You might be forgiven for wondering if there’s any connection between ITV’s Jekyll and Hyde and Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella other than the title.
The uniquely Australian literary voice is worth protecting, but parallel importation restrictions are not the way to do it. Rather, we should lift those restrictions – and subsidise Australian booksellers directly.
The BCA was probably doomed the moment Tony Abbott announced its creation out of Australia Council funds.
Nastya Shershneva
The Book Council of Australia – announced by Tony Abbott just over a year ago – was today scrapped. But we still need a body to advocate for literature and to advise government on policy settings.
As the literary world says goodbye to the Big Man from Kilmarnock, his friend Gerard Carruthers remembers a writer at the heights of the British canon.
Magical realism has evolved into a heavily, and ironically, political literary form.
Berli Mike
With roots in post first world war paintings of empty European cities, magical realism has evolved into a heavily, and ironically, political literary form.
The issue of parallel imports will not go away – but there are other options to explore.
Mustafa Sayed
Our contemporary age may be the first in which parallel importation is undertaken not by booksellers in competition with each other, but by individual consumers in competition with local booksellers.
George tells the story of Melissa, a ten-year-old girl who the world sees as a boy named George. Such books will, hopefully, move from being anomalies to part of the status quo.
Lee Child, left, with Andy Martin in New York.
Transworld/Jessica Lehrman
It is the ultimate ‘meta-novel’: Andy Martin got his own book out of watching a popular author write his latest tome.
The great detective’s purchase on popular culture was not always so assured.
Benedict Cumberbactch and Martin Freeman in Sherlock, courtesy of Channel Nine
As Benedict Cumberbatch prepares to return to 221B Baker Street for a Sherlock Christmas Special, a great, unsolved mystery remains: what is the source of the detective’s enduring appeal?
Publishers need to stop indulging in apocalyptic fantasies of doom and destruction.
Kevin O'Mara
The Australian government yesterday announced it intends to repeal parallel importation restrictions on books, which has again caused concern in the publishing industry. But, really, what’s the problem?
Gloria Steinem’s new autobiography reminds us of her work as a tireless grassroots campaigner. Here pictured with Barack Obama receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
Reuters/Larry Downing
In her new autobiography, celebrated feminist, activist and author Gloria Steinem seeks to set the record straight on controversial aspects of her legacy.
The distinctions between highbrow and middlebrow fiction are as old as literature itself.
régine debatty
The distinctions between highbrow and middlebrow fiction are as old as literature itself. So does the current spat over such terms mean anything in the long term for works of literature? Unlikely.
Can screen adaptations of literary classics ever be as good as the source text? Well, yes. As the new ABC miniseries The Beautiful Lie shows, they can explore timeless themes in unpredictable and engaging ways.
A recent exchange highlights the complicated nature of ownership when it comes to the Harry Potter universe.
Luke MacGregor/ Reuters
JK Rowling has come under fire for signing an open letter opposing a cultural boycott of Israel. The form of the complaints, and Rowling’s response, tell us much about the author-fan relationship.
While Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin openly draws on medieval and early modern history in the worlds of his books, his subversive depictions of witchcraft make his female characters both intriguing and powerful.
The Nursery Alice, illustrated by John Tenniel.
Jane Burdon Morris/YouTube
It’s 150 years since an Oxford mathematics don published the most important work of children’s literature and one of the most influential books of all time. The origins of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland…
Qiu Xiaolong’s nine novels give excellent insights into China from the time of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution to the present.
Reuters/David Gray
Struggling to get a handle on modern-day China and all its complexities? Looking to have fun while doing so? The Detective Chen novels could be just the ticket.