Jane the Conqueror
- Elizabeth Prater
Jane’s Fame – How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman
Text Publishing. 352 pages. AU$34.95
In a field where so many experts and interpreters are making so many varied claims on Jane Austen’s image and works, authority is a fiercely traded commodity. And it is authority, perhaps more than anything else, that Jane’s Fame is selling. Read more
The Good Life - Mike Leigh gets all Happy-Go-Lucky
- Nick Terrell
I.
For anyone who has seen a few of Mike Leigh’s films, it would come as no surprise to hear that his work is motivated by “anger at the way the world is so screwed up.” Leigh’s characters are routinely exposed to trying times. He defends his realism staunchly, but it could still be said that his films have a tendency to linger in the bleaker realm of realistic experience. At the same time, though, Leigh’s characters include a healthy handful of rather wonderful people. Read more
Muddy Waters: Bluesfest Turns 20
- David Free
On about day three of this year’s Byron Bay Blues Festival, I saw the guy with the world’s oddest job. He was part of a zydeco band. He wore a metal vest that looked a lot like Ned Kelly’s, although it was made of a shinier and less hefty element, possibly aluminium. The lower part of it was corrugated, so that from certain angles the guy appeared to be wearing a giant strap-on cheese-grater. Read more
The Tipstaffs
I saw your judge was cleared.
He didn’t need to be cleared.
No, well that’s what they found. It’s the same thing for him though.
Because the media make up their own mind. Read more