New Zealand Books

This book is older and outdated but does give some information that is useful to very big teams of over 10 swimmers with pattern ideas.

If you can get your hands on a copy of this, do. Some of the stories from this are excerpted in "The Vintage Book of International Lesbian Fiction", and they inspired me to order a copy of this. I wasn't disappointed. Te Awekotuku's language is often strong and forceful, and her depictions of the lives of women in New Zealand are intriguing. Most of the stories center on the character of Tahuri, but not all.

Escott tells the stories of British, American and Commonwealth women who have received medals for courageous acts in the 20th century. The book is interesting and readable. The number and variety of the stories about actions in both peace and war are truly impressive.

Included are nurses and ambulance drivers (WW I) who served under appalling conditions, young English girls who worked under extreme danger in munitions factories, World War II women who worked in the midst of the Blitz and much more. The compelling story of the youngest "Woman of Courage" is about a 14 year old girl who saves a friend from drowning.

Having said all of the above, there is also a story about one Karen Mast, supposedly a WW-2 combat pilot, that is quite simply false. Mast is introduced as "the only woman aviation cadet in the US Army Air Corps [sic]...[who] choose...Mosquito Mark XVI, modified to her...specifications to take her on highly dangerous photographic and confidential reconnaissance missions over Japanese-held territory..." Facts are lacking, the description and crew unbelievable, and the results unlikely. She claims to have flown her last mission with a single crewman, an RAAF Air Marshal, who operated the camera while she piloted the aircraft. The aircraft was seriously damaged by Japanese Zeros and both Mast and the Air Marshal seriously wounded. The Air Marshal was retired to a sheep farm and Mast was given her 4th Purple Heart and later, the Silver Star from Harry Truman.

Women's history in World War II is well covered in Mattie Treadwell's excellent book _The Women's Army Corps_. WASP history is well covered in many books (eg: Boyd et al, _on Final Approach_). Mast was not in the WASP (who are well known and documented by name). The WASP, disbanded in late 44, did not fly outside the US, and hence did not fly in combat. Non-medical women in the Army were in the WAAC, later the WAC. No WAAC or WAC served as pilots; none were combatants. Sixteen WACs received the Purple Heart, most (if not all) for wounds received in London during the Blitz. None received the award twice, much less four times. No WACs received the Silver Star. Several Army nurses received the Silver Star for their courageous actions at Anzio. Hundreds of WACs received the Bronze Star for service in Europe or the Pacific.

Mast's story is completely untrue. In correspondence with the author, she stated that she had received the information from a source she thought reliable. Her efforts to verify the story were unproductive so she accepted it. Readily available information on the Mosquito aircraft would have shown the impossibility of Mast's story. Her description of the Mosquito has no similarity with the real aircraft which has a cockpit so cramped that pilot and navigator/bombadier sit shoulder to shoulder. While some models of the Mosquito saw limited service with the RAAF in the South Pacific late in the war, the Model Mark XVI was not one of them. Nor were the RAAF Mosquitos involved in the kind of combat operations claimed by Mast. The RAAF had relatively few senior officers, and no officer of the rank of Air Marshal would have been involved in the mission described!

Inquiries to the National Personnel Records Center where the records of US military personnel are kept revealed that there is absolutely no record of anyone one named "Karen Mast." It is unfortunate in a book with many good stories that one that is completely false stands out.

In extensive tables at the end of the book, Escott attempts to identify women award recipients by country, award given and name. This is a daunting task, certainly for American women, because no centralized records exist. It is no surprise to find the list of Americans appears to be both incomplete and inaccurate.

A few examples: Four WW-1 Navy nurses received the Navy Cross (Sterner, _In and Out of Harm's Way_), including Lena Higbee, listed by Escott as receiving the DSC. Ruth Streeter, listed as "Col WAVES," was the WW-2 leader of the Women Marines; she is listed under "Commendations for Heroism." Although her service was exceptional and, some might agree under trying circumstances, "heroism" does not seem a likely description. CAPT Leaverton, and LT COLs Holleran and Reinhold are listed as recipients of the "Marine Corps Medal (with V for Combat);" each woman received the Bronze Star Medal for service in Vietnam (Stremlow, _A History of the Women Marines 1946-77_). About 600 WAC received the Bronze Star Medal for service during WW-2 (Treadwell). Several hundred Army nurses were also probably recipients. Escott lists a total of 26.

