A Prefect of the Press

In his previous novels, Ian Callinan has taken his readers into the heart of politics, law, art, religion, film, business and espionage. In his eleventh novel, he invites the reader into an entirely different field and one which can now be seen to be a much diminished one, the dominance and influence of the print media. There, his three main characters meet, part, and meet again in a tumultuous period of change, protest, second-wave feminism, the Vietnam War and the rise of the cult of celebrityhood. Set in Brisbane, Vietnam, London, Paris and Sydney, Leopold Cloud, an ambitious young journalist, plots his own course leaving casualties behind him, and sometimes being a casualty himself. Central to his rise and rise are two women, safe and steady Muriel, herself a journalist, and the provocative and seductive Pansy, a brilliant and successful feminist author. Callinan again shows his capacity to write knowledgably about events that have shaped Australian history and to place squarely and credibly, and sometimes humorously and satirically, a gallery of lively and diverse characters at the centre of them.