Gleetalks from Gleebooks

The revealing biography of a leading and enigmatic Australian novelist. Australian novelist Elizabeth Harrower wrote some of the most intense, original and highly regarded psychological fiction of the twentieth century. Then she abruptly stopped writing in the 1970s and became one of the most puzzling mysteries of Australian literature. Why didn't she continue? Harrower gave elusive answers to...

In both her life and work, Holmes has consistently broken barriers. The first female presenter of the ABC’s flagship sports programme,  Grandstand , she has pioneered coverage of and by women in sport. Her longform style of interviewing and her reporting on world events like the Olympics and FIFA World Cups have introduced us to athletes from all backgrounds and nations, from our own Cathy Freeman...

Brisbane, 1975 : Andie Tanner's world is small but whole. Her mum is complicated, but she adores her dad and the kennel of racing greyhounds that live under their house. Andie is a serious girl with big plans: finish school with her friends, then apprentice to her father so she can become a greyhound trainer, with dogs of her very own. But real life rarely goes to plan, and the world is bigger...

Jacqueline traces the social and political issues that inspired Australian radical women writers and their desire to change the world. Australia's crusaders for women's voting rights and the radical feminists of the 1970s changed lives across the country and around the globe. But what about the generation in between? Throughout the twentieth century, a group of trailblazing women writers c...

In SAFFRON INCORPORATED, music industry legend Stuart Coupe shows how showbusiness and the underworld are intrinsically linked - from nightclub fires, corrupt cops, cocaine, smack, illegal gambling, vice, celebrities, standover men and rock'n'roll promoters, musicians who partied hard and lost their way, dodgy accountants and gangland shootings -one man, the original King of the Cross, lay...

Australia has forgotten what keeps it safe. So argues Michael Wesley in this sharp and compelling essay about our place in the world. His previous books include  There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia  and  Mind of the Nation: Universities in Australian Life.  He is Professor of Politics and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Global, Culture and Engagement) at the University of Melbourn...

One of Australia’s most influential public health thinkers,  Emeritus Professor Simon Chapman AO  has released a new book that reflects on a career spent reshaping how Australians understand health and responsibility. Better to be looked over, than overlooked: 50 years of public health research and advocacy , is part memoir, part manifesto, tracing five decades of scholarship and advocacy that hel...

In the year 2000, an Australian woman travels to The Hague to work as the secretary for an Australian judge. There, she sits through the trial of a former military man who has been charged with war crimes. As the trial proceeds, she is confronted with two conflicting impulses: being deeply affected by the testimony of witnesses, while at the same time plagued by an enduring doubt as to the defenda...

Calendar is an essay collection in the form of a daybook, written in real-time over a year. The book takes inspiration from writers who use experiments and constraints, such as Georges Perec/Oulipo and Bernadette Mayer, as well as autobiographical writers who use inventive structures, such as Christina Sharpe in Ordinary Notes, and Sheila Heti in Alphabetical Diaries. Calendar is based on the Fren...

***WARNING: Contains some graphic medical content *** It all started when a daughter asked her father 'Are there any risks?'. Investigative journalist Charlotte Grieve had a very personal reason to be interested in celebrated orthopaedic surgeon Dr Munjed Al Muderis. Her father had lost his leg almost sixty years before a chance meeting with Dr Al Muderis, who raised concerns about her fat...

The Rot  is a recalcitrant study of the decaying romances, expired hopes and abject injustices of the world. A liturgy for girlhood in the dying days of late-stage capitalism, these poems expose fraying nerves and tendons of a speaker refusing to avert their gaze from the death of Country, death on Country, and the bloody violence of settler colonies here and afar. Across sleepless nights, fractur...

Above an already swamped Sydney, a disastrous weather system looms. The city is not repaired from one storm before the next hits. There is enormous distrust of the civil service, including police. Redfern is now a swampland. Anyone who has the financial means or the property to, sells up and heads to the Blue Mountains and beyond, or better yet, New Zealand. Sydney is full of climate refugees from...

