Cirrus@Austlit

'I remember December days like this on the beach at McCrae. The clouds heavy and low, the air quiet as dust, the odd breeze lazily pushing the warmth around. Rumblings of unseen sky planes above the high cloud. The tense summer air waiting.' (Introduction)

'We live in troubled times, but some shocks are more unexpected than others. Amanda Foreman, a writer and academic most notable for her best-selling biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, sustained a great shock recently.' (Introduction)

'Kevin Rudd is back. Last week he was blitzing the country with a whirlwind book tour, having flown in from New York where he continues his post-prime-ministerial life as President of the Asia Society. He is promoting volume one of his autobiography entitled Not for the Faint-hearted. I caught up with him at Australian National University where he met in conversation with Stan Grant in front of a large crowd.' (Introduction)

'Brenda Niall's biographies characteristically begin with simple and enigmatic stories, whose significance becomes clearer as the book develops. This sympathetic exploration of her grandmother's life takes its point of departure in two of her possessions. The first is a wooden box made for Aggie Maguire by her brother as they sailed from Liverpool to Australia. In 1940 she gave the box to Brenda.' (Introduction)