EXPLAINED: 2 | Rare Historical Photos

Helen Garner and Dua Lipa’s interview caused a personal crisis. How can I be ‘quietly intelligent’?

There’s a way of thinking about traits such as intelligence as gifts, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. The next step is figuring out how to share them

The Guardian - AU · Aug 7, 2025

‘Bookshelf wealth’ is a TikTok trend, Dua Lipa’s reading Helen Garner. But books have signified taste for centuries

Books and bookshelves as interior decoration are a new trend, according to recent reports. An expert at Etsy, where some sell books by the metre in order to fill shelves, reports a 19,616% increase in searches for “book-lover decor” over the past three months, compared with the same time last…

The Conversation · Aug 6, 2025

Pissants by Brandon Jack review – is this novel a critique or a celebration of toxic masculinity? Even it isn’t sure

The former AFL player’s debut novel barely has a plot, following a group of aggressive, entitled footy players as they get wasted and treat women like props

The Guardian - AU · Aug 3, 2025

Scandal has erupted over bestselling memoir The Salt Path. In the ‘fake news’ era, what’s the standard for truth in memoir?

Raynor Winn, author of bestselling memoir The Salt Path – also a film starring Gillian Anderson – has been accused of deception in her story of hardship and healing. In Winn’s account, after their “forever home” is dispossessed, she and her partner, Moth (who faces a terminal diagnosis) decide to…

The Conversation · Jul 9, 2025

At 21, Madison Griffiths dated her university tutor. It was legal, consensual – and a messy grey area

The author’s new book Sweet Nothings follows four women who, like her, dated their professors – and explores how even a consensual pedagogical relationship can result in ‘a unique harm’

The Guardian - AU · Jun 28, 2025

Helen Garner reflects on the ‘three worst weeks of my life’ caring for a dying friend

The author, who parlayed her experience into the award-winning novel The Spare Room, recently re-lived it while watching the stage adaptation

The Guardian - AU · Jun 17, 2025

Judy Davis gives a singularly vivid performance in The Spare Room – but the play falls short

In The Spare Room, Judy Davis lights up the stage with a singularly vivid performance.

The Conversation · Jun 17, 2025

The Spare Room review – Judy Davis is electric in thrilling adaptation of Helen Garner novel

The powerhouse actor and the author’s keen prose fuel this show about a woman grappling with grief and rage while caring for her dying friend

The Guardian - AU · Jun 13, 2025

Working from home? It’s so much nicer if you’re a man

Ever since lockdown we’ve supposedly all been in it together, doing conference calls in our slippers. But in straight couples, guess who gets the spare bedroom and the proper desk, asks Emma Beddington

The Guardian - UK · Jun 1, 2025

I Want Everything by Dominic Amerena review – a delicious tale of literary deception

An ambitious young writer tells a white lie to land a scoop in this dazzling debut interrogating the ethics of writers

The Guardian - AU · May 15, 2025