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Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Light and Shadow : Memoirs of a Spy's Son single work   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 Light and Shadow : Memoirs of a Spy's Son
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Mark Colvin is a broadcasting legend. He is the voice of ABC Radio's leading current affairs program PM. He was a founding broadcaster for the groundbreaking youth station Double J; he initiated The World Today program; and he's one of the most popular and influential journalists in the twittersphere.

'Mark has been covering local and global events for more than four decades. He has reported on wars, royal weddings and everything in between. In the midst of all this he discovered that his father was an MI6 spy.

'Light and Shadow is the incredible story of a father waging a secret war against communism during the Cold War, while his son comes of age as a journalist during the tumultuous Whitlam and Fraser years and embarks on the risky career of a foreign correspondent.

'Mark was witness to some of the most world-changing events, including the Iranian hostage crisis, the buildup to the first Gulf War in Iraq and the direct aftermath of the shocking genocide in Rwanda. But when he contracted a life-threatening illness while working in the field, his life changed forever.

'Mark Colvin's engrossing memoir takes you inside the coverage of major news events and gently navigates the complexity of his father's double life.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Carlton, Parkville - Carlton area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Melbourne University Press , 2016 .
      image of person or book cover 3689480384281328914.png
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 1vp.
      Note/s:
      • Published 31 October 2016
      ISBN: 9780522870893, 9780522870909

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Knocked Sideways by Luck Susan Lever , 2017 single work review
— Appears in: Inside Story , July 2017;

— Review of Press Escape Shaun Carney , 2016 single work autobiography ; Light and Shadow : Memoirs of a Spy's Son Mark Colvin , 2016 single work autobiography ; A Führer for a Father : The Domestic Face of Colonialism Jim Davidson , 2017 single work autobiography
Double Life Morag Fraser , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 389 2017; (p. 29)
‘Mark Colvin’s fine memoir – of a journalist’s life and as a spy’s son – was completed before the Macquarie Dictionary chose ‘fake news’ as its word of the year, and the OED and Merriam-Webster opted for ‘post truth’ and ‘surreal’. In July 2016, as Colvin was writing his acknowledgments chapter, Donald Trump was being nominated as the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States. Colvin does not mention Trump’s name. But his entire book – a principled insider’s history of the craft of journalism, of Cold War politics, espionage, and the pivotal political events of the twentieth and early twenty-first century – is a counter-instance to ‘fake news’ and the hyperventilating culture which spawns it. It is also a bracing reminder that the fourth estate – in its now myriad manifestations – remains the necessary counterweight to the abuse of power and to oligarchic or autocratic rule.’ (Introduction)
Making Sense of a Father's Double Life Alan Attwood , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 10-11 December 2016; (p. 18) The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 December 2016; (p. 24)

— Review of Light and Shadow : Memoirs of a Spy's Son Mark Colvin , 2016 single work autobiography
Father’s Enigma at the Centre of a Fortunate Life Tom Dusevic , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12-13 November 2016; (p. 18)

— Review of Light and Shadow : Memoirs of a Spy's Son Mark Colvin , 2016 single work autobiography
Father’s Enigma at the Centre of a Fortunate Life Tom Dusevic , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12-13 November 2016; (p. 18)

— Review of Light and Shadow : Memoirs of a Spy's Son Mark Colvin , 2016 single work autobiography
Making Sense of a Father's Double Life Alan Attwood , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 10-11 December 2016; (p. 18) The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 December 2016; (p. 24)

— Review of Light and Shadow : Memoirs of a Spy's Son Mark Colvin , 2016 single work autobiography
Knocked Sideways by Luck Susan Lever , 2017 single work review
— Appears in: Inside Story , July 2017;

— Review of Press Escape Shaun Carney , 2016 single work autobiography ; Light and Shadow : Memoirs of a Spy's Son Mark Colvin , 2016 single work autobiography ; A Führer for a Father : The Domestic Face of Colonialism Jim Davidson , 2017 single work autobiography
Double Life Morag Fraser , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 389 2017; (p. 29)
‘Mark Colvin’s fine memoir – of a journalist’s life and as a spy’s son – was completed before the Macquarie Dictionary chose ‘fake news’ as its word of the year, and the OED and Merriam-Webster opted for ‘post truth’ and ‘surreal’. In July 2016, as Colvin was writing his acknowledgments chapter, Donald Trump was being nominated as the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States. Colvin does not mention Trump’s name. But his entire book – a principled insider’s history of the craft of journalism, of Cold War politics, espionage, and the pivotal political events of the twentieth and early twenty-first century – is a counter-instance to ‘fake news’ and the hyperventilating culture which spawns it. It is also a bracing reminder that the fourth estate – in its now myriad manifestations – remains the necessary counterweight to the abuse of power and to oligarchic or autocratic rule.’ (Introduction)
Last amended 6 Apr 2021 12:53:06
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