Showing results by narrator "Marie-Louise Walker" in All Categories

These two women's lives have been shaped by the decisions they made back in 1968 – when they were young, idealistic and naïve. In a world that was a whirl of politics and protest, consciousness raising and sexual liberation, Zoë and Julia were looking for love, truth and their own happy endings. They soon discover that life is rarely that simple, as their bad behaviour leads them down paths that they can never turn back from.

Margot detests shopping malls. Any distraction is welcome, and the woman who has chained herself to the escalator, shouting about the perils of consumerism, is certainly that. She recognises Dot immediately - from their campaigning days, and further back still, to when Margot married Laurence.

In 1902, newly-married Jeannie Gunn (Mrs Aeneas Gunn) left the security and comfort of her Melbourne home to travel to the depths of the Northern Territory, Australia, where her husband had been appointed manager of 'The Elsey', a large cattle station. One of the very few white women in the area, she was at first resented by people on and around the station, till her warmth and spirit won their affection and respect. This is her moving and simple account of her life amidst the beauty and cruelty of the land.

Based on extensive interviews with Turnbull as well as those who have worked with him, this is an essay full of revelations. Crabb delves into young Malcolm's university exploits - which included co-authoring a musical with Bob Ellis - and his remarkable relationship with Kerry Packer, the man for whom he was at first a prized attack dog, and then a mortal enemy. She asks whether Turnbull - colourful, aggressive, humorous and ruthless - has what it takes to re-invigorate the Australian Liberal Party in the wake of John Howard.

In the third Quarterly Essay of 2004, Margaret Simons takes a long hard look at Mark Latham, the self-proclaimed "club buster" and the man who would be prime minister. Few doubt Latham's intelligence and ambition, but what will this amount to in government? Simons argues that if Labor is elected, it will not be "business as usual". Rather we can expect a reformist government in the spirit - if not the letter - of Latham's political tutor, Gough Whitlam. It is also likely to be a government that has little time for the totemic issues of the Labor elites.

From the Hillsong Church to the Family First Party, Australia appears to be experiencing an evangelical revival. In the second Quarterly Essay for 2006, Amanda Lohrey investigates that revival - its shape and scope, and what it means for the mainstream churches and the nation's politics. She talks to young believers and analyses the machinations of the Christian Right. She discusses, with humour and insight, the appeal of the megachurch, the changing image of Jesus and the political theories of George Pell and Peter Jensen.

On an afternoon bike ride in the Blue Mountains Janine Shepherd's life was altered irrevocably. When the champion cross country skier in training for the Winter Olympics was hit by a truck, doctors warned her parents that she was not expected to survive. Even if she recovered, she would never walk again. Coming to terms with her shattered Olympic dreams, Janine focused every sinew of her being on healing. Her fighting spirit was rekindled watching small planes flying overhead. She said to herself, 'If I can't walk, I'll fly.' And fly she did.

Surprising, illuminating, and at times shocking, What Men Don't Talk About reveals how real men and boys view their world. What do men and boys long for, agonize over, aspire to? Every day, we read articles about men: men at home, men at work, and men in bed, but still the confusion and frustration between the sexes remain. Can we put the differences between men and women down to the influence of Venus and Mars, or are there more intricate dynamics at play?

After many thousands of years, the nomads are disappearing, swept away by modernity. Robyn Davidson has spent a good part of her life with nomadic cultures - in Australia, north-west India, Tibet and the Indian Himalayas - and she herself calls three countries home. In the last Quarterly Essay for 2006, she draws on her unique experience to delineate a vanishing way of life. In a time of environmental peril, Davidson argues that the nomadic way with nature offers valuable lessons.

In Au Revoir she ran away. In Last Tango her world turned upside down. Now, her relationships are about to reach boiling point. In the European summer of 2003 a deadly heat wave strikes France. To Mary Moody, living in her rural village in the south-west of France, it seems that the weather is merely imitating the stifling heat of her marriage, which is on the verge of collapse following the events recounted in Last Tango in Toulouse.

What is the Liberal Party's core appeal to Australian voters? Has John Howard made a dramatic break with the past, or has he ingeniously modernised the strategies of his party's founder, Sir Robert Menzies? For Judith Brett, the government of John Howard has done what successful Liberal governments have always done: it has presented itself as the true guardian of the national interest. Full of provocative ideas, Relaxed & Comfortable will change the way Australians see the last decade of national politics.

In the third Quarterly Essay for 2006, Inga Clendinnen looks past the skirmishes and pitched battles of the history wars and asks what's at stake - what kind of history do we want and need? Should our historians be producing the "objective record of achievement" that the Prime Minister has called for? For Clendinnen, historians cannot be the midwives of national identity and also be true to their profession: History cannot do the work of myth.

In the second Quarterly Essay of 2005, Gail Bell investigates Australia's depression epidemic. Why, she wonders, do well over a million Australians now take anti-depressant drugs? This is a fresh, frank and independent look at the depression culture and the move to medicalise sadness. Bell examines how the prescription culture operates, scrutinising the role of big drug companies and GPs and talking to those who take - and don't take - the new anti-depressants, from anxious students to lonely retirees.

Are you madly in love or driven mad by it? Happily single or looking for a partner? Living together, married with kids, or dumped and desperate? Whatever the state of your love life, Hot Relationships has the answers to all your dating and relating dilemmas. It's packed with advice on everything from flirting and flings to monogamy and marriage. There's hot tips on getting over an ex, where to meet a partner, how to spot the losers, and how to breeze through that first date, as well as hints on fixing the fights, surviving jealousy and infidelity, and breaking bad love habits.

In Love & Money, Anne Manne looks at the religion of work - its high priests and sacrificial lambs. As family life and motherhood feel the pressure of the market, she asks whether the chief beneficiaries are self-interested employers and child-care corporations. Manne argues that devaluing motherhood - still central to so many women's lives - has done feminism few favours. For women on the frontline of the work-centred society, it has made for hard choices. Manne eloquently tells what happened when feminism adapted itself to the free market.

Where were you when America elected Barack Obama? Kate Jennings was in New York, eyes wide open, completing her take on an amazing time: "the run-up to the election... a time when every day felt like a year and we became slightly crazed from worry but also mesmerised, unable to switch off the cable news stations, obsessively tracking the DOW, VIX, LIBOR spreads, polls in red states. So much at stake. American Revolution is a dazzling and perceptive look at the United States between hope and despair.

Maddy Tyler, a sophisticated art gallery owner, is driven, overworked and cynical about love. When a sudden crisis makes her re-evaluate her life, she impulsively buys a retreat in the country. Fraser O'Neill, her rural neighbour, is an easy-going widower of simple tastes and definitely not Maddy's 'type'. Still, a comfortable weekend affair is another story...and Maddy of course will be in control. But nothing is ever that simple, and Maddy is forced to face the demons of her past and make a heartbreaking choice.

Marnie, Tina and Lee are in their 20s when they share a house in Bondi. Each is running away from something: Marnie, wild, privileged and impetuous, is escaping from the stifling conservatism of Melbourne - and a father who will mark her relationship with men forever. Tina, driven to leave Brisbane and her migrant background, promises herself she'll own a home on the harbour by the time she's 30. But what if the price of success is too high? Lee dreams of showbiz fame to save her from suffocating life in the suburbs of Newcastle. When her dream is cut short, her daughter is meant to live it for her.