Paul Robeson was once the most famous African American in the world. Not only was he a renowned singer and actor with a stunning bass baritone voice, he was also a former professional athlete, lawyer and civil rights activist.  To the delight of his many fans, he and his wife, Eslanda—a notable civil rights activist, author, United Nations journalist and anthropologist—were finally able to tour Au...

Beatrice Faust was the transformative feminist activist, writer and intellectual who founded the Women’s Electoral Lobby in Melbourne in 1972. She campaigned for abortion law reform, and thought, talked and wrote about sex and feminism. She also endured a miserable childhood, and suffered chronic ill health as well as a later-life addiction to prescription drugs. Her letters reveal a complex, trou...

In 1966, with the words ‘Bombard the Headquarters!’ Mao Zedong unleashed the full, violent force of a movement that he called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. By the time he died ten years later, millions had perished, China’s cultural heritage was in ruins, its economic state was perilous, its institutions of government were damaged and its society was bitterly divided. Author and China...

We’re all looking for love, but although it’s been years since I was lucky enough to find the love of my life, the world of online dating seems fraught with obstacles, uncertainties and contradictions. Or so I’m told! Although modern society and media have sold us the fairytale of that one big, romantic love – chemistry, sparks, passion – the majority of people don’t think a big love can be discov...

“The Canberra establishment is shocked by any suggestion that we should walk away from the ANZUS commitments. They think we can and must depend on America more than ever in today’s hard new world. But that misses the vital point. It’s America that is walking away from the commitments it made in very different circumstances seventy-five years ago. That was plain enough under Joe Biden. It’s crystal...

Most of us would agree that a strong higher education system is crucial for a functioning democracy and economic prosperity.  However, a 2024 review found the system broken and in urgent need of reform. Major issues include an over-reliance on international enrolments, widespread casualisation, academic burnout, political interference in research and teaching, lack of national coordination, and th...

Is big policy reform still possible? Does Australia have the political will to tackle generational issues such as climate change, the housing crisis, rising inequality and Closing the Gap?  And how did the Rudd and Gillard governments develop such transformational initiatives as the Apology to the Stolen Generations, paid parental leave and the National Disability Insurance Scheme? According to La...

Nathan Dunne was living the life of his dreams in London until, one evening, he jumped into a lake for a swim. When he emerged, his identity was simply gone. He felt completely lost and in acute, inexplicable pain. He knew who he was supposed to be but had no connection to the person named Nathan. His memories were distant and separate, not his. Everything was unfamiliar. All he felt was terror. T...

In this special episode of Gleetalks, we celebrate not only our 50th birthday this year since Gleebooks was founded in 1975, but our equally long association with poets and poetry. One of our very first book launches was for Lee Cataldi’s poetry collection Invitation to a Marxist Lesbian Party. Since then, we’ve proudly hosted hundreds of poetry launches and readings with some of Australia’s best...

Today, trust seems harder to find than ever before. It’s hardly surprising we feel that way. Our politics is polarised, our online world is awash with misinformation, and we’ve lost faith in our bedrock institutions. Yet, without trust, we cannot work together to solve the big problems we face. But there is a way back. A way to rediscover trust in our leaders and institutions. A way to tackle the...

When the Coalition government was overthrown in 2022 after nine years in office, it was tempting to portray the loss as merely a personal repudiation of Scott Morrison.  Then, when opposition leader Peter Dutton torpedoed the Voice referendum in 2023, his popularity rocketed as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's nose dived.  That was when, according to former political staffer and now commentat...

Growing up, journalist and presenter Kumi Taguch i thought her father was just difficult: reserved to the point of silence, obsessively frugal, and – after her parents’ divorce – almost entirely absent.  Still, when her father died, she was far away and Kumi’s feelings about him – and her own heritage – remained tangled. But just because a parent has gone doesn’t mean they’re absent. Over time Kum...

France at the turn of the twentieth century was deeply preoccupied with the conduct of its young people, especially juvenile offenders, who were viewed at a time of great economic distress and social turmoil as harbingers of national decline and agents of disorder.  Sound familiar? Legislators and social reformers debated whether children who committed offences should be held criminally responsibl...