A final puzzle: the book contains no footnotes. An extensive bibliography (including Treadwell, Stremlow and Morden [post WW-2 WAC]) is provided, but the books do not appear to have been consulted.

Recommended reading, but be aware of the discrepancies.

The options are interesting, but as an American, i cannot appreciate the subtleties of Australian politics and the "empires" of different times as they (if they) focused more on Australia. On the other hand, this book tries very hard to read as a textbook - and fails. Maybe the next by this author - will be better.

When the Boat Comes in, Transforming Australia in the Age of Globalisation, by Boris Frankel, 2001,Pluto Press, ISBN 1-86403-171-9, 262 p. paperback.

The remnant socialism of the author is readily evident but, despite this failing, the arguments made by the author are worth consideration, not so much for what he has to offer in terms of alternatives or solutions, but more because of his insight and analysis of the disenfranchisement of families, communities, regions, states, some institutions in Australia, and the consequent diversion of societies resources into issues and interests which favour business interests, major transnational corporations and the machinery of government.

Frankel proudly wallows (at times) in the sanctity of his purpose and brave new analysis of the forces of commercial interest which are corroding the last fabric of influence which the `leftists', `wets' and `neo-Keynesians' retain in Australia and its institutions. His targets are the unprincipled politicians, community and business leaders which have and are still ready to surrender the last vestiges of what remains of the socialist dream to transnationals and worldwide financial institutions, all in the name of international competitiveness and globalisation. As a result both political and markets are now largely judged and according to their international favourability to investment and fiscal institutions. The old leftists and right wing political forces have been isolated and stranded by the coalition of neo-liberals and market-fundamentalists who have even been swept along the guardians of the poor (social welfare movement, church groups) and the downtrodden in their rush to embrace new market fiscalisation. The result is, according to Frankel, a new politics of production as well as distribution is Australia.

Sadly, Frankel misses many a valid point in his work such as which niche markets should we develop; where should we start to develop the necessary export culture to be import-competitive; if we are not to retreat to the past which part of the future is best for the future of Australia? The need for fiscal and monetary balance as well as long-term sustainable enterprise is not covered in his analysis. He skims over the issue of the chronic imbalance in trade both physical and 'terms or trade', and seems content to avoid the issue of what is a sustainable population distribution as well as size - if we move towards a sustainable agrarian and resource using economy why do we need a large urban population anyway? This and many other issues are sadly not alluded to in the book. They could have been if the socialist idealistic fluff were removed and hard `how it can be done' issues were covered in more detail. Frankel's book could readily be counted among those who don't see a lot of good coming from some aspects of `economic reform' and the broader issues of fiscalisation and globalisation.

In reviewing this book the social and political leanings of the author are readily evident. Although, despite the strong possibility that the author might only be an aging 60s retro-socialist, I found the analysis both frustrating and incisive. Frustrating in that I felt like saying over and over, yes I agree with some very useful points of the analysis but why does it take so long to say it and why are they repeated where they don't need to be. On the other hand, the incisiveness is that some of the original observations are only made because of the author is a leftist and working-class socialist who possibly pines for `what might have been' if Gough Whitlam had been allowed to serve his full term beyond December 1975? The golden age of socialism may have come and the market rationalism of the 1980 onwards may have been spared for our `Lucky Country' (apologies to Donald Horne).

The book is organised into two major parts: the first deals with the new Australia which Frankel sees as being the product of an insecure population of voters who are at the mercy of short-sighted and myopic policy makers. The second part of the book moves from the descriptive and analytical approach of the first part of the book to what ought to be and how it can be accomplished.

