An amazing story was reported today, about another kidnapping crisis ending happily, and a captive rescued from cruel kidnappers: you can find it at At first I thought there'd maybe been a bit of a linguistic or cultural misunderstanding, and that maybe 'lions' was really a me...
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It looks like French bloggers are really blazing a trail as far as the latest blogging craze is concerned--pictologs, or BD blogs as they're also called, which are like a kind of blend of webcomics and traditional (!!) blogging. France is of course right up there in the graphi...
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That's what a rather good piece in this week's TIME magazine, on the French campaign re the EU constitutional vote this Sunday, called that aspect of French psychology which projects a self-image of a small, proud, gallant, quarrelsome and , besieged people fighting with their...
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..to cheer us all up--or not, as the case may be! There's this game doing the rounds in the blogosphere, which goes under the unofficial moniker of 'Ten things I've never done.' The whole point is they're supposed to be reasonably ordinary things--no point writing you've never...
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Something relevant to today's announcement of a rapprochement betwen the Catholic and Anglican Churches on the subject of Mary, and the impression, in much of Britain, that the Anglican Church is all but dead.. An interesting Times Online article by journalist Ruth Gledhill, c...
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Just drawing readers' attention to the fact there's a longish piece, by Richard Johnstone, on the blogging phenomenon, in the May issue of Australian Book Review. You can find it here
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There's a real feeling in Australian media/literary/intellectual circles that we are somehow lacking in something because we don't have a magazine of the venerable calibre of the New Yorker or the Atlantic Monthly. That's why every so often there's an attempt to remedy the sit...
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That's the title of my newest book, which is a collection of my shorter pieces--essays, short stories and a few papers I gave at conferences--which has just been released by the small Australian publisher, Altair Australia Books. Nearly all of the pieces have been published be...
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For those who are interested..an actual scene from 'Melo', the film mentioned in my last entry.
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Recently, I've been doing a lot of research on early French 'Talkie' films, not only as background for my 1930's crime series, which has a great deal to do with the film world, but also because my paternal grandfather, Robert-Rene Masson, known as 'Bob' , worked from 1929-1933...
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Tim Dunlop has a very nice post up at Road to Surfdom, about his Catholic education Reading it, and the comments people made on it, made me reflect once again on just what it is that my own Catholic education gave me, and the tensions and gifts it bequeathed to me. My experien...
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Amazing news this morning--Jalal Talabani, the respected and doughty Kurdish leader of the 'peshmergas' (literally 'those who walk with death') and the founder of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, has been elected President of Iraq. He is the first Kurd ever to be in the top p...
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Another sad thing to report on the Australian film front, as yet another 'great white hope' looks set to segue into 'big flat flop.' Apparently, the film version of Robin Klein's well-loved, funny, tender and whimsical novel of school and family life, Hating Alison Ashley, is...
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I was asked recently by the editors of Online Opinion to write a short op-ed piece on what I saw as the future of new media, such as blogs. I thought Troppo readers might be interested in the piece, which has just been published on the Online Opinion site My own piece, if you...
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The death of Pope John Paul II was hardly unexpected, yet it is momentous. This was, I think, a Pope who was perhaps the most exceptionally talented and extraordinary man to fill St Peter's shoes in a long time; one of the great men of the twentieth century, and like all great...
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My original post on anarchism and the cataclysms of the 20th century has certainly engendered some lively debate, and here's something to add to it. It's actually to draw the attention of Troppo Armadillians to the work of a man I've only just become aware of(in fact since yes...
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Funny the directions in which research for books can take you. As part of my research for my planned detective fiction series, I've been reading a lot of 'true-crime' books from the 1910's, 20's and 30's, and one of the authors I've been reading is a once-famous writer and cri...
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A light and tasty post to leave you for Easter..and a happy Easter to all! Chez nous, it's ducks, ducks, ducks at the moment, as the 14-strong regiment of Muscovy ducklings we've reared have become big enough to well, become dinner. We've had duck 'a toutes les sauces', you mi...
