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Thursday 08 January 2009
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Rosemary Dobson was born in Sydney in 1920—the daughter of English immigrants and the granddaughter of poet, critic, biographer and essayist Henry Austin Dobson. She is the only one of the five featured poets in this series who is still living. Her first collection In a Convex Mirror was published in 1944. Altogether she's written 13 collections of her own work and edited several anthologies. Her work has attracted many awards over the years and in 2000 Rosemary was given an honorary Celebration by the National Library of Australia.
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It gradually becomes clear to young Luis that life in Cuba was quite different before he was born. Whilst he's happy to become a good little communist his father and mother confuse him with stories about the overthrown Batista that don't in any way equate with the stories his school teachers tell. It's all very confusing for a small boy.
Wednesday 07 January 2009
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CJ Dennis is best known for The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke but for many readers The Glugs of Gosh is a favourite. The chance to relish the political satire, to take delight in the rhyme—Gosh and Splosh, profundity and rotundity, Ogs and Podge—and to recite such full-bodied words explains the joy many take in this work. Once again Lyn Gallacher is our guide through this world of Gosh.
First broadcast 14 May 2008
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Despite the rationing which Fidel Castro has blamed on the Americans, Luis' mother and aunts have found a bounty of food for the Garcia family's Christmas Eve celebrations. As the months pass however, Luis becomes aware of a new tension within the family and their monthly slide evenings become full of secretive adult conversation.
Tuesday 06 January 2009
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In the second in this special series dedicated to classic Australian poems Lyn Gallacher focuses on 'Rockpool', one of Judith Wright's later works. It's a dramatically unsentimental poem which is unflinching in its view of life and death.
First broadcast 13 May 2008
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Luis begins school with some trepidation but quickly discovers the joys of learning to recite the alphabet when it includes F for Fidel, R for rifle and Y for Yankees. But his parents aren't so pleased with his desire to become a Communist Pioneer or 'pionero' and Luis is forced to rethink his family's place in the new Cuba.
Monday 05 January 2009
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From lyricists to anarchists to satirists, Australia has an extraordinary poetic tradition, which, in the flurry of new releases, often gets lost. This is why The Book Show dedicated a special week to five classic Australian poems. In these programs Lyn Gallacher celebrates the work of Judith Wright, Kenneth Slessor, Rosemary Dobson, CJ Dennis and AD Hope. The series begins with Kenneth Slessor's masterful and much loved 'Five Bells'
First broadcast 12 May 2008
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Child of the Revolution is set in a world of uncertainty and revolutionary upheaval, where a 10-year-old has to swear allegiance to Lenin, Marx and the mythical Che Guevara, with no idea what it means. It's also a world his parents see rapidly disintegrating under El Maximo Lider and they dream of escape.
Friday 02 January 2009
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The misery memoir has become the 'sexy' genre of the new century, but how much of what we're being told happened to the authors is made up or exaggerated? The American writer James Frey is about to publish his first novel. Frey first came to public attention with his memoir A Million Little Pieces, about his addiction to drugs and alcohol, his incarceration and rehabilitation; a memoir later found to be suspect. Margaret B Jones, author of Love and Consequences, has admitted that she's not of mixed race and was not involved with the Bloods gang. She's a Caucasian woman from Los Angeles by the name of Margaret Seltzer. So how far can we trust a memoir to be accurate?
First broadcast 28 March 2008
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Geraldine meets her earliest pen-pal, who lived not across the world but across the harbour on the other side of Sydney, but who helped open Geraldine's eyes to life's possibilities.
For copyright reasons this reading is not available as a podcast.
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2pm AEDT