Thus, the dominating theme in the first part of the book is the way in which recent Australian politics has focussed upon the fate and (mis)management of the fiscal fortunes of the nation and its commerce. While the second part of the book Frankel seems to follow a journey of `what if?'. While one would like to believe in Frankel's `feasible eco-social policies' and a `social-industrial' complex (as opposed to the military-industrial one), one is too often reflective upon past disasters where public funds were spent upon enterprises which represented a net loss of national economic welfare.

One began reading the book with the hope that someone at last was going to 'tear the wrinkled skin off the aging socialist custard', only to find that the interior of Frankel's analysis was as old and tired (if not older and more tired) than the exterior. If we, in Australia, are to cope we must be ready to build enterprises which are uniquely advantaged by our own natural resources, location, climate and whatever it is the world wants whenever it wants it. Don't look for answers as to how this can be done in Frankel's tome.

Yes, the Australian economy has changed from one either based on agriculture, mineral resources and now a need for high value exports but even the champions of economic reform know that backing every idea someone comes up with a National Infrastructure Fund is bound to waste more money that it generates.

A good read if you like retro-socialism. It fails to undertake a more well argued analysis of `Australia Inc' and what are its strengths and weaknesses and how best to benefit from them. It does give a good insight and analysis of the growth of fiscalisation and the impacts upon our institutions and pattern of government.

One needs enterprise and diversity in business and business success but not at the cost of a pervading socialist state which Frankel's well-meaning solutions are likely to lead. Frankel needs to give some practical how to do it solutions, instead he omits all the detailed issues which someone would be looking for in both social and economic issues.

What do we do about trade imbalance - reduce migration, curb demand or take a good dose of economic recession to curb our bloating trade imbalance? The book is very good insight into some of Boris' favourite themes but the practicality of solutions is very much questionable.

A very good book with which to gain some insights into the last 30 years of Australian political and social debate but not a source of practical and viable solutions - next please!

Dr I. Lavering
Adjunct Professor
MBT Program UNSW

Was there ever a more romantic title than "White Shadows in the South Seas?" The book sold like hotcakes in the early 1920s and a movie of it won an Oscar in 1928. I suspect, however, that a lot of the popularity of the book was due to photographs of undraped Polynesian women and hints of sexual delights. One of the female characters is named "Vanquished Often." This is pretty racy for 1921, the stuff that escapist dreams were made of after the horrors of World War I.

Well, unfortunately, "White Shadows" while not a bad book is not a very good book either. It's about a visit the author made to the remote Marquesas Islands of the South Pacific. He meets a lot of bizarre characters and tells us of them at length -- and I have a feeling he told a few "stretchers" as Huck Finn would say. There's plenty of colorful descriptions of scenery that is in truth spectacular, and stories of some of the people who have visited the Marquesas, including Herman Melville and Paul Gauguin. O'Brien gives the reader a good dose of history and folklore.

I've had "White Shadows" and its companion volume "Mystic Isles of the South Seas" on my bookshelf for about 40 years. The titles are too evocative and the books too romantic to throw away. The photographs are pretty decent too, although not as revealing as some of Marquesan women in "The National Geographic" of the same epoch. So, buy the books and look at the pictures, read a bit of the purple prose, and dream of an Island maid named Vanquished Often.

Smallchief

I was looking for books on New Zealand because I very much want to go there when I found this one. The title grabbed me straight off. I liked it because it wasn't a touristy book, but it gave enough information and history to make me thirsty for more. The author hits the high spots and throws in his own humor that kept me reading. I recomend this book to anyone who wants a charming look at Coaster history and society, and what it has to offer a vacationer.

I picked up Slip into Paradise in advance of my first trip to New Zealand, later this year (2008), and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was looking for something that was more than the run-of-the-mill guide book or history book (both of which I also acquired and are helpful). I was not disappointed at all with Jeffrey Masson's account of his experiences in New Zealand.

This book added a third dimension to my travel preparation. I feel like I got a great flavor for what inspired his love for his adopted country, and confirmation of why I have been so interested in traveling to that country. I am not one to travel and sit in a tour bus or hang out where all of the other tourists go, and I greatly appreciate Jeff's personal itinerary that identified specific places that he found to be fun, interesting and not the local tourist sites.

