworks, Marie Tussaud − delves into how Robert Louis Stevenson came to write his classic of duality, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Narrated by Stevenson's wife, it begins with a bizarre seance, reimagines Stevenson's relationship with the murderer Eugene Chantrelle and investigates the morbid influence of the work of 18th-century bodysnatcher Declan Brodie. The author says she wants her work to be 'illuminating, entertaining and transporting'. It is.
The Age
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
13 new books to read this month
It may be cold out there, but the books are hotting up. As winter extends its grip on Australia, publishers have got a truckload of books hitting the shops. Here is a selection of only 13 of the many books due out this month. Dry July? Not in the book business. Eden Mark Brandi Hachette, $32.99 Out now Mark Brandi novels are far from conventional crime novels. Indeed, he has an unerring eye for the social context of any skulduggery committed in his pages. If you read his first book, the award-winning Wimmera, you'll recognise a clue on the third page of Eden to the real identity of the main character who has just emerged from jail and has got a job − and a place to sleep − in the cemetery. But there's more than burying the dead going on, and a nosey journalist is on his trail. Deep History: Country and Sovereignty Eds., Ann McGrath & Jackie Huggins UNSW Press, $49.99 July 1 Professors Ann McGrath and Jackie Huggins have collected a group of essays by historians, anthropologists, artists and archaeologists that consider 'how temporality plays out in relation to sovereignty' across Australia, the Pacific Islands, New Guinea and New Zealand. After all, Indigenous people have been making histories and caring for Country 'significantly longer than colonial intruders'. The writers examine place, song, histories, landscape, rock art and more. Your Friend and Mine Jessica Dettmann Atlantic Books, $32.99 July 1 The premise of Jessica Dettmann's fourth novel is delicious: 20 years after the death of her best friend Tess, Margot gets a letter from her via a solicitor inviting her on an all-expenses-paid trip to London. The pair had long ago planned to visit Tess' home, but life and death got in the way. This trip, however, is no sightseeing tour − Tess had a number of tasks in mind for Margot to undertake. There's the question of Tess' ashes, revenge to be gained on cruel lovers, and more. This at-times wistful and tender romp is a hoot. The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson Belinda Lyons-Lee Transit Lounge, $34.99 July 1 Belinda Lyons-Lee's second historical novel − her first was about that wizard of waxworks, Marie Tussaud − delves into how Robert Louis Stevenson came to write his classic of duality, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Narrated by Stevenson's wife, it begins with a bizarre seance, reimagines Stevenson's relationship with the murderer Eugene Chantrelle and investigates the morbid influence of the work of 18th-century bodysnatcher Declan Brodie. The author says she wants her work to be 'illuminating, entertaining and transporting'. It is.
Business Times
09-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
How golden ages really start
Peak Human By Johan Norberg. Atlantic Books; 400 pages; US$32.99 and £22 THE way to start a 'golden age' is to erect big, beautiful barriers to keep out foreign goods and people. That, at least, is the view of the most powerful man on the planet. Johan Norberg, a Swedish historian, makes the opposite case. In Peak Human, Norberg charts the rise and fall of golden ages around the world over the past three millennia, ranging from Athens to the Anglosphere via the Abbasid caliphate. He finds that the polities that outshone their peers did so because they were more open – to trade, to strangers and to ideas that discomfited the mighty. When they closed up again, they lost their shine. Consider the Song dynasty in China, which lasted from 960 to 1279AD. Song emperors were much keener on the rule of law than their predecessors, who tended to rule by whim. To enforce predictable rules, they hired lots of officials via meritocratic exams. The first Song emperor enacted the 'unconventional policy reform' of '(not) killing officials who disagreed with him'. Peasants were granted property rights and allowed to move around, rather than being tied to a lord's land. Farm output more than doubled, and the extra food supported much larger cities. In the 1100s Kaifeng, the capital, had 65 times the population of London. Canals made domestic trade easier. International trade followed. Merchants started issuing paper money, six centuries before Europeans did, and the government embraced this brilliant idea – so much easier than carrying heavy strings of copper coins. 'Crowded cities set the stage for an unparalleled exchange of ideas, goods (and) services,' notes Norberg. Artisans devised new industrial processes, such as burning coal to smelt iron. The invention of movable type in the 1040s allowed the printing of books so cheap that one philosopher griped that people would stop learning the classics by heart. By 1200, Song China had the world's richest economy, a merchant navy with 'the potential to discover the world', and a habit of tinkering that could have brought on an industrial revolution centuries before Europe's. But then the Mongols arrived. The popular image of Genghis Khan and his mounted hordes sweeping across the world slaughtering and burning is accurate as far as it goes. However, the Mongol dynasty took pains to preserve its predecessor's technological marvels – even if it did not add much to them. It was only when the Ming emperors took over in 1368 that China really turned in on itself. