Cirrus@Austlit

'Ceridwen Dovey is a wonderful nonfiction writer, often – but not always – on scientific themes and increasingly on space. She has written repeatedly for The New Yorker, including a 2018 piece titled “Elon Musk and the Failure of Our Imagination in Space”. In 2021, she won the Bragg Prize for science writing, for the second consecutive year, with “Everlasting free-fall”, a long and gripping piece about the increasing number of satellites.' (Introduction)

'As with all of Charmian Clift’s writing, The End of the Morning – published almost 55 years after her death – is a combination of mid-20th century charm and sharp-edged observation. Called a novel in the new book, it is more of a long fragment. A novella, perhaps.' (Introduction)

'It wasn’t uncommon for Jewish people to remain silent about their experiences of the horrors of World War II in Europe, something that contributed to the inherited trauma of their children and grandchildren. Indeed, it wasn’t unheard of for people who sought asylum in other countries to hide their lineage altogether as they encouraged their children to assimilate.'(Introduction)

'The cast of Anne Coombs’s final novel, Glass Houses, is extensive. At the centre is Raymond Tyler, a wealthy, single man in his early 60s, rather reclusive and nervy. He lives in a derelict Gothic mansion over the River Glass, which he has bought outside a country town, Glaston, to be near his friends. A retired antiques dealer, Raymond is restoring the house meticulously, inch by inch, day by day.' (Introduction)

Helena Rubinstein, born to modest shopkeepers in Kraków in 1872, grew up to found an international cosmetics empire that bore her name. Most biographical sources list her as Polish and American or a Polish-born American entrepreneur. They pay lip-service to her opening her first shop in Melbourne but fail to give full credit to the formative experience of her 12 years in Australia. It was here that she was first inspired to found the business that would make her famous worldwide. (Introduction)   

'Chris Wallace’s new book, Political Lives, is fascinating. Yes, it’s primarily about prime ministers, white men both dead and alive, wielding power. But her vivid writing, her eye for intriguing detail and, above all, her format bring it all alive. We see Australian leaders via a study of the biographies of these men and the journalists and the odd academic who wrote about them. The biographical details and preoccupations of the writers shed almost as much light on their times as on the lives of the political men they survey.'  (Introduction)   

'Many years ago, before algorithms channelled our interactions with the written word, it was possible to stumble upon the quirkiest pieces of writing. I once turned a page in The New Yorker to a very long story about American baseball. I knew little about the subject and cared less, but was intrigued by the stature of the writer in broader fields and read the first couple of paragraphs to see what he had made of it. Pages later, I came to the end and out of a trance: it was fascinating. That takes an especially skilled writer who not only researches deeply, links up the elements carefully and writes with elegance, but who knows how to spotlight moments that trigger intrigue in the reader’s brain.' (Introduction)

'Adelaide playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer’s play, set in the not-too-distant future, poses a radical solution to climate change, writes Miriam Cosic It can’t be easy being creative in times of organic catastrophe. Human catastrophes, such as war, are different: the artist Goya and the poet Celan, among many, taught us how to ponder deeply the harm humans bring to each other.' (Introduction)

'Geoffrey Robertson is disillusioned. The world-famous barrister has, at 74, lost his belief in the effectiveness of international law. “I have not lost faith in the ICC [International Criminal Court]. I still think it’s necessary,” he tells me by phone from London, his voice more redolent of duty than of conviction. “But its catchment area is quite small...”' (Introduction)

'As I write this review, I’m struggling to type with a brace on my dominant arm supporting a smashed wrist. I’ve been unable to do much since it happened but the surgeon is encouraging me to type as well as to do a series of hideous hand ­exercises. Friends have rallied to shop and do laundry and more.' (Introduction)

'The long-neglected story of the Aboriginal cricket team that made history is finally etching its way into the national psyche.'

'Heather Morris’s debut novel was a runaway success when it came out in January 2018. The Melbourne-based New Zealand writer wrote The Tattooist of Auschwitz after meeting and befriending the man, Lali Solokov, on whose story the book is based. It’s a love story: Solokov met his wife, Gita Furman, and fell for her, when, as a prisoner-functionary, he tattooed her number on her forearm.' (Introduction) 

'While father and daughter Hans and Nora Heysen both became renowned Australian artists – he for bush landscapes, she for portraits and still lifes – their work had become, until recently, somewhat overlooked. By Miriam Cosic.' (Introduction)

'Persia was the centre of some mighty dynasties over the millennia, including the far-flung Achaemenid Empire that Cyrus the Great establi­shed in the 6th century BC. It wasn’t until Muslim Arabs defeated a later Persian dynasty, the Sassan­ians, in AD 651, that Persians were forced to adopt Islam and abandon their fiery state religion, Zoroastrianism.

'As in all conquests that force cultural change, it wasn’t entirely successful. The Persian­s bitterly resented their new overlords and pockets of Zoroastrianism remain today, though followers are now estimated at fewer than 190,000 worldwide. Yet it was the Persians, long a highly literate people, who codified Arab­ic grammar and made the language the cornerstone of classical Islamic culture.' (Introduction)