I experienced the book as having been written by someone who is not afraid to get out there, enjoys meeting with people in many venues, learning a lot about himself and a new place, and sharing these experiences in an engaging way. I totally recommend it and look forward to my trip to New Zealand and hope that I can experience the richness of getting to know New Zealand to the extent that Jeff has experienced. If I come away with this kind of adventure I will not be disappointed and will have stories to share with friends and family.

This book isn't about New Zealand, it's about the author and his laundry list of intellectual and professional accomplishments. It's self-important drivel disguised as a travel book and his pretentious rhetoric is anything but New Zealand.

It's not that it's a terribly _bad_ book, just hopelessly mislabeled. A better title would be "A Dull Exposition of the Flora, Fauna, and Native Peoples of New Zealand". It's not a total loss, the author gives some insight on the pros and cons of other places (e.g.: Hawaii - too confining, London - too expensive and dirty). He also gives a nice itinerary at the end of the book, even giving directions to his beach-side house.

Several times he points out the tendency of Kiwi's to cut pretentious people down to size, which is especially ironic since the author appears to be pretentious in the extreme.

If you're looking for a book to give solid information about emigrating to New Zealand, this isn't it. If you're looking for practical day-to-day advice from someone who has done it, this isn't it. If you want a heavy dose of whining and pontification - this is the book for you.

My recommendation: "Browse" the book at a local bookstore (you can read the 1-2 worthwhile chapters very quickly) then save your money and put it back on the shelf.

Speaking as an American living in New Zealand (indeed, a Berkeleyite, just like Masson), this book really got under my skin, and not in a good way. Masson arrives in New Zealand with all his Berkeleyan world-explaining ideas (The Despoiling White Man, The Noble Savage, The Oppressed Native Peoples ) intact, needing only a smattering of experience to trot them out and apply them to his adopted country. There is next to no learning in this book, remarkably little writing of charm, insight or wit--just an endless litany of "I did...", "I felt...", "I was affected by..." paragraphs, interspersed with the kind of factual material that a high-school student might include. As journalism it is far too slapdash. As memoir, its self-regard and -indulgence far outweighs its meager helping of resonance. In short, I can't believe that this book had an editor.

This is clearly a book that was written on his veranda, for people who already take him for an intellectual/empathetic figure of note. Not having ever read anything else of his, I found nothing here to justify that standing, which makes it only the more irritating that he is so "up himself", as the Kiwis would say.

New Zealand is indeed a wonderful, wonderful places, for some of the reasons Masson describes, and for many others as well that he never notices. Even when he says something I sort of agree with, I start mentally arguing with him. GAHH!

But about the author himself. Obviously an intelligent and well-traveled man. You can't miss that point , as he reminds you of such every other paragrah. I do , though , actually enjoy his writing style and enjoyed the book despite him. More on the actual state of living in NZ would be called for. After reading the book , I know little of how the common Kiwi spends his day , week or year. How the children grow through school and society. The state of business and commerce. I know much much more of the author's political beliefs (Michael Moore is courageous, American Blacks are entitled to reparations etc etc) that have no connection with , or bearing on , New Zealand. I know that he and his wife are well read , well traveled , well met(oh the name dropping!) and certainly , well off. I know that, with broad brush strokes , and 'not quite right' fellings in his gut, he paints entire countries and cultures - not as inferior to new Zealand's - but as unworthy of his residence. And thus Mr. Masson's book , in it's essence, is not really more than so much of the same pseudo-intellectual fluff that he so casually , yet specifically, dismisses.

If you have a burning desire to read some historical fiction, I'd recommend "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden as a shining example thereof.

What are the problems?

1. Lots of digression/ babbling/ fillers sections of prose. It seems like a lot of it was inserted to give the book length. If the point of this was to give us an idea of the life of Australian aboriginals, the author could have supplied details to that effect. Instead, we get the author's imagined internal dialogues of a central character that may well have been schizophrenic.

2. Why would Blackburn choose an inveterate liar to characterize the experience of a white living amongst the Aborigines? Were there no other whites that lived among them during that time? One thing that was clear was that there were many different types of whites to be found in contact with the Aborigines at this time. Could we not have seen these Native Australians from the perspective of government officials? Or railroad workers?

