AustLit

'Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver have accomplished an impressive feat of scholarship in collecting and curating a record of settler interaction with the kangaroo from 1770 to 1900. It is not a pretty picture, though many of the fine illustrations in the volume do their best to make it so. This sort of exploration of a well-defined – if small – area of colonial Australian experience has only been possible with the expansion of the Humanities in Australian universities in the last fifty years in addition to the philanthropy of private citizens. This elegantly published book comes from the Miegunyah Press, an imprint of Melbourne University Press, which is funded by bequests from Sir Russell and Lady Grimwade. The Humanities are now threatened by the present Australian Government’s current tertiary education policies which will make such research in the Humanities extremely difficult. This book exemplifies the character of research we will sadly lose as a result.' (Publication abstract)

'Gladys Fawcett, a 38 year-old war widow and journalist, is sent by the Sydney Morning Times to Newcastle, NSW, where she investigates the fractious world of Trade Union politics. She stumbles across a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth during her 1954 Royal Visit to Australia. Nick Hawes, ex-bomber pilot, wounded soul, poet and ASIO operative is also on the case. They bond over Schopenhauer and (surprisingly) fall in love. Written in sixteen 5,000 word episodes that mimic the serial novels of the times, Out of Print captures the Zeitgeist of Cold War Australia with its fierce politics and personal lives whose intended trajectories have been fractured by the Second World War.' (Publication summary)