Peter Robb Peter Robb i(A30928 works by)
Also writes as: B. Selkie ; Ross Edwards
Born: Established: 1946 Toorak, South Yarra - Glen Iris area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria, ;
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 Pages of History Peter Robb , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 29-31 March 2013; (p. 36)
1 The View from Outside Peter Robb , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: Good Weekend , 14 September 2013; (p. 20-21, 23)
1 Proof of Identity Peter Robb , 2013 single work prose
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 22-23 July 2013; (p. 24-25)
1 Wardrobe Erotics Peter Robb , 2012 single work essay
— Appears in: The Best Australian Essays 2012 2012; (p. 57-66)
1 The Insult Peter Robb , 2012 single work prose
— Appears in: The Monthly , May no. 78 2012; (p. 42-45)
1 7 y separately published work icon Lives Peter Robb , Collingwood : Black Inc. , 2012 Z1836212 2012 selected work biography 'In Lives, an extraordinary writer encounters some remarkable people - and evokes their inner worlds. Peter Robb has an uncanny ability to get under the skin of his profile subjects: to show them in a new light, to home in on what makes them tick. In Australia, these range from Alex Dimitriades to Ivan Milat, from Marcia Langton to Julian Assange. In Italy, Robb immerses the reader in the worlds of Fellini, Caravaggio, Calvino and Pasolini. Elsewhere, his portraits of EM Forster, Arthur Rimbaud, Peter Carey and Gore Vidal illuminate the real people behind the public image. This is a fascinating exploration of human life in all its variety, glamour and idiosyncrasy.' (Publisher's blurb)
1 Dreamland : A Journey through North-Western NSW with Filmmaker Ivan Sen Peter Robb , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Monthly , November no. 73 2011; (p. 16-26)
1 Assange Unauthorised Peter Robb , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29 - 30 October 2011; (p. 18-19)

— Review of Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography Julian Assange , 2011 single work autobiography
1 Out of the Box Peter Robb , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Monthly , August no. 70 2011; (p. 50-52)
1 Under Surveillance Peter Robb , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Monthly , June no. 68 2011; (p. 52-54)
1 Who's Afraid of Marcia Langton? Peter Robb , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Monthly , April no. 66 2011; (p. 16-23)
1 The Kid Grows Up : Alex Dimitriades Peter Robb , 2011 single work essay biography
— Appears in: The Monthly , September no. 71 2011; (p. 54-57)
1 10 y separately published work icon Street Fight in Naples : A Book of Art and Insurrection Peter Robb , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2010 Z1739852 2010 single work prose travel

'Naples is always a shock, flaunting beauty and squalor like nowhere else. Naples is the only city in Europe whose ancient past still lives in its irrepressible people. Their ancestors came from all over the early Mediterranean to the wide bay and its islands, shadowed by a dormant volcano. Not all of them found what they were looking for, but they made a great and terribly human city.

'Peter Robb's Street Fight in Naples ranges across nearly three thousand years of Neapolitan life and art, from the first Greek landings in Italy to his own less auspicious arrival thirty-something years ago. In 1503 Naples became the Mediterranean capital of Spain's world empire and the base for the Christian struggle with Islam. It was a European metropolis matched only by Paris and Istanbul, an extraordinary concentration of military power, lavish consumption, poverty and desperation. As the occupying empire went into crisis, exhausted by its wars against Islamists in the Mediterranean and Protestants in the North, the people of Naples paid a dreadful price. Naples was where in 1606 the greatest painter of his age fled from Rome after a fatal street fight. Michelangelo Merisi from Caravaggio found in its teeming streets an image of the age's crisis, and released among the painters of Naples the energies of a great age in European art? until everything erupted in a revolt by the dispossessed, and the people of an occupied city brought Europe into the modern world.' (From the publisher's website.)

1 The Sea : The Wreck of the Batavia & Prosper Peter Robb , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Monthly , February no. 9 2006; (p. 58-60)

— Review of The Wreck of the Batavia and Prosper Simon Leys , 2005 selected work prose essay autobiography
1 'A Death in Brazil' Peter Robb , 2004 single work correspondence
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 10 September no. 5293 2004;
Robb replies to Conti's claims that he 'covertly copied nineteen passages' from Conti's Noticias do Planalto. Robb concludes: 'No book springs fully armed from the head of its author. Everyone builds on the work of predecessors, and Conti too used material from previously published accounts in his book. But since he feels his own substantial work has had insufficient direct recognition in A Death in Brazil, I'd like to thank him now.'
3 22 y separately published work icon A Death in Brazil : A Book of Omissions Peter Robb , Potts Point : Duffy and Snellgrove , 2003 Z1069626 2003 single work autobiography travel
1 Rimbaud's Wild Parade Peter Robb , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Best Australian Essays 2001 2001; (p. 521-528)
1 Angeles City Peter Robb , 2000 single work short story travel
— Appears in: In Transit : Travel Writing by Duffy & Snellgrove Authors 2000; (p. 1-15)
1 1 y separately published work icon Pig's Blood Peter Robb , Sydney : Duffy and Snellgrove , 2001 Z978918 1999 single work novel crime
1 8 y separately published work icon Pig's Blood and Other Fluids Peter Robb , Sydney : Duffy and Snellgrove , 1999 Z86780 1999 selected work novel crime

'Sal’s being tried out as a hitman and b eing dumb’s no problem. Baz is a wannabe celebrity chef – he can’t cook, and he’s got a secret. Fayette’s fourteen. She just wants to kill her step-father and have fun. Pig’s Blood is about people with dreams. It ends badly. People die. A confronting yet comic novella that develops fully the darkness and violence that lurks in Robb’s non-fiction books, as well as the irony and wit that also characterises his non-fiction writing.' (Publication summary)

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