3. On the whole, the characters were very poorly developed and one dimensional-- and especially those of the Aborigines. This might have been another vehicle to show us the customs that a reader might be intersted to know, such as language/ customs/ family structure.

4. If this work was supposed to have been historical fiction dedicated to understanding Daisy Bates, the author could have taken artistic license to develop the character of Daisy Bates as it might have been seen through the eyes of an Aborigine. Or several of the government officials with whom she came into contact.

Again: If you are looking for good historical fiction, don't look for it in this book.

Too much novelistic improvisation and repetition ruin this book. Julia Blackburn is clearly more interested in Julia Blackburn than in Daisy Bates. Julia Blackburn's ideas and dreams are constantly inserted just when you think you might get to read something about Daisy Bates! Julia Blackburn presents Julia Blackburn as a dreamy, visionary person, while describing Daisy Bates as a Liar over and over and over again, and then giving Daisy an "imaginary" life... It could have worked if Julia Blackburn weren't so in love with herself--- I bought this book because life among the Aborigines sounded interesting. But it's really too much about Julia Blackburn and she bores me. I read a lot of novels, biogs, poetry, and history, and this books tries to capture it all and while at times it is eloquent, it often feels false and flat.

Daisy Bates, a controversial woman who has attained almost mythical status in Australia, was an inveterate liar, constitutionally incapable of seeing herself in the world as it really was. Instead, she created a better world in her own mind and assumed that everyone else recognized her world as real. As Julia Blackburn reconstructs what she believes to have been Daisy's life in Australia's western desert, and her seemingly futile efforts to protect and preserve the aborigines and their culture, she presents a plausible personality with whom the reader can, to a great extent, identify.

Blackburn is successful in making Daisy's dream world seem like an understandable response to the privations and hardships she faced in her early life alone. In Part I, Blackburn describes what Daisy has said about her life, and follows it with what Blackburn has discovered to be the truth as a result of her documented research. In Part II, she allows Daisy, as she understands her, to speak to the reader herself, and we "live" with her in the desert for many years, watching as her original dedication becomes a mission and then a mania, and her insecurity grows into delusion and eventually paranoia. A woman who seems to have accomplished nothing of lasting significance, Daisy might have achieved some of her goals if she had only bent a little. Part III tells of Daisy's life after she leaves the desert.

Blackburn brings Daisy's Australian desert camp to life--the blinding sun, the heat of day and cold of night, the ghostly arrivals and departures of the shy aborigines, the birds and animals who were often Daisy's only company, and the changes wrought by the railroads, settlement, missionaries, and unfeeling governmental bureaucrats. Though she presents Daisy sympathetically, she is not Daisy's apologist, offering no defense, other than Daisy's own personality, for her extreme and solitary viewpoint. Unlike other readers, I found this a very poignant story of a woman who, at the end of a life of the utmost privation and dedication to saving a culture, realizes with sadness that it has all been for naught. Clearly, she never had a clue that most of her failure was her own fault. Mary Whipple

Daisy Bates appears to be delusional at times in recounting her adventures with the Aboriginese but this is still one of the most fascinating reads I've had in a long time! If you were to separate her tales from the fact that she lived on her own among the indigenous peoples of Australia during a time when it was shocking for a woman to do so, there would still be an incredible story of courage and perserverance. This is an account worth reading!

The author is highly imaginative and tells a lot about her own life in this mish mash. We never learn much about Daisy Bates. the author writes " her body shudders like a dying rabbit and her new husband wakes and stares at his new wife..." But the author is really describing her own childhood dream of an old man with his legs wrapped around her neck!!! Blackburn's "very personal interpretation" of the life of Daisy Bates seems to include Blackburn trying to overcome some of her own childhood traumas and problems with men. If little is known about Daisy Bates' feelings towards her husband, I'd rather have that than a lot of silly conjecture and fantasy. The prose is very good, very flowery and high flown, but it doesn't help tell the story of Daisy Bates. Like other reviewers, I will have to research Daisy, yes even after reading her "biog". It didn't feel balanced at all.

