At one point early on in this excellent debut novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, set in Oxford 120 years ago, it appears as though Esme may have to choose between getting married and becoming an editor, a choice that doesn’t seem as outdated …

Ruby grows up in the time of the passive tense – when appearance is everything, when she would do well to heed her elders, and when it is acceptable to assume that men only want one thing from a girl. But her daughter, Eva, coming of age with Whitlam …

A growing number of writers grappling with the accelerated rate at which our habitat is changing are also demonstrating our connectedness to the natural world. This summer, those of us not directly in the line of fire have adapted to the haze and floods, …

Zora Cross was a poet and journalist writing a hundred years ago. The obviousness of the assertion that if she had been a man we would be considerably more familiar with her oeuvre doesn’t make the reality of it any less enraging. Her 1917 poetry collection, …

Something is rotten in the state of Tasmania. When the Bruny bridge is bombed while under construction, United Nations conflict resolution expert Astrid Coleman’s twin brother, JC – who also happens to be the Tasmanian premier – asks her home from …

While our government, under the guise of “compassionate conservatism”, announces plans to drug-test welfare recipients, journalist Antony Loewenstein brings us Pills, Powder, and Smoke, the result of more than four years’ investigation …

We live in an age where memoirs arrive thick and fast, and a book deal comes easiest to those in the public eye. When there’s little money in skewering yourself for general consumption unless fame has first taken its toll, it’s unlikely a memoirist …

While awaiting the publication of Ellena Savage’s debut essay collection, Blueberries, we have this blessing of a chapbook, Yellow City. A former editor of Farrago and The Lifted Brow, Savage has published widely …

A televised spelling bee will divide the room, especially if there is an expectation to participate: some will slide deep into their seats as others perkily top up glasses. Mary Norris is strictly for the word nerds. Her attraction to Greek is altogether …