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The Revolutionary Jesus: Reza Aslan’s Zealot
The backlash to Reza Aslan’s book Zealot: the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth confirms the old adage that, in polite circles, it’s best to steer away from religion, politics and sex. Aslan has...
View ArticleWhat are we watching here?: Pleasure and pain in Lovelace
Lovelace is about two alternative narratives of the same event: the production and aftermath of Deep Throat. Deep Throat is such a pop culture staple it needs little introduction. However, if you have...
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MUBAs and Shakers: The 2013 Most Underrated Book Award
The 2013 winner of SPN’s Most Underrated Book Award: Fish-Hair Woman by Merlinda Bobis The Small Press Network hosted the Most Underrated Book Awards of 2013 last Friday night. From the start, the...
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Best of 2013 (Part Two): Television, Film and Writing
In the final of our two-part series, some of our favourite Killings contributors highlight their top cultural moments of 2013 – in television, film and writing. Have they missed any? Best Television —...
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A writing guide for the time poor
Image credit: Martin Cathrae One of the questions I’m most frequently asked when people find out I am a writer is ‘how do you find the time to write?’ It’s a reasonable question. I have a demanding...
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‘Weather is never just weather’: Sophie Cunningham’s Warning: The Story of...
My parents moved to the tropics in 1979, five years after Cyclone Tracy. Growing up, cyclones were as much a part of my Christmases as tinsel and Bing Crosby. For the most part I loved cyclone season:...
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‘Fool the Axis, Use Prophylaxis’: World War II’s anti-venereal disease posters
In 1946 Lawson Glassop appeared before a New South Wales court to appeal an obscenity ruling on his novel We Were the Rats. Glassop’s book about Australian soldiers in Tobruk was candid and gritty by...
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The modern epistolary novel: Annabel Smith’s The Ark
Epistolary novels have a long, proud history, harking back to perennial favourites like Anne Bronte’s The Tennant of Wildfell Hall (told mostly through diary entries) and Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’...
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Light and Shade: Myfanwy Jones’ Leap
Grief, like depression, is potentially difficult material for a novelist to handle. To feel real, the reader has to be close enough to feel the raw, howling pain. But the reader needs reprieve too,...
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The Struggle for Equilibrium: Susan Johnson’s The Landing
Susan Johnson’s new novel The Landing opens with a misquoting of the famous opening line of Pride and Prejudice: ‘If a separated man – about to be divorced – is in possession of a good fortune, must he...
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