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The Best Australian Essays
The Best Australian Essays: A Ten-Year Collection
447 pages, Paperback
First published March 31, 2011
19 people are currently reading
205 people want to read
About the author
Ramona Koval
16 books4 followersRamona Koval has made long interviews with significant writers her signature. She is familiar to ABC Radio audiences through her long and varied career on air. Listeners will remember her as the presenter of the RN Drive program and as the morning presenter on Melbourne’s 3LO (now 774 ABC Melbourne) through the late 1980s and early 1990s.
She became a fixture in the literary world after joining ABC Radio National’s Books and Writing in 1994. Ramona now presents The Book Show, introduced by ABC Radio National in 2006 to consolidate its various book programs.
A writer herself, Ramona has published several books, including a novel, Samovar, and a cookbook Jewish Cooking, Jewish Cooks. She has written for many newspapers and international journals, and her interviews have been published in book form. Her latest collection of Radio National interviews is Tasting Life Twice: Conversations with Remarkable Writers, published by ABC Books.
She became a fixture in the literary world after joining ABC Radio National’s Books and Writing in 1994. Ramona now presents The Book Show, introduced by ABC Radio National in 2006 to consolidate its various book programs.
A writer herself, Ramona has published several books, including a novel, Samovar, and a cookbook Jewish Cooking, Jewish Cooks. She has written for many newspapers and international journals, and her interviews have been published in book form. Her latest collection of Radio National interviews is Tasting Life Twice: Conversations with Remarkable Writers, published by ABC Books.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 1, 2020
I've enjoyed reading this terrific collection of essays over several weeks, savouring each one as I read it, not muddying the memory by reading another one immediately.
The first class editorial panel included some of the writers whose work was finally selected for this 'best of ten years', probably from 2000 to 2010, as it was published in 2011.
Many of Australia's best writers of fiction and non-fiction are included, the range of topics covered is extensive, the quality of writing very high, with only a couple of essays failing to grab and hold me.
Those that stand out as I write this a couple of weeks after finishing it are:
Anna Krien Trouble on the Night Shift the tensions and complexities of the managing the effects of alcohol and drugs on remote Aboriginal communities, the night shift collecting those who are so drunk they've passed out, or are likely to get into trouble
Thomas Keneally The Handbag Studio – where he met the man who told him the story of Oscar Schindler, the beginnings of Schindler's Ark (the book) and Schindler's List (the film)
Chloe Hooper The Tall Man – the bare essentials of the story of the murder of Cameron Doomadgee by police Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley on Palm Island. My review of her book with the same title is https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...
David Malouf – the One Day – Anzac Day as a truly national occasion, now crossing generations
David Marr – Patrick white the final chapter – after White’s death
Craig Sherborne - Unforgiven- the bitterness of forgiveness withheld over years
The first class editorial panel included some of the writers whose work was finally selected for this 'best of ten years', probably from 2000 to 2010, as it was published in 2011.
Many of Australia's best writers of fiction and non-fiction are included, the range of topics covered is extensive, the quality of writing very high, with only a couple of essays failing to grab and hold me.
Those that stand out as I write this a couple of weeks after finishing it are:
Anna Krien Trouble on the Night Shift the tensions and complexities of the managing the effects of alcohol and drugs on remote Aboriginal communities, the night shift collecting those who are so drunk they've passed out, or are likely to get into trouble
Thomas Keneally The Handbag Studio – where he met the man who told him the story of Oscar Schindler, the beginnings of Schindler's Ark (the book) and Schindler's List (the film)
Chloe Hooper The Tall Man – the bare essentials of the story of the murder of Cameron Doomadgee by police Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley on Palm Island. My review of her book with the same title is https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...
David Malouf – the One Day – Anzac Day as a truly national occasion, now crossing generations
David Marr – Patrick white the final chapter – after White’s death
Craig Sherborne - Unforgiven- the bitterness of forgiveness withheld over years
June 29, 2016
This is a terrific collection. The essays have been selected from the annual Best Australian Essays series and there are contributions from some of Australia’s most eminent writers and thinkers.
I like the essay form. So much of what passes for journalism in daily newspapers is, these days, superficial and/or partisan, and that’s partly because of the limitations of space and partly because editorial independence is not what it was under great editors such as Creighton Burns. So publications like Quarterly Essay are filling a gap in the Fourth Estate and it’s good to have the best of these essays in a more permanent form that will last the distance on the shelves.
I haven’t read all of the essays yet; this is a collection to keep on the coffee table and dip into from time-to-time. Of those I have read, these are my favourites:
Thomas Keneally writes about how he met the man who inspired him to write Schindler’s List
David Malouf explores the transition of Anzac Day from moribund in the 50s to national obsesssion in the 21st century
Inga Clendinnen writes movingly about the ‘family’ of people who’ve had liver transplants
Barry Humphries writes about his last meeting with Arthur Boyd, and
David Marr writes irresistibly about those precious Patrick White papers recently unearthed.
My favourite is by Jessica Anderson, writing about abandoning her old Hermes typewriter and learning to use a computer at the age of 70. I loved reading about the arrangements she had for her writing: the desk, the chair, the ‘little printer’ and so on.
I like the essay form. So much of what passes for journalism in daily newspapers is, these days, superficial and/or partisan, and that’s partly because of the limitations of space and partly because editorial independence is not what it was under great editors such as Creighton Burns. So publications like Quarterly Essay are filling a gap in the Fourth Estate and it’s good to have the best of these essays in a more permanent form that will last the distance on the shelves.
I haven’t read all of the essays yet; this is a collection to keep on the coffee table and dip into from time-to-time. Of those I have read, these are my favourites:
Thomas Keneally writes about how he met the man who inspired him to write Schindler’s List
David Malouf explores the transition of Anzac Day from moribund in the 50s to national obsesssion in the 21st century
Inga Clendinnen writes movingly about the ‘family’ of people who’ve had liver transplants
Barry Humphries writes about his last meeting with Arthur Boyd, and
David Marr writes irresistibly about those precious Patrick White papers recently unearthed.
My favourite is by Jessica Anderson, writing about abandoning her old Hermes typewriter and learning to use a computer at the age of 70. I loved reading about the arrangements she had for her writing: the desk, the chair, the ‘little printer’ and so on.
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February 15, 20193/5 this surprised me because I like the annual collections but I didn’t love this. Some of the essays are absolutely brilliant. But lots I found kind of boring. I think I’m trying to find the best 10 years worth, they might have gone for important topics rather than the best actual essays? Unsure
July 3, 2017
A masterful collection of writing. About three quarter deserve five stars on their own (and a couple of three-star inclusions). In turns moving, funny and informative. Written by people who have spent lifetimes observing and thinking about their environment. The strongest essays are the ones that reflect on Australian topics: Aussie values, bushfires, aboriginal problems, environment...
June 23, 2013
wonderful and amazing, enlightening and moving essays on a broad range of topics! (And I don't just say that because I am an Aussie! ;)
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews