'Swinging Safari is one of the funniest movies I have seen in recent times. It is also one of the saddest. That sharp edge goes, I think, to what writer and director Stephan Elliott has in mind with this semi-autobiographical satire about 1970s life in beachside Australia. It is a bittersweet reflection on the decade that time and taste forgot, to paraphrase the narrator, whom we meet as a kid interested in making movies.' (Introduction)
'The following books each contain something unexpected.' (Introduction)
'After a failed laryngectomy to try to remove some cancerous lymphs, young Sam has a stoma, a hole, where his voice had once been. Rendered mute, he is shaken by the alienating experience, from diagnosis to hospital treatment to convalescence.' (Introduction)
'Sam Warren wakes one morning to discover that her mother, Ivy, has broken into her house. It’s been years since Sam last saw her. Longer still since her mother walked out, 'saying she needed time, as if time wasn’t everywhere, seeping into every crevice'.' (Introduction)
'There can be few individuals in Australia detested more bitterly than Belle Gibson. The fake cancer sufferer and charity fraudster enjoyed a meteoric rise to international fame and fortune as a “wellness” guru. Her spectacular ascent was followed by an equally rapid descent into infamy after her hurtful and damaging scams were exposed in 2015.' (Introduction)
'Is it possible to give one’s life over totally to an artistic vocation? Are love and life competing allures or are they the necessary fuel fanning the flame, as Mervyn Peake’s epigraph, which signposts this book’s theme and title, seems to suggest?' (Introduction)
