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Rebel Wilson exposes A-lister who "threatened" her over book release

Rebel Wilson has slammed a Hollywood A-lister for allegedly threatening her over the release of her new memoir. The Aussie actress is set to release her autobiography Rebel Rising on April 2nd, which details her rise to stardom from Australia to the US. In the book, she has dedicated a chapter to one particular actor who she had an unfortunate experience with on the set of a movie in 2014. Now, Rebel claims Sacha Baron-Cohen, husband of Aussie actress Isla Fisher, has "threatened" her about the release of such information in the upcoming book. Taking to her Instagram, Rebel named and shamed the actor, writing, “I will not be bullied or silenced with high priced lawyer or PR crisis managers. The ‘a**hole’ that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is Sacha Baron Cohen.” "Now the a**hole is trying to threaten me. He’s trying to stop press coming out about my new book. But the book WILL come out and you will all know the truth.” Sacha Baron-Cohen was quick to release a statement in response to the allegations, with his representative sharing the statement with <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2024/03/25/rebel-wilson-calls-out-sacha-baron-cohen-book-memoir/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TMZ</a>. “While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence, including contemporaneous documents, film footage, and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby,” the statement said. Wilson and Baron-Cohen worked on the comedy film The Brothers Grimsby in 2014, where Rebel alleges that Baron-Cohen acted sexually inappropriate towards her for the duration of the shoot. Image credits: Getty Images

Legal

Readers Respond: What's a book you love that most people have never heard of?

Looking for a new book to kickstart your year? Look no further we've got you covered. Here are a few of our reader's book recommendations that you may not have heard of. Ruth Fontaine - I’m reading We of the Never Never atm. Not sure if it’s still well known. I’ve read it before but awhile back and love it. I love reading how they lived nearly 120 years ago. Elaine Rosenberg - The Abbey Girls Series by Elsie J Oxenham. Maryika Welter - The courage to be disliked. ... Furmitake Kogan, Ichiro Kishimi. Janice Stewart - A Fortunate Life by Albert Facey Suzanne Midson - On Our Selection by Steele Rudd. Read it when I was about 10/12. Best laugh ever. Australian humour at its best. Julie Anderson - Episode of Sparrows by Rumor Goddin Nancie Golsby - The Half Burned Tree by Dympna Cusack June Maynard - Sahara, by Paula Constant. Preceded by Slow Journey South. A thrilling, actual account of her adventure. Peter Rayner - Enforcer by Caesar Campbell Meg Milton - I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven Edie Dore - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. Christine Cornforth - A Grief Observed by CS Lewis. Wendy Oliver - The Good Earth by Pearl Buck Do you have any other recommendations that we might have missed? Image: Getty

Books

Second “royal racist” accidentally named in new book

A second member of the royal family has been accused of being "racist", after the bombshell royal exposé implied them in the scandal over baby Archie's skin colour. In Omid Scobie's new book Endgame, he discusses the comments that members of the royal family made to Meghan Markle when she was pregnant with baby Archie. Markle first shared the bombshell allegations in her tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, but she refused to name the royal family member who made the comments, saying, “I think that would be very damaging to them.” On Wednesday, reports emerged that copies of the book were being <a href="https://oversixty.com.au/entertainment/books/new-royal-book-pulled-from-shelves-over-huge-legal-blunder" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pulled from shelves</a> as the Dutch translation of the book accidentally named the person involved in the scandal. Omid Scobie admitted he does know who made the comments, but UK libel laws prevented him from naming them in the book. Now, as copies of the tell-all book have been flying off shelves, it seems another member of the royal family has been implicated in the book, which is now said to be frantically being pulled from shelves. It comes after Mr Scobie denied responsibility for the Dutch translation of his new book “accidentally naming” a member of the Royal Family. Publishers Xander Uitgevers yesterday said they were seeking to remove Mr Scobie’s work from bookshelves saying there had been an “error”. Speaking to Dutch TV on Wednesday night, Mr Scobie defended his book, saying, “The book is in several languages, and unfortunately I do not speak Dutch”. “But if there are translation errors, I’m sure the publishers will have it under control." “I wrote and edited the English version. There’s never been no version that I’ve produced that has names in it.” In the English version, Mr Scobie writes, “In the pages of these private letters [given to Oprah by Markle], two identities were revealed. UK laws prevent me from reporting who they were”. But the Dutch version reads, “In those private letters, an identity was revealed and confirmed” — before going on to name a senior royal. Dutch royal reporter Rick Evers says he was one of only two journalists to be given a manuscript of Endgame last Wednesday. Mr Evers said, “I was shocked that no one else in the world mentioned the fact that a member of the royals was named in the book as the racist”. “That was the main accusation in the book that I noticed and what I put in my (review) article, which was published with a photo of that royal." “I began to question if it was only my manuscript that had the name in it. I went to get the book from a store and it was exactly the same,” Mr Evers said. “A woman called from the publisher saying there was a legal problem and my article had to be removed.” It is unclear how the error occurred, but Mr Scobie confirmed that the first royal family member named in the book is not the one stated in the letters from Meghan Markle. Image credits: Getty Images