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The other day, in Sydney, I went to see Bride and Prejudice with my daughter. In case you don't know, this is a Bollywoodised version of Jane Austen's great work(which is always put at no 2 on world 'top hundred' reading lists these days, behind Lord of the Rings!). I'd heard...
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A little while back, on one of my literary posts, on nominations for the 'dullest authors', a couple of people commented on how they found Australian writers , in the main, boring and/or unreadable. I thought I'd actually give you a chance here and now to nominate those Austra...
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Norm Geras has collated the results of the 'five favourite composers' poll he ran, and it won't surprise you to know that number one, at 345 votes, is Beethoven, closely followed by Mozart at 340 votes and JS Bach at 335 votes. In fourth place is Schubert, at 119 votes, and Ch...
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If you read nothing else this weekend in the papers, make sure you read The Australian's Middle East correspondent, Nicolas Rothwell, on the colossal blunder Osama Bin Laden made when he attacked America on September 11 2001, and the massive quakes it set off in the Middle Eas...
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I love crime fiction; have loved it ever since I discovered it at the age of 12 or 13. Crime fiction, well-written, is one of the most satisfying reading experiences there is: technically, the crime story provides a superb structure; characters are usually at crisis points in...
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Mark's posting on what he sees as a 'rightwing PC' intolerance of sexuality in schools has led me to present these few thoughts to Troppo Armadillians, based on my own observations and experiences in schools. I'm not interested in debating the rights and wrongs of the toleranc...
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I've been collecting and reading old magazines just as long as I've been collecting and reading old books, ie since at least the age of 16. Though the pleasure each has given me is related, old magazines make for a distinctively different reading experience from old books, bec...
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Directly inspired by Nabokov's comment on my earlier post, 'Best Shakespearean plays', I'm giving you all an opportunity to bury or praise the screen versions of Will's work. Here are my own cheers and boos: Cheers: Trevor Nunn's 1999(I think)version of Twelfth Night, set in a...
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Here's the chance for a bit of listmania--what are your top five favourite Shakespeare plays, and why? Before I list my own faves, I'd like to give you a bit of my own personal background regarding Shakespeare. As a child growing up in a French family, albeit mostly in Austral...
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Something like that was the reported 'slogan' of the 'Kelly Gang' of the Glenqarie Estate in Macquarie Fields, in Sydney's south-west. Two of the members of that hell-raising group of family and friends died in a high-speed car chase, setting off several days of riots. It's al...
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Norm Geras has a post up on Normblog about a survey which asked people in various occupations whether or not they liked their work. There was no occupation which claimed a majority of people liking their work--it seems most people who responded don't like their job! But the oc...
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No doubt everyone's heard of the fracas over the premature end--or at least the postponement--of the latest Great White Hope for Aussie filmmaking, Eucalyptus. From what you read in the press, the reasons for the implosion are fairly complex, but centred around the script. I h...
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OK, by 'popular demand'--well I can call it that if I want to!--and following on from 'dullest authors', here's the latest list: what are the most boring, awful movies you've ever seen? Of course there are many, many candidates for this, as the wide field for the Golden Turkey...
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On the weekend, we went to see one of the best new films I've seen in quite a while--French director Julie Bertuccelli's first feature film(her previous work has been in documentaries), Since Otar Left. It is an almost perfect film, with glorious acting, fantastic setting, gre...
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A couple of polls for a leisurely Sunday.. First of all, and Troppo Armadillians who've been commenting on music and composers recently might like this, Norm Geras over at Normblog is now conducting a poll of 'five favourite classical composers.' Just send him a list of your f...
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OK, so I've criticised pretty strongly the current hopeless approach to the teaching of English in schools, most particularly in NSW, which is the one that I know about. It's been fantastic to have this chance to express these things, and to debate it with you all, and it's al...
