'John Lyons is no stranger to controversy. When I first met him on this newspaper 33 years ago, the debate around him, at least among some of his older colleagues, was whether, at the age of 24, he had the maturity to serve as chief of staff for the country’s national daily.
'To no one’s great surprise he proved he had both the mettle and the brains for the job, and over the past three decades he has gone on to an impressive career in Australian journalism: editor of The Sydney Morning Herald at 33, national affairs editor at The Bulletin at 37, executive producer of the Nine Network’s Sunday program at 42. And in between New York correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and Washington correspondent for The Australian.' (Introduction)
'These days the release of a new Kim Scott novel feels like a literary event. It wasn’t always this way. His first two books, True Country (1993) and Benang (1999), established him more as a writer’s writer: a brilliant, if raw, voice calling to us from across the Nullarbor. But with his previous book, the gobsmacking That Deadman Dance (2010), Scott announced himself as the country’s most important novelist.
'It was a book that took a fresh look at Australia’s past. We had the typical scenes of first contact as white settlers arrived in Albany and began to alienate Aboriginal land, yet in Scott’s telling this didn’t devolve into violence.' (Introduction)
'What scientists do with genus and species, Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver have done with 19th-century Australian fiction: isolating character types and exploring the genres in which they flourished. The squatter novel, the bushranger adventure, the larrikin tale, the Australian girl’s romance and, unexpectedly, at least for me, the colonial detective story.' (Introduction)
'Anna George’s 2014 debut, What Came Before, is a tense psychological thriller about domestic violence. The title refers to the series of events that precede the opening murder. The believable, flawed characters have their motivations laid out in finely calibrated detail.
'The Lone Child continues the Melbourne writer’s interest in the complicated, self-deluding excuses of victims and perpetrators, It once again shows how strong and confident women can be broken by forces beyond their control.
'In a cliff-top holiday house that she herself designed, nestled in the Victorian coastal ranges, architect Neve Ayres, 39, is slowly unravelling. Once almost too perfect in composure and appearance, she is now rumpled and undone by the unrelenting mews of a colicky newborn.' (Introduction)
'The middle class shields itself from the realities of life when you’re poor
'I spent much of my childhood in a northwestern suburb of Adelaide that was, for decades, predominantly white and working class. Waves of eastern European migrants formed the foundation of its settlement throughout the 1950s and 60s, before it underwent a significant transformation in the 80s when the new waves of migrants and refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and China settled there in large numbers. Mansfield Park also boasted an extensive collection of public housing that ensured underemployed Anglo-Australians, such as my parents, were well represented' (Introduction)