Legal

New royal book pulled from shelves over huge legal blunder

Copies of an explosive new book about the royal family are being pulled from shelves and destroyed after a translation error "accidentally named" the alleged "royal racist". Sales of the new book Endgame, written by Omid Scobie who also wrote Finding Freedom about Harry and Meghan's exit from the royal family, were "temporarily" put on hold just days after its release after what has been labelled an error. According to Xander, the publishers of the Dutch edition of Scobie's book, a translation error led to a member of the royal family being identified as the person who made comments about baby Archie's skin colour. “[We are] temporarily withdrawing the book by Omid Scobie from sale. An error occurred in the Dutch translation and is currently being rectified,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/royals/24884315/royal-racist-accidentally-named-omid-scobie/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Sun</a> claims that thousands of copies of the book are now being destroyed as a result. The "racist royal" scandal dates back to when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sat down with Oprah Winfrey for a tell-all interview in 2021, when Markle alleged that while she was pregnant with their first child, Prince Archie, there were “concerns and conversations” from a member of the royal family about how dark his skin might be. The Duchess of Sussex stopped short of naming the person involved, telling Winfrey, “I think that would be very damaging to them.” In the original edition of his book, Scobie also declines to identify the royal, claiming libel laws prevented him from doing so – although he has confirmed he knows who it is. “I do know who made the comments about Archie’s skin colour,” he told UK program Good Morning during his book press tour. “The names were mentioned in letters between Meghan and Charles that were exchanged sometime after the Oprah interview." “We know from sources that Charles was horrified that that’s how Meghan felt. Those conversations were, and that he wanted to, sort of as a representative for the family, have that conversation with her. “And it is why I personally think they have been able to move forward with some kind of line of communication afterwards. Though they may not see eye-to-eye on it.” It’s understood the royal family member accidentally named in the Dutch edition was not the person Meghan had been referring to. Image credits: Getty Images / Harper Collins