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A propos of my post yesterday, on English in school, I'd like to present to you the assignment my son brought home yesterday afternoon from school, an assignment which exemplifies everything I've been talking about. he was, by the way, in a state of wild revolt about it. It's...
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The usual stoush over education guarantees the usual old left wing/right wing divide, arguments about po-mo, deconstruction, etc. I'd like to bring the matter back to a more realistic level--the level of schools themselves. I have contact with schools all over Australia, on a...
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Scott's post on Tintin inspired me to get a move on with a post I've been meaning to do for a little while--on the contrasting joys of the two great Belgian comic-strip adventures, the Tintin books and the Asterix books. Like fellow Belgian, the fabulous singer/songwriter Jacq...
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Mark's post on Troppo re the 'republican debate revived' apparently because of the news of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles's impending wedding, prompts me to put forward a few provocative thoughts of my own. The main one being that I think the optimum time for a repub...
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Here's something worth a look! Back in December, Norm Geras asked people to send him their Top Ten favourite pop/rock songs. He had a record number of entries for such a poll--230--so it took some time to sort them out. Well, the results are now in, and it's interesting to see...
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I was reading the Oxford Companion to English Literature yesterday, looking up the entries for various Golden Age detective fiction writers (as I'm planning a mystery series set in the 1920's). What intrigued me was the contrast in the entries for Agatha Christie and Dorothy L...
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The other day we watched what I thought was impossible--a bad Cary Grant movie. Or rather, it was a bad movie--a lame, wooden, limp(to thoroughly mix metaphors) in which Cary Grant had the misfortune of being completely miscast. It's the historical potboiler, 1957's The Pride...
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Good morning to all Troppo Armadillians on this last day of January! And I am finally out of my major revisions to my novel, Malvolio's Revenge--and just before I restart work on my new one, The Tyrant's Nephew--so thought I should finally come back to do the occasional post....
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Just popping my head up briefly from festive celebrations and heinous manuscript revisions to urge you all to take part in Norm Geras' poll, re your selections for the greatest ten pop and rock songs of all time. Email Norm, normblog@yahoo.co.uk and give him your list now(entr...
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Head down in heavy revisions of a forthcoming novel of mine (Malvolio's Revenge, a supernatural/mystery/melodrama of a story, set in 1910's New Orleans, with a cameo appearance by one of my favourite artists and cultural heroes, the great Louis Armstrong) I'm afraid blogging's...
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For as long as I can remember, I've been an aficionado of the spooky and supernatural in literature and film. Note, not horror exactly, or not as it's been interpreted in modern times, with altogether too much grue and gore, but the kind of spooky that evokes the strangeness o...
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Coming up for air after an exhausting week in Sydney.. I was asked earlier if I had a list of recommended books for Christmas, so I thought I'd just talk about a few books I've enjoyed recently, suggest also some lesser-known classics, --and also note some books I hope I might...
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This is only a quick word as I'm in Sydney at Literature Board meetings and other literary business, but thought some of you might like to read my profile at Norm Geras' wonderful blog, here It was very interesting answering the questions--and one I'd like to throw open for ge...
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It's been an amazing spring here in New England. There's been a lot of good rain followed by warm weather, so the countryside looks fantastic--green and lush, with flowers everywhere and lots of budding fruit (and sadly, lots of flies, too--the sheep farmers must be having a d...
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Yesterday I bought, and am nearly finished(it's a real page-turner, you see!), a new and very enjoyable crime novel, The Walker, by a new Australian author, Jane R.Goodall. Set in London in 1971, with a prologue in 1967, it's a very spooky, well-written and unsettling read abo...
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Norm Geras had on his site today a link to a great article by the wonderful Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials and the Sally Lockhart Quartet, amongst others, about adaptation, from novel to stage as opposed to film. It is well worth reading--as always, with Philip,...
