Keysar Trad’s Forays of the Heart, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 October, 2013.

POETS AND POLLIES Undercover Susan Wyndham Here are five words you would not expect to see in one cosy sentence: Keysar Trad, Philip Ruddock and poetry. But last Sunday at Gleebooks in Glebe, Ruddock – who was Immigration Minister and Attorney-General in the Howard Government – launched Forays of the Heart, a book of poems by Trad (pictured), […]

Keysar Trad tries hand at love poetry, AAP, Seven News, 6 October, 2013.

With kids at Gleebook launch of Keysar Trad’s Forays of the Heart

VALE ELISABETH WYNHAUSEN 1946 – 2013

By John Stapleton Elisabeth Wynhausen — a battling, campaigning social justice journalist of the old school of whom in the end, despite their occasional disagreements, he had been enormously fond — was dismissed without ceremony from The Australian. Owned by Rupert Murdoch, the paper’s management style and contempt for the working journalists who filled its […]

Old Hacks Write On, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 July, 2013

OLD HACKS WRITE ON The redundancies of recent years have given former newspaper journalists time to work on the books they had daydreamt about at their desks. Undercover knows of many books in progress and is already seeing the fruits of their leisure, some with a nostalgic tone. Jenny Tabakoff, a long-time Sydney Morning Herald journo, and Eleanor Learmonth have […]

The Final Days of Alastair Nicholson: Chief Justice Family Court of Australia, 2013. Pages 1-10.

The Final Days of Alastair Nicholson: Chief Justice Family Court of Australia. 2013. Pages 11-20.

DIRK BOGARDE

DIRK BOGARDE JOHN STAPLETON EXTRACT HUNTING THE FAMOUS George Orwell finished writing 1984 in 1948, perhaps partly with the notion that the title depicted a date so far in the future the book would never age. Within a few decades there would be countries where more than half of the population had […]

The Final Days of Alastair Nicholson,: Chief Justice Family Court of Australia, 2013. Pages 21-30.

The Final Days of Alastair Nicholson: Chief Justice Family Court of Australia, 2013. Pages 31-40.

The Final Days of Alastair Nicholson: Chief Justice Family Court of Australia, 2013. Pages 41-50.

The Final Days of Alastair Nicholson: Chief Justice Family Court of Australia, 2013. Pages 51-60.

The Final Days of Alastair Nicholson: Chief Justice Family Court of Australia, 2013. Pages 61-70.

The Final Days of Alastair Nicholson: Chief Justice Family Court of Australia, 2013. Pages 71-80.

The Final Days of Alastair Nicholson: Chief Justice Family Court of Australia, 2013. Pages 81-90.

The Final Days of Alastair Nicholson: Chief Justice Family Court of Australia, 2013. Pages 91-97.

Jack Darmody: Legendary Sydney Journalist

By John Stapleton One of the last of the old breed of journalists was Jack Darmody, who died in March of 2006, his wake being held at The Shakespeare, a hotel up the hill from News Limited’s headquarters. There was a good roll-up at his funeral. Jack was a legend of Australian journalism from the […]

The Great Books, From Hunting the Famous.

FROM HUNTING THE FAMOUS John Stapleton A certain rubbing familiarity with the public face of Australia’s leaders was just one of the byproducts of a career as a working journalist. As a single father on the morning shift, in their younger years I would often have to take the kids along on early assignments; a […]

Paul Keating, from Hunting the Famous.

By John Stapleton The successor to Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke was Paul Keating, an entirely different kettle of fish. After a prolonged battle for the leadership the two Labor leaders rarely spoke. Keating, who came to power in 1991, could never see why a lower form of life like Bob Hawke should be top […]