'Recollections and reflections, some a page long and some several pages, ranging over a number of physical locations - Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Indonesia, Korea, Jordan - and a number of them involving high-profile people, among them Olivia Newton-John, Barry Humphries, Maggie Scott, John Brack, Elizabeth Jolley, David Malouf, Germaine Greer, Barry Jones, John Button, Robert Adamson and Inga Clendinnen. Some are merely anecdotal; others touch on subjects as diverse as the history of South-East Asia, the origin of life, urban design, psychology and philosophy. There is much self-reflection on the part of the author, and many of the stories fit firmly within the "strange but true" category.'(Publication summary)