Books

8 signs you should be booking a group tour

Not sure if you should take a tour or go it alone? These are the times you’re going to want that expert on hand. 1. When you’re on a really tight schedule A tour will help you squeeze in as much as possible in a very short time. It will plan out a sensible itinerary with no backtracking or wasted journeys and will give you a realistic idea of how much you can fit in for a day. Plus you won’t have to puzzle out public transport for yourself. 2. When you’re feeling nervous Arriving in a new place can be scary sometimes, so having someone to walk you through it will make all the difference. If a city has a reputation for being unsafe or if it’s just your first time in a foreign country, a tour will give you a great worry-free introduction. 3. When there’s a big language barrier We’re lucky in that much of the world speaks English, so we can usually muddle our way around. But in some countries you’ll find there’s a significant language barrier, so having a native speaker is going to make all the difference. 4. When you want to meet some locals This might sound counterintuitive, but an organised tour can be one of the best ways to meet some locals. First of all, your guide is likely to be local and can introduce you to their hometown. Secondly, it’s daunting to walk into a crowded bar or cool café when you don’t know anyone. A guide can smooth the way and ensure you don’t get stuck in tourist traps. 5. When it’s really busy If you don’t fancy joining the huge line outside a popular museum or waiting hours for tickets, a tour could be the way to go. They can often organise private or after hours visits, get special passes to cut the line or take you to areas that are off limits to the general public. 6. When it’s the law Want to visit North Korea? You’re going to need to join a tour. Some governments have restrictions in place that mean foreign tourists can only visit when accompanied by a registered tour guide and independent travel is simply not an option. 7. When you’re doing something really adventurous Trekking, white water rafting, canyoning or safaris – for safety reasons you’re going to need to join a tour. These kinds of activities can be dangerous, so you don’t want to be risking them on your own. A tour or private guide will show you the best way to get your heart pumping. 8. When you’re going right off the grid Places like Antarctica, the Arctic, remote corners of Africa or tricky countries like Russia are best done on a tour. Often the logistics of simply getting there are impossible for the independent traveller or you will need help navigating the complex visa process. In these instances, it’s a relief to put yourself in someone else’s hands and just concentrate on having fun. Image credits: Getty Images

Travel Tips

Booking customers on flights that were cancelled – how could Qantas do that?

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/volodymyr-bilotkach-145437">Volodymyr Bilotkach</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/purdue-university-1827">Purdue University</a> Fining Qantas <a href="https://www.atn.aero/#/article.html?id=87951">A$600 million</a> if it is found to have knowingly sold so-called “ghost flights” would be fair, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The commission this week <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-takes-court-action-alleging-qantas-advertised-flights-it-had-already-cancelled">launched action</a> in the Federal Court alleging Qantas engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by selling tickets on flights that had already been cancelled, and not informing passengers of cancellations in a timely manner. The regulator’s charges against the airline, which last month reported a record <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/aug/24/qantas-delivers-record-247bn-profit">$2.47 billion profit</a>, have precipitated the early exit of longtime chief executive Alan Joyce, who quit this week two months ahead of schedule. This court challenge will certainly add to the workload of his successor, Vanessa Hudson. Qantas <a href="https://www.atn.aero/#/article.html?id=87951">has acknowledged</a> that service standards might have slipped as the airline was struggling to recover after the pandemic. The nature of the oversights that led to the airline’s errors will determine the airline’s liability – both to the consumer regulator and to individual claims for compensation. Importantly, the case also points to the need for greater regulatory protection of the airline’s passengers, in line with other jurisdictions. <h2>How did Qantas get in this mess?</h2> The short answer, most likely, is that the carrier did not handle flight cancellations promptly due to the sheer volume of work and labour shortages as it sought to resume operations following the end of pandemic restrictions. The consumer regulator’s allegations relate specifically to May and June 2022. Australia lifted many of its COVID-related travel restrictions in <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/australia-lifts-covid-restrictions-and-welcomes-travelers-/6451955.html">March</a>, and travellers entering the country <a href="https://www.travelpulse.com/news/destinations/australia-lifts-remaining-covid-19-travel-restrictions">after July 6</a> were not required to show proof of vaccination. The airline was trying to bring its planes back into service and hire or retrain its employees, and generally was struggling to get back to more or less normal operations. In its statement, the competition watchdog noted the carrier cancelled nearly one in four flights scheduled during that period; and for two out of three cancelled flights it either continued selling tickets or failed to inform the passengers –sometimes for extended periods of time – or both. Flight cancellations are a normal part of an airline’s operations. However, the “usual” cancellation rate is <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/air-travel-consumer-report-march-2023-and-1st-quarter-2023-numbers#:%7E:text=DOT%20remains%20committed%20to%20ensuring,first%20three%20months%20of%202022.">less than 2%</a>, less than a tenth of what Qantas experienced in May and June 2022. What is unusual is that Qantas did not immediately remove cancelled flights from its booking system. This is something I have never heard of. One also suspects the airline has had enough “practice” with schedule adjustment during the pandemic to know better. There are clearly gaps in the carrier’s management. It has lessons to learn from this debacle. <h2>What is Qantas’ liability?</h2> The question of the extent of the airline’s liability is not straightforward. Obviously, a business willingly selling a product or service it has no intention to deliver is at fault, and has to face consequences. At the same time, a business selling a product that has defects it is unaware of, despite doing its best to prevent such defects from occurring, will face certain costs (such as those associated with a product recall) but may be spared sanctions. The onus will be on Qantas to demonstrate it made an honest mistake rather than a lapse of judgement. But considering the scale of the problem, the airline faces a very difficult task here. <h2>Individual claims pending</h2> As well as a potential fine, Qantas should brace for a flood of claims from individual passengers who bought a ticket for an already cancelled flight or were not informed in a timely manner. Timing will be of the essence here. If a passenger incurred expenses assuming the flight was operating when it had already been cancelled, such as making a non-refundable hotel reservation, there is a case to request compensation for such expenses. Otherwise, the standard policy will apply: the airline is not usually responsible for any non-refundable and uninsured expenses a passenger incurs prior to the flight cancellation. <h2>Closing the regulatory gap</h2> The regulator should, however, also take a closer look at the existing air passenger rights in Australia. Currently, <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/specific-products-and-activities/travel-delays-and-cancellations">the consumer is entitled to replacement or refund</a> if an airline does not provide services “in a reasonable time” - that is, in the event of a lengthy delay or a flight cancellation. However, the definition of “reasonable time” and the specifics of the compensation policies are left to the airlines. In other parts of the world, actions have been or are being taken to strengthen customer protection. For instance, in <a href="https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm">the European Union</a>, lengthy delays that are the airlines’ fault lead to the carriers paying out cash compensation as well as the cost of accommodation and meals. Similar regulations <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/dot-propose-requirements-airlines-cover-expenses-and-compensate-stranded-passengers">were proposed in the United States</a> earlier this year. Perhaps, if stronger consumer protection rules had been in place in Australia in 2022, Qantas would have managed the aftermath of flight cancellations more diligently.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212793/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/volodymyr-bilotkach-145437">Volodymyr Bilotkach</a>, Associate Professor, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/purdue-university-1827">Purdue University</a> Image credits: Getty Images This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/booking-customers-on-flights-that-were-cancelled-how-could-qantas-do-that-212793">original article</a>.

