The contentious book documenting Nelson Mandela’s last days that was pulled of the shelves left many unanswered questions. Judgement must be suspended until it’s content is made public.
Death used to happen off the page in kids’ books, but not anymore. They kill each other in The Hunger Games, and 13 Reasons Why graphically describes the impact of teen suicide.
Do you read Australia’s First Nations writers? If not, why not? The time is well overdue for non-indigenous Australians to engage with the original inhabitants of the country.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first in the phenomenally successful series, turns 20 this month. Despite criticism of their status as ‘literature’, the books remain a magical experience for children.
Smell is the Cinderella of the senses in Anglophone literature, but James Joyce wrote an olfactory revolution. His treatment of the science of smell was astonishingly prescient.
The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe, is the latest manifestation of our centuries old fascination with Egypt. But beneath this obsession is a darker story of looting and destruction.