The 100 favourite fictional characters... as chosen by 100 literary luminaries Characters of note
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Laughter is his Currency
After a dud year, David Williamson has returned with a winning theme. The playwright tells David Marr why he sticks with satire, loves narcissists and believes his latest play will be the last.
David Williamson is doing it all over again just one more time. The writing, the rehearsals, the interviews, the foyer work, the critics - those damn critics - have taken their toll over the years. At 63, his heart is playing up. The workaholic writer reckons Influence - the story of Sydney shock jock Ziggy Blasko - will be the last big play.
• The big sign-off [Ron McLarty had years of knockbacks, but success has caught up with him. So encouraging, so damned extraordinary is the story of how his best-selling book came to be published that, some 17 years after it was written and repeatedly rejected, author Ron McLarty still has to pinch himself to prove it really did happen. The Memory of Running ; The boys who once published the PM's phone number are out of the satirical newspaper business Satire night fever ]
• · From Wired, The Book Stops Here - Jimmy Wales wanted to build a free encyclopedia on the Internet. So he raised an army of amateurs and created the self-organizing, self-repairing, hyperaddictive library of the future called The Book Stops Here ; Wikipedia
• · · Miss Boynton Shares gems of Victorian experimental science and more ...; Adam Langer comments on the extra changes made when hardbacks go to paperbacks for his column at the Book Standard. As far as my novel is concerned, the major changes will take place within the covers. These days, paperbacks allow the author and the publisher to add bonus material, in much the same way as DVDs now come jam-packed with trailers, interviews and audio commentaries Extra between the sheets
• · · · Two federal agencies yesterday accused a former executive of Advanced Marketing Services of participating in schemes to defraud customers and inflate earnings at the wholesale book distributor Creative Book Counting ; Much-married womaniser, teetotal party-giver, and grand old man of publishing, George Weidenfeld spent 15 years persuading the Pope to write his memoirs. He tells Elizabeth Grice about his latest coup, the women he has loved and lost and why he still feels like an outsider In each of us, there's an element of snobbery
• · · · · Given that few authors make decent money from their books, Susan Wyndham asks the big question: do we owe them a living? Grant me a wish: social royalty ; With a PR flack as hero, this yarn delves into media manipulation Slick
• · · · · · The children who fled Tibet have now grown up - and wonder why their country still isn't free Flee Tibet ; It may not be the most socially responsible company on the planet, but WalMart has a profound understanding of the science of pricing and how it affects consumers. AJ Blogger Andrew Taylor suggests that arts organizations, which are forever being blasted for high ticket prices, could learn a thing or two from the world's largest retailer How The Arts Could Learn From WalMart