An insightful book into the fascinating history of Australia. Intriguing stories coupled with historical events make this a must have for anyone interested in Australian history.

This is a history-memoir type book, dealing pretty chronologically with Australia in the 20th century. Many chapters were of high interest, though one is not sure how objective the author is. It was annoying that there was not a single footnote, and that the bibliography did not list books alluded to in the text. The chapter detailing how the Aboriginals were allegedly treated in this century and even into the 1960s was appalling to me, tho Australia seems to have put the worst of that attitude behind it, what with the decisive repudiation of the One Nation Party in the last few years. The author expresses some highly opinionated views on subjects with little effort to tell the other side of the subject, presuming there is one. An interesting if not very scholarly effort.

This book is a disgrace. Purporting to be a history of Australia it is filled with errors - beginning with the description of the settlement of Sydey cove on the dust-jacket. There is an absurd claim that a dingo fence can be seen from outer space, that there was slavery in Australia, that in 1931-32 Australia was close to civil war, a completely unsourced and baseless claim Australian troops tried to surrender en masse at Gallipoli, etc. That's just for starters and before we even start on the author's personal bias any mythologising. The account of the dismissal of the Whitlam Government is the sort of thing that gives paranoia a bad name. It is claimed the Catholic activist BA Santamaria, one of the best-known figures in contemporary Australia, was expelled from the Labor Party - he could not have been expelled from it as he was never a member of it. Sloppy rersearch, bad history, a contempt for, or indifference to, truth and fact. The book is worthy of Manning Clark.

Far too many history books are deadly dry, a compilation of facts and dates that often leave out the human element and with little sense of drama. This book does not fall into that trap, being something of a mix of memoir, short vignettes of many, many people, both famous and ordinary, and the more normal recounting of the happenings of history. Often the people stories are insightful, sometimes humorous, and do much to help illustrate Knightley's main thesis of just what an Australian really is.

The downside of this method of narration is that it is easy to lose objectivity, something I'm afraid Knightley is guilty of in at least a few places. His political bias is very much in evidence throughout this book, most glaringly in his depiction of the various Prime Ministers and the battles between the working man and the rich landholders/business executives. At the same time, his depiction of the items that have gone into the making of the essential Australian character is well told, forming a mosaic of events and people that put this character into clear focus. Having lived in Australia myself (a very long time ago, but I don't think there has been any basic change in this item since), I can testify that the traits of wishing everyone to `have a fair go' and mateship really do seem to be defining items of that character.

One item that would definitely have improved this book would have been the inclusion of some maps of the country. Unless one is intimately aware of the geography of this continent-country, the references to literally hundreds of place names and towns can be daunting without some way to place them spatially. I would have also liked to see a little greater treatment of the early period of its settlement, as the emphasis of this book is very much the twentieth century, and even more so on the last half of that century. Often the narration is told from the strictly political point of view, with little reference to the great resource finds and their development that had quite an influence on how Australia developed.

On the other hand, Knightley does a very good job of portraying and documenting the treatment that the Aborigines have been subjected to, from the earliest settlements to the latest landmark court decisions dealing with their land rights. More than any other item, this one area shows just how much Australia has changed from a blatantly racist and xenophobic nation to one that has at least begun to recognize its past failings and find its place in a truly multi-cultural world.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

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Phillip Knightley says English journalists, when visiting Australia for the first time, can't help but exaggerate their experiences. After such a long absence from Australia you would have to call Knightley more a Pom than an Aussie. Right from the first chapter of "Australia - A Biography of a Nation" the author falls into the journalistic trap of not letting objectivity get in the way of a good story.

Knightley has the typical view of the expats who left Australia during the 1949-66 reign of the Liberal PM Sir Robert Menzies. He has little time for that remarkable man and the uninterrupted growth in prosperity he delivered. To reinforce his prejudices he tells us that Menzies came from a privileged "born to rule" background. In fact Menzies came from a family of modest means. His father had a general store in a small country town in Victoria and his mother's father was a leader of a gold miner's trade union. The fact that Menzies was a "scholarship boy" belies Knightley's description.

