Cirrus@Austlit

'Ethel Malley is the unsung heroine of the Ern Malley affair, which is the best-known of the many Australian literary hoaxes and truly one of the grandest deceptions in literary history. Or at least she languished in obscurity until Stephen Orr, who has long been fascinated by Ern, decided to sing her raucous song in his latest novel, the author’s tenth.' (Introduction)

'Even if that awful summer day did not become known as Black Saturday, February 7, 2009, could not have been forgotten by anyone who experienced hot northerly winds so fierce it felt as though your eyeballs were being scorched. In inner-suburban Melbourne, where I was that day, the temperature rose above 46C, a record high for the city.'  (Introduction)

'It may seem difficult to reconcile the enduring popularity of Australia’s national song with the casualness of its creation. W. Benjamin Lindner, a Melbourne-based lawyer who has spent years investigating what we know and don’t know about the making of Waltzing Matilda, characterises the song as “a one-off collaboration without any illusions of greatness or expectations of its anthemic qualities”.' (Introduction)

'‘It is hard to reach the truth of these islands,’ observed Robert Louis Stevenson of Samoa in a letter written to a close friend in 1892, two years after the author had moved to an estate on Upolu. Stevenson, who died in 1894, could never have anticipated the prophetic dimension added to those words. Less than a century later, in the 1980s, the Western understanding of Samoan society would become the subject of a fierce and protracted international dispute among anthropologists and others that has raged ever since.' (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)

'Notwithstanding the fact that he died alone in a hotel room following a heroin overdose at the age of fifty-three, Brett Whiteley led what for an Australian artist in particular may be characterised as a fortunate life. As Ashleigh Wilson relates in this excellent biography, Whiteley retained the capacity to astonish, despite his misadventures.' (Introduction)