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Free movement within the country was ended. Free exchange gave way to forced labour. Foreign trade was made punishable by death, and even the construction of ocean-worthy ships was banned. Pining for the good old days, a Ming emperor brought back the fashions of 500 years before. Men caught with the wrong hairstyle were castrated, along with their barbers. Largely thanks to reactionary Ming policies, Chinese incomes fell by half between 1080 and 1400. The country did not recover its mojo until it opened up again in the late 20th century. Some of the golden ages Norberg describes will be familiar to readers, but he adds fresh details and provocative arguments. Athens was not just the birthplace of democracy; it grew rich because it was, by ancient standards, liberal. Tariffs were only 2 per cent. Foreigners were welcome: a Syrian ex-slave became one of the richest men in town. On a measure devised by the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think-tank, ancient Athenians enjoyed more economic freedom than citizens of any modern nation, narrowly beating Hong Kong and Singapore. (Such freedom did not apply to women or slaves; a caveat that applies to all golden ages until relatively recently.) Rome grew strong by cultivating alliances and granting citizenship to conquered peoples. It learned voraciously from those it vanquished – Greek slaves taught Roman children about logic, philosophy and drama. During Rome's golden age, one set of laws governed a gigantic empire, markets were relatively free, and 400,000 km of roads sped goods from vessel to villa. As a gobsmacked Greek orator put it: to see all the world's products, either travel the world or come to Rome. The emperor Augustus introduced a flat poll tax and a modest wealth tax. Extra income from hard work or innovation suddenly faced a marginal tax rate of zero. Small wonder Augustan Rome grew as rich as Britain and France were 1,500 years later. Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of America's House of Representatives, thinks Rome collapsed because of 'rampant homosexual behaviour'. Norberg offers a more convincing explanation. Bad luck – plagues and barbarian attacks – was compounded by policy blunders. Cash-strapped emperors debased the coinage, reducing its silver content. This caused wild inflation. Price controls were then slapped on everything 'from sandals to lions'. Trade atrophied. Intellectual freedom gave way to dogma, with the persecution first of Christians and then by Christians. Finally, Rome was too weak to resist the barbarian onslaught. Revisionists say the Dark Ages that followed were not so bad. Archaeological evidence, such as a sudden fall in the number of cargo-ship wrecks, suggests they were 'the biggest social regression in history'. Norberg deftly punctures popular misconceptions. The zealots of Islamic State revere the Abbasid caliphate, but would have hated its tolerance. The Italian Renaissance, which modern nationalists such as Viktor Orban see as evidence of European and Christian cultural superiority, began as a revolt against Christian orthodoxy and in imitation of pagan cultures. Despite what you read in Blake and Dickens, Britain's Industrial Revolution was not miserable for the workers: a study of diaries shows the only group consistently dissatisfied was poets and writers. Could a history book be more timely? Of all the golden ages, the greatest is here and now. Of all the progress of the past 10,000 years in raising human living standards, half has occurred since 1990. Openness went global after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But now it is in rapid retreat, as a multilateral trade war looms and ever more states suppress free inquiry. Previous golden ages all ended like Rome's did, jinxed by a mix of bad luck and bad leadership. Many thriving societies isolated themselves or suffered a 'Socrates moment', silencing their most rational voices. Peak Human does not mention Donald Trump; it was written before he was re-elected. America's president will not read it, but others should. The current age of globalisation could still, perhaps, be saved. As Norberg argues: 'Failure is not a fate but a choice.' ©2025 The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved
Daily Mail
03-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Fulvia by Jane Draycott: The woman who outwitted Cicero and then spat on his corpse
