'A collection of mostly commissioned essays, either written to be delivered as speeches at literary events, or for inclusion in anthologies.' (Publication Summary)
Author's note:
Autobiographical. Pakeha New Zealander. Drinking and dissent. My island home. Birth diaries. Passions and paradise: my best year yet. The red heart.
Literary. Queensland stories. Fear and loathing on the Queensland Writers' Train. The language of sex. Love and violence. Fiction and moral imagination. Warrior women: modern heroines. Jane Eyre: a holocaust of a childhood. Movie dreams: writing like a man. Low life, high art. Everything is a copy. The value of writers
Political and social. Dangerous lies: the language of economic rationalism. Conjugal knots. The dark side of love. Friends. Reefer madness. Writing a revolution. Come and see the blood in the streets.
