Cirrus@Austlit

'It’s 60 years since The Lucky Country was published. Have we moved on from the bronzed Aussie male stereotype?' (Introduction)

'It has become a bigger cliché than the phrase itself: that in adopting the title The Lucky Country for his 1964 bestseller, which turns 60 this year, Donald Horne did not intend to deliver a compliment. ‘Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck,’ Horne wrote in the rather grand opening to the final chapter, which carried the same title as the book. ‘It lives on other people’s ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.' (Introduction)

'The fascinating biography of a brilliant man who captured the nation’s imagination and boldly showed Australians who we were and how we could change

'In the 1960s, Donald Horne offered Australians a compelling reinterpretation of the Menzies years as a period of social and political inertia and mediocrity. His book The Lucky Country was profoundly influential and, without doubt, one of the most significant shots ever fired in Australia’s endless culture war.

'Ryan Cropp’s landmark biography positions Horne as an antipodean Orwell, a lively, independent and distinct literary voice ‘searching for the temper of the people, accepting it, and moving on from there’. Through the eyes – and unforgettable words – of this preternaturally observant and articulate man, we see a recognisable modern Australia take shape.' (Publication summary)

'On November 2018, the Icelandic composer and ‘multi-instrumentalist’ Ólafur Arnalds walked onstage at Canberra Theatre and offered his first impression of the city before a packed house. ‘As we landed in your elusive capital,’ he began, ‘I wondered if we’d arrived in the right place. It felt as if we were in the middle of nowhere.’ Clearly enjoying himself, Arnalds grinned, before declaiming with one arm raised: ‘It’s such a beautiful place but it doesn’t look like a capital city.’ The audience erupted in laughter.' (Introduction)