rain lets up
and the price of umbrellas
comes back down!
- Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer. Reluctantly.
- When asked to state his full name and the capacity in which he appeared.
- I am not evading tax in any way, shape or form. Now of course I am minimizing my tax and if anybody in this country doesn't minimize their tax they want their heads read because as a government I can tell you you're not spending it that well that we should be donating extra.
- Transcribed from the in-memoriam 2006 television show The Big Fella: The Extraodinary Life of Kerry Packer
- There is a little bit of the whore in all of us, gentlemen. What is your price?
Important poets are indeed under-read, inadequately appreciated, or simply forgotten for myriad reasons, not the least of which is the ever-changing Zeitgeist. And sometimes it’s just a matter of bad luck — of careers cut short by unforeseen circumstances, including untimely death
Packing some power
His father and grandfather have been immortalised on the small screen, but James Packer says he "knows nothing" about a new play about his famous family which makes its debut on the stage of the Belvoir on Saturday
Called Packer & Sons, the play is by Tommy Murphy, who was also responsible for the excellent Mark Colvin’s Kidney and Holding the Man.
Directed by Belvoir's artistic director Eamon Flack, it is being billed as "a play about power and what it does to the men who wield it."
But when PS approached Packer this week about the new play, he admitted: "I know nothing about it".
Granted, he has probably been pre-occupied in recent months, with both his personal and business lives. He is not expected back in Sydney until his shining edifice at Barangaroo, the towering casino, is completed in around a year's time.
Who would want to be Packer, eh?
Sure, you’d get the money and fame, but what of the decades of family dysfunction, the domineering father figures and the shackles of the family business?
I’m talking about the men of Sydney’s legendary Packer family, of course - Sir Frank, his sons Kerry and Clyde, and James, son of Kerry, and the last to (literally) wear the Crown (Resorts, that is, James’ gaming and entertainment group).
We want to confound people': Packer and Sons makes business personal
At Publishers Weekly Ed Nawotka finds Translations Pay Off for Amazon with their imprint AmazonCrossing.
They've published: "more than 400 books, from 42 countries and in 26 languages" -- with some notable (sales-)successes; they're also bringing out more non-fiction titles
Australian non-fiction (in alphabetical author by title)
- Accidental Feminists, by Jane Caro
- Australian Foreign Affairs #4: Defending Australia, edited by Jonathan Pearlman Australian Foreign Affairs #5: Are We Asian Yet? edited by Jonathan Pearlman
- Australia’s First Naturalists, by Penny Olsen and Lynette Russell
- Blooms and Brushstrokes, A Floral History of Australian Art, by Penelope Curtin and Tansy Curtin
- City of Trees by Sophie Cunningham
- Convincing Ground, by Bruce Pascoe
- The Dismissal Dossier, by Jenny Hocking
- From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting, by Judith Brett
- Magic Little Meals, Making the Most of Homegrown Produce, by Lolo Houbein and Tori Arbon
- On Fairness, by Sally McManus (Little Books on Big Ideas)
- On Father, by John Birmingham (Little Books on Big Ideas)
- On Identity, by Stan Grant (Little Books on Big Ideas)
- On Patriotism, by Paul Daley (Little Books on Big Ideas)
- Our Mob Served, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories of war and defending Australia, edited by Allison Cadzow and Mary Anne Jebb
- Perth (New South City Series #8), by David Whish-Wilson
- The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela, by Sisonke Msimang
- Sculptures of Melbourne, by Mark S Holsworth
- Through Ice and Fire, by Sarah Laverick
- Trigger Warnings, Political Correctness and the Rise of the Right, by Jeff Sparrow
- Welcome to Country, a Travel Guide to Indigenous Australia, by Marcia Langton (and other useful guide books)
Life Stories (in alphabetical order by title):
- Beyond Words, a Year with Kenneth Cook, by Jacqueline Kent
- Bright Swallow, by Vivian Bi
- The Dead Still Cry Out, the Story of a Combat Cameraman, by Helen Lewis
- (Further thoughts) Ever Yours, C. H. Spence, edited by Susan Magarey, with Barbara Wall, Mary Lyons and Maryan Beams
- The Grass Library, by David Brooks
- Growing Up African in Australia, edited by Maxine Beneba Clarke, Ahmed Yussuf and Magan Magan
- Hearing Maud, by Jessica White
- The Heart’s Ground, a Life of Anne Elder, by Julia Hamer
- Here we are, read us: women, disability and writing, edited by Trish Harris
- Heysen to Heysen: selected letters of Hans Heysen and Nora Heysen, edited by Catherine Speck
- Just Add Love, by Irris Makler
- Kathleen O’Connor of Paris, by Amanda Curtin
- The Kowloon Kid, a Hong Kong childhood, by Phil Brown
- Living in Hope, by Frank Byrne
- Miss Ex-Yugoslavia, by Sofija Stefanovic
- Ned and Katina, by Patricia Grace
- Nora Heysen, Light and Life, by Jane Hylton
- The Unknown Judith Wright, by Georgina Arnott
- We Are Here, Talking with Australia’s Oldest Holocaust Survivors, by Fiona Harari
And from elsewhere (in alphabetical order by title):
- The Bletchley Girls, by Tessa Dunlop
- The Book Thieves, by Anders Rydell, translated by Henning Koch
- El Greco, by Michael Scholz-Hänsel, (English edition) translated by John Gabriel
- “The First Successful Trip of an Airship” in Gleanings in Bee Culture, January 1, 1905 by A. I. (Amos) Root
- The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting, by Anne Trubek AND The Missing Ink, The Lost Art of Handwriting (And Why It Still Matters), by Philip Hensher
- The Little(r) Museums of Paris: An Illustrated Guide to the City’s Hidden Gems, by Emma Jacobs
- Made in Sweden, 25 Ideas that Created a Country, by Elisabeth Åsbrink, translated by the author
- The Ordeal of Bobby Cain, by George McMillan
- The Spice Islands Voyage, in Search of Wallace, by Tim Severin
- We Are Building Capitalism, Moscow in Transition, 1992-1997, by Robert Stephenson
What was your favourite nonfiction read of the year?
I can’t decide between The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela, by Sisonke Msimangbecause it made me rethink the way we demonise women who don’t behave the way we expect them to; Accidental Feminists, by Jane Caro because it’s an homage to my generation and all the things we achieved for women; and Blooms and Brushstrokes, A Floral History of Australian Art, by Penelope Curtin and Tansy Curtin which is definitely my most drop-dead gorgeous coffee table book of the year.