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Do films based on printed fiction do justice to their source? Or do they trash the original spirit of the book? Can a film be better than the book it's based on? Or is it always, inevitably less satisfying? I don't think there are general answers to those vexed questions, but...
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Have you ever thought that music, even instrumental music, shows definite national characteristics--that Russian music sounds, well, Russian, and French French, and German German, and English English, and so on? Well, it's not just an instinctive, slightly politically incorrec...
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One of the unpleasant things about being in the literary field is the snobbery that surrounds the definition of 'literature'. There are people who seem to think that if a novel is accessible, fun, and exciting with a gripping story and vivid characters, it's bound to be bad li...
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Last night, we watched 1940's The Philadelphia Story (starring Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Cary Grant), the latest in a long line of old romantic comedies that we've greatly enjoyed--mostly, much, much more than modern romantic comedies. And it set me thinking again a...
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Well, the SMH is playing host again to a Masson family piece! This time, it's actually a Masson-Leach piece, our youngest son, 15 year old Bevis, writing an opinion piece about the joys of skateboarding , free of the controls of well-meaning programs like the government-funded...
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For fellow admirers of Les Murray, here's some fantastic just-breaking news: the latest international honour to be awarded to our greatest poet. I had it hot from the lips of my agent, Margaret Connolly, who is also Les' agent. Les will be awarded one of Italy's top literary h...
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Yesterday, when I was talking to one of my France-based sisters over the phone, she told me my 21 year old nephew Stanislas, who's been training as a helicopter combat pilot in the French Army, may well be sent off to the Ivory Coast soon as part of the 4,000 strong French tro...
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Fantasy fiction, like crime fiction, looks set to becoming one of the dominant cultural genres, in both books and films. In books, fantasy is making huge inroads; not only was Lord of the Rings voted top book of the 20th century by a majority of readers in the English-speaking...
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I'm not sure if there's actually going to be a definitive answer to this question in this post, but I'd like at least to advance some ideas as to why so many Aussie films flop with punters, and often with critics too. First of all, there is, with several honourable exceptions,...
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I was a child who was often 'away with the fairies' --the very first book I remember reading was a Little Golden Book(in French) of three fairytales--Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast and Toads and Diamonds. Stories about once upon a time in a kingdom far far away were guaranteed...
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As I mentioned in my earlier posting (Screen pleasures), I did not have TV when I was growing up, as my parents found it second-rate and a waste of time, compared to films. That didn't stop us children from being quite 'au fait' with a lot of TV programmes, mostly because we'd...
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I was brought up on films as well as books, and the silver screen loomed quite large in our family story. My paternal grandfather worked as a cameraman in the French film industry in the inter-war period, and indeed the story goes that he stood in for Douglas Fairbanks Jr, who...
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I never believed the hopeful myth that Osama bin Laden was just a smear of DNA in a cave in Tora Bora. I mean, this was a guy who'd survived the war with the Soviets and then years of being tracked by Western and Arab intelligence services, long before 9/11, not to speak of su...
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Just a very quick post, to draw attention to Julia Baird's op-ed column in today's Sydney Morning Herald, which quotes yours truly a couple of times, one from my book In Hollow Lands, once from my controversial piece the other day. It's generally about Halloween; and she has i...
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I've been reading two very different, but equally extraordinary books recently. One's a huge, sprawling novel--the amazing first novel of English author Susanna Clarke--'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.' The other's a huge, sprawling combination of history and intelligence inv...
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It's the trinity of spring in our productive garden, in our cool highlands climate where the traditional seasons really mean something. By the time eagerly-awaited spring rolls in, we're all heartily tired of eating those hardy winter stalwarts, leeks, 'a toutes les sauces' ,...
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Springtime greetings to all Troppo Armadillos from your newest blogger! And for my first post, I'd like to start with a piece which began life inspired by the reactions of some Troppo critics to my recent piece in the Sydney Morning Herald , about Satanism. I don't intend to d...
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