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'Bruce Grant was raised in outback Western Australia but lived and worked at or near the centre of power in Australia for several decades, as journalist and foreign correspondent, diplomat, and advisor to governments from Menzies to Whitlam to Hawke and Keating. He spent periods researching and teaching within universities, including as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, and was chairman of the Australia-Indonesia Institute and of major arts organisations, festivals and awards bodies. But throughout his life Grant has also been a successful writer, of film and theatre criticism, novels, short stories, essays, books.
'Australian High Commissioner to India (1973–1976), Grant was an early advocate of the importance of Asia, to Australia. With Gareth Evans he co-wrote Australia’s Foreign Relations in the World of the 1990s (1991). His Indonesia (1964) remains a classic. In Subtle Moments Grant shares stories of public life, and its private dimensions, with literary aplomb and surprising candour, and, more than this, fascinatingly illuminates how Australia has changed over time, and how it might still develop for the better.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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[Review] Subtle Moments : Scenes on a Life's Journey
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , October no. 2 2019; (p. 183-186)
— Review of Subtle Moments : Scenes on a Life's Journey 2017 single work autobiography -
Parallel Lives
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: Inside Story , March 2017;
— Review of Subtle Moments : Scenes on a Life's Journey 2017 single work autobiography -
Well-Examined Life with Plenty of Heft
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3 June 2017; (p. 20) 'Of a memoir, one hopes for at least two things. It should cohere, and have enough narrative drive to carry the reader to the end. Though Bruce Grant’s Subtle Moments is rich in stories and insights, it does neither. It’s an assemblage in 14 scenes and more than 400 pages, fattened with articles, poems, testimonials praising Grant’s qualities, excerpts from his novels, and letters — including 20 pages of his own while courting his second wife — all interrupting the narrative flow.' (Introduction) -
'Subtle Moments : Scenes on a Life’s Journey' by Bruce Grant
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 390 2017; 'Opposite a handsome portrait of him by Louis Kahan, Bruce Grant introduces his memoir of a ‘life’s journey’ by proposing that it is also a biography of Australia, and promising to revisit that on the last page. There, he summarises the plots of ‘Love in the Asian Century’, his recent trilogy of e-books, in which affairs between older men and younger women, Australian and Asian, start with enthusiasm, but are doomed to fail. The metaphor for the relationship between Australia and Asia is overt.' (Introduction)
-
Parallel Lives
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: Inside Story , March 2017;
— Review of Subtle Moments : Scenes on a Life's Journey 2017 single work autobiography -
[Review] Subtle Moments : Scenes on a Life's Journey
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , October no. 2 2019; (p. 183-186)
— Review of Subtle Moments : Scenes on a Life's Journey 2017 single work autobiography -
'Subtle Moments : Scenes on a Life’s Journey' by Bruce Grant
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 390 2017; 'Opposite a handsome portrait of him by Louis Kahan, Bruce Grant introduces his memoir of a ‘life’s journey’ by proposing that it is also a biography of Australia, and promising to revisit that on the last page. There, he summarises the plots of ‘Love in the Asian Century’, his recent trilogy of e-books, in which affairs between older men and younger women, Australian and Asian, start with enthusiasm, but are doomed to fail. The metaphor for the relationship between Australia and Asia is overt.' (Introduction) -
Well-Examined Life with Plenty of Heft
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3 June 2017; (p. 20) 'Of a memoir, one hopes for at least two things. It should cohere, and have enough narrative drive to carry the reader to the end. Though Bruce Grant’s Subtle Moments is rich in stories and insights, it does neither. It’s an assemblage in 14 scenes and more than 400 pages, fattened with articles, poems, testimonials praising Grant’s qualities, excerpts from his novels, and letters — including 20 pages of his own while courting his second wife — all interrupting the narrative flow.' (Introduction)