Travel Trouble

US school teacher sacked after reading Aussie book to class

A US primary school teacher is forced to resign or terminate her contract after reading an Aussie book to her class. Katie Rinderle, from Cobb County, Georgia wanted to teach her fifth graders about inclusion and acceptance through Aussie author Scott Stuart’s book, My Shadow is Purple. The book itself explores this through the theme of “gender beyond the binary” and the story of a child who neither identifies as a boy or girl. Rinderle discussed the main message behind the book before asking them to reflect and write their own poem, which has been praised by some parents. However, not all of them were happy about Rinderle’s initiative and one parent filed a complaint which led to an investigation. Rinderle was sacked for violating the Divisive Concepts law, which disallows teachers from educating about divisive concepts and was given the notice of termination on June 6. Investigators reportedly deemed the book to be “pornographic” material which included “inappropriate topics”. Stuart, the author of the book, responded to the situation and shared his “disgust” on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@scott.creates/video/7247741499775995137?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok</a>. “A teacher’s just been fired for reading one of my books,” he said in the video. “(She) had parents reaching out saying that this kind of lesson was something that they wanted in the class. This is a teacher who gets phenomenal feedback from the principal, the students, the parents. “Her teaching is described as transformative and key to the school’s success,” he defended Rinderle. “This whole thing just really goes to show how much more interested the school system in the US is in playing politics than they are in educating kids,” he added “It’s gross. It’s disgusting.”. Cobb County School District has responded to the situation in a statement to FOX 5 and claimed that any action taken was “appropriate considering the entirety of the teacher’s behaviour and history”. “The District remains committed to strictly enforcing all Board policy, and the law,” the statement concluded. Rinderle will face a termination hearing in August. <p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #323338; font-family: Figtree, Roboto, Rubik, 'Noto Kufi Arabic', 'Noto Sans JP', sans-serif; background-color: #ffffff; outline: none !important;">Images: TikTok

