AustLit

'Anton Bell drowned on the 23rd of December 1953. I know the exact date because I found a small newspaper clipping reporting the drowning. Evidently the event was not of great importance. Presumably the day was one of bigger stories, otherwise, the drowning May have had more prominence. Or perhaps Anton was buried in the third page for a reason. A lot of things were buried in those years along with a lot of people who had survived the war, but came undone in the peace. Nevertheless, some of the filthiest managed to wash their stories clean. And I suspect Anton bell was among them. The yellowing scrap of newsprint was stuck to the back of a photograph with a piece of adhesive that had lost its grip. Despite this, they had stayed together for more than half a century-the photograph and the bit of old news, coupled courtesy of four silver cardboard corners that attached the photograph to the thick grey page of my mother's photograph album.'  (Publication abstract)