Biography and memoir
Acute Misfortune: The Life and Death of Adam Cullen by Erik Jensen
In 2008, the Archibald Prize-winning artist Adam Cullen invited Erik Jensen, now founding editor of The Saturday Paper, to write his biography. Cullen cited a book contract, from Thames & Hudson, though it later transpired this never existed. The…
Confessions of a People-Smuggler by Dawood Amiri
I felt humbled to read Dawood Amiri’s Confessions of a People-Smuggler. He puts a human face to the people who end up in the messy middle to bottom end of the people-smuggling chain. It was less like I was…
Dress, Memory by Lorelei Vashti
Reading Lorelei Vashti’s Dress, Memory feels akin to spending time with a dear friend – the kind who might grip your hand fiercely as they talk, who could be accused of over-sharing but also bravely reveals their private, personal world…
Optimism: Reflections on a Life of Action by Bob Brown
Amid contemporary figures in Australian public life, Greens party founder Bob Brown is an iconoclast. This book of anecdotes is neither a traditional nor entirely chronological memoir. With optimism as the common theme, Brown tells 53 stories, each centred on…
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Chemo by Luke Ryan
Stand-up comedy may seem like an odd outlet for a cancer patient but for Luke Ryan it became a way of taking control of his illness, and of rewriting the traditional cancer narrative. Inspired by his sell-out comedy festival show…
Travelling Without Gods: A Chris Wallace-Crabbe Companion by Cassandra Atherton
In Travelling without Gods, Cassandra Atherton has assembled an impressive collection of articles, photo-graphs, journal entries and personal reflections that pay tribute to the life and work of Chris Wallace-Crabbe, a linchpin of the Australian literary scene. Drawing on…
Shy: A Memoir by Sian Prior
As a well-known journalist, broadcaster, teacher and singer who has spent most of her career in the spotlight, it seems quite strange that Sian Prior’s first book should be all about her shyness. Perhaps more remarkable is that Prior’s discussion…
The Feel-Good Hit of the Year by Liam Pieper
Liam Pieper’s memoir – of family, addiction and loss – begins in a crumbling, 35-room gothic mansion in Caulfield in the 1980s, where his hippie parents are struggling to raise their children amid the chaos of communal living. From there…
Dear Leader by Jang Jin-Sung
North Korea and its ruling Kim dynasty are often ridiculed in the West as eccentric megalomaniacs with odd habits and funny hair. But for those living under the country’s totalitarian regime, whose daily life – entertainment, relationships, even language itself…
Gandolfini by Dan Bischoff
The task attempted by Dan Bischoff in posthumously creating a biography of the actor who embodied Tony Soprano is, to say the least, challenging. Chronicling a man who played the fundamental character in such a pivotal series without focusing on…
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