Let's flip forward to another notable Australian Prime Minister of the last 40 years. Edward Gough Whitlam had a very brief ascendancy. He was PM for 2 years and 10 months. For those who idolise him it will remain "The Whitlam Era"; and so Knightley's Chapter 17 is duly titled.

We all know "a week is a long time in politics" but you would need to invoke time dilation and Special Relativity to turn 34 months into an era.

The dismissal of Gough by the Governor General Sir John Kerr on November 11 1975 sees Knightley wheel out his favourite conspiracy theories including shadowy CIA sponsored possibilities.

One of the most remarkable admissions by Knightley is the fact that his wife (at the time) was a telex operator in the London office of the Pakistani commodity trader Tirath Khemlani. Khemlani was appointed by the Whitlam government to find a four billion-petrodollar loan to help fund the massive spending spree that they had embarked upon. When the Minister responsible (Rex Connor) was told to terminate the negotiations because of the unsavoury associations, Connor persisted in his discussions. When you recall Knightley's familiarity with the spooky world of Philby and Profumo, the existence of leaked telexes which lead to a government's downfall has an unusually strong scent of intramural associations.

Whitlam's fall is also, in part, attributed by Knightley to Rupert "The Dirty Digger" Murdoch. Murdoch's energetic promotion of Whitlam's cause in 1972 followed by the equally harsh criticism in 1975 was seen in Labor circles as traitorous. Of course, those who were the beneficiaries of Whitlam's patronage saw his short and inept reign as being beyond criticism.

Knightley correctly identifies that a real Australian success has been managing the transition from a mono-cultural Anglo-flavoured society into the confident, outward looking, culturally diverse nation that it is today.

Knightley portrays Arthur Calwell the Labor Immigration Minister (1945-49) as some xenophobic relic. In fact it was Calwell who encouraged the migration of Southern Europeans to Australia at a time when Briton's were still amused by the expression "Wogs start at Calais".

We now have 2nd generation Italian and Greek Australians as leaders across Australian society. Knightley denigrates Calwell and gives no recognition to his pioneering role in making a multi-cultural Australia.

Knightley's viewpoint is blatantly Sydney-centric. This is not surprising when he admits that he sees Britain through the eyes of Londoner. This geographic blinkering can lead to a lack of objectivity. He names the alma mater of Germaine Greer (every thinking Australian males pin-up girl(?)) as Sydney University. In fact she was a graduate of Melbourne University who happened to move up the road to do her MA.

Knightley sees the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras as the most emblematic of the cultural shifts that have occurred in Australia. By a remarkable coincidence so did Robert Hughes in his recent TV series which re-visited the "The Fatal Shore".

In the past 10 years, advancement of indigenous Australian's rights has become central to much public debate. Knightley recognises this and the progress that is being made. However he ignores one of the key fallacies underlying the new policy agendas.

Knightley, together with many other commentators, unquestioningly accepts the wisdom of the Mabo High Court decision. This case marked a watershed in Aboriginal rights in Australia. It overturned the concept of Australia being a "terra nullius". The test case applied to a group of Torres Strait people who are of Melanesian origin. They are distinct culturally and ethnically from the mainland aborigines. These Islanders have long established traditions of "gardening" in contrast to the traditional hunter-gatherers who lived on the mainland. The Mabo Case has been extended to the recent Wik decision. This has profound implications for land holder's rights throughout Australia.

Knightley's own definition of "terra nullius" (p314) includes land that is uncultivated. Mainland aborigines have never been observed to till and harvest their land in a continuous and systematic manner.

Knightley's "Biography of a Nation" falls short in many areas. Australia is the only nation occupying a continent. It is a very ancient landmass. Can we have a meaningful biography of such an entity? If the term can be applied to a nation, then a more intensive, broad reaching and balanced consideration should be provided. Instead, this book is one man's attempt to try and catch up with all that he has missed out on during a mere (in geological terms) 40-year absence. Contrast this with the latest news from anthropologists. Australians have been around for 50,000 years. Happy Birthday Australia!