Fulvia by Jane Draycott (Atlantic Books £20, 288pp) In 43BC the Roman matriarch Fulvia arranged for Cicero's decapitated head to be brought before her. In full view of the crowd she spat on his remains and then retrieved a hairpin from her elaborate coiffure and stabbed his tongue. It was her revenge for Cicero publicly claiming she was nothing but 'a shameless and wanton courtesan'. This was not how women were to behave in Ancient Rome. As Jane Draycott explains in this fine biography of Fulvia, public utterance was the preserve of men such as Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. A Roman matron, by contrast, was expected to run the family estate and supervise the servants while her husband was busy in the Senate or leading an army. But Fulvia, who was independently wealthy thanks to an inherited fortune, had other ideas. She was, said the historian Plutarch disapprovingly, 'a woman who took no thought for spinning or housekeeping' and instead 'wished to rule a ruler and command a commander'. Trouble, in other words. The first inklings of Fulvia's ambition came in 52BC, when her first husband, a popular politician called Publius Clodius Pulcher, was murdered by a rival called Titus Annius Milo. Instead of being prostrate with grief, Fulvia set about getting vengeance. She stripped her husband's body and displayed his wounds to stir up the mob. It worked: Milo was charged with murder and Fulvia appeared as a prosecution witness, something unheard of for a woman. Milo was found guilty and sent into exile, while Cicero, who had acted as his counsel, spent the rest of his life plotting his revenge against the woman who had so publicly defeated him. From here Fulvia moved on scandalously fast. Her next husband was another demagogue who would be killed fighting in North Africa. She then married Antony (of Cleopatra fame). Cicero spitefully claimed that Antony had married Fulvia only for her money to pay off his debts. Cicero also sneered that Antony was so henpecked that he handed over control of his Italian interests to Fulvia when he left Rome in 41BC to visit the eastern provinces. Far more likely, suggests Draycott, is that Antony knew just what a competent and confident caretaker Fulvia would be. She tactically married off her teenage daughter to Octavian, Antony's chief rival, as a way of neutralising his threat. Octavian, however, quickly divorced his wife and started publishing obscene poetry (too rude to quote here), claiming his mother-in-law had pestered him for sex. Fulvia raised an army against him, leading her troops into what became known as the 'Perusine War'. It was at this point her luck ran out and she was exiled. How much of this is true, let alone fair? Draycott argues that Fulvia is the victim of centuries of misogyny and slipshod scholarship. Once Cicero set the ball rolling with his spiteful portrait of her as 'a woman as cruel as she is greedy', it was open season. Generations of big-name historians including Plutarch, Livy and Suetonius piled in with spicy anecdotes about Fulvia without fact-checking them. It was more important to them to tell a cautionary tale about the disastrous consequences of women getting ideas. Draycott is too scrupulous a scholar to suggest that she has uncovered new facts about Fulvia's life. Instead, she makes a persuasive case that, in the Roman Republic, any woman who dared do things differently was virtually certain of going down in history as an evil femme fatale.
Irish Independent
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Who made the shortlist for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award?
Now celebrating its 31st year, the award continues to honour exceptional fiction from Irish writers and remains a standout moment in the country's literary calendar. Sponsored by Kerry Group, the award carries a total prize fund of €22,000, with €20,000 awarded to the winner and €500 for each shortlisted author. This year's adjudicators are acclaimed authors, Carol Drinkwater and Paul McVeigh. They reviewed over 48 submitted novels and carefully selected five outstanding titles that reflect the strength, imagination, and storytelling brilliance of contemporary Irish fiction. The shortlist for the 2025 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award is: Christine Dwyer Hickey – Our London Lives (Atlantic Books, 2024); Joseph O'Connor – The Ghosts of Rome (Harvill Secker, 2025); Colm Tóibín – Long Island (Picador and Pan Macmillan, 2024); Niall Williams – Time of the Child (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024), and Donal Ryan – Heart, Be At Peace (Penguin Random House, 2024). Catherine Keogh is Chief Corporate Affairs Officer of Kerry Group. She said the company's 31-year partnership with Listowel Writers' Week stands as a testament to its enduring belief in the power of storytelling to inspire and connect. 'Each year, the calibre of literary talent and vision among the shortlisted writers astounds us, and this year is no exception. We extend our congratulations to all of this year's nominees and eagerly await the announcement of the winning work later this month,' she said. Ned O'Sullivan, Chairperson of the Board of Listowel Writers' Week, said the award is a valued part of our festival's celebration of Irish writing, and he thanked Kerry Group for their continued and generous support. 'Congratulations to the five shortlisted authors, your novels reflect the richness and diversity of contemporary Irish fiction, and we're proud to honour your work here in Listowel,' he said. The winner will be announced on 28 May 2025, at the festival opening night event in the Listowel Arms Hotel. For more information and festival updates, visit