Books

How to start your own book club

Starting a book club is easy – all you need is to love reading. Here’s how to get yours off to a flying start. Finding Fellow Readers Ask around your existing personal networks, including neighbours, friends, social media, or a community noticeboard. Once you mention you want to start a club, you’ll be surprised how many people may want to come along. Ask at your local bookshop and library for ideas – many run regular reading groups and can point you in the right direction for good books. Identify what common interests you and your group have and use these to help draw like-minded people. Once you start looking, you’ll find book clubs for men or women, seniors, sci-fi lovers, teenagers or cookery buffs. The Time, the Place Once you have a group, agree on how often you want to meet – typically clubs meet monthly, though the time-poor may want to make it bi-monthly. For many clubs, meeting at home works best as you don’t have to get dressed up, and noisy public venues can make talking hard. If members bring a plate of food or a bottle, it takes the pressure off the host. But try rotating your meeting location as this will help to stimulate fresh thoughts. Idea Tailor your venue according to the book’s subject matter. The Light Between the Oceans by M.L. Stedman was discussed over fish’n’chips by one club, while The Red Tent by Anita Diamant was chewed over at a Middle Eastern restaurant. Size Matters According to Christine Callen, a book club veteran of 15 years, you need a minimum number of people per meeting to make it interesting. “Seven is the magic number – fewer and there’s not enough for healthy debate,” she says. “You can have ten people in the club – not everyone will be able to make it every time – seven provides enough opinions.” Choosing the Books If you’re the club instigator, it’s easier if you pick the first book. Seek out book reviews in good magazines and newspapers and at bookshops. The flavour of the books you choose will be largely dictated by the personalities attending – you might like to have a wide range of genres from sci-fi to romance to travel epics. Or stick to one genre, such as history books. Decide on a strategy and a time frame – say five to 12 books across the year – then review how everything appeals to the majority. Take turns to come up with a list of four or five titles, then circulate the list via email shortly after your last discussion. Members can then vote on their preferred next book and meeting time. The member scheduled to host the next meeting coordinates the responses to decide the title and date most voted for. Starting Discussion Callen recommends beginning by asking all members to briefly give their opinion on the book. “Everyone arrives and has a drink to loosen up,” she explains. “Then we take it in turns to go around the room and each give the book a mark out of ten, saying in a few sentences what we liked or disliked about it. This gives everyone a chance to speak early in the night and stops one person dominating the conversation from the start.” Tip There is no one way to interpret a book. In fact, differing opinions are good. This article first appeared in <a href="http://www.readersdigest.com.au/home-tips/How-to-Start-Your-Own-Book-Club">Reader’s Digest</a>. Images: Getty

Books

Stan Grant’s new book asks: how do we live with the weight of our history?

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/heidi-norman-859">Heidi Norman</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a> This month, journalist and public intellectual Stan Grant published his fifth book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460764022/the-queen-is-dead/">The Queen is Dead</a>. And last week, he abruptly stepped away from his career in the public realm, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">citing</a> toxic racism enabled by social media, and betrayal on the part of his employer, the ABC. “I was invited to contribute to the ABC’s coverage as part of a discussion about the legacy of the monarchy. I pointed out that the crown represents the invasion and theft of our land,” <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">he wrote</a> last Friday. “I repeatedly said that these truths are spoken with love for the Australia we have never been.” And yet, “I have seen people in the media lie and distort my words. They have tried to depict me as hate filled”. Grant has worked as a journalist in Australia for more than three decades: first on commercial current affairs – and until this week, as a main anchor at the ABC, where he was an international affairs analyst and the host of the panel discussion show Q+A. The former role reflects his global work, reporting from conflict zones with esteemed international broadcasters such as CNN. His second book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460751985/talking-to-my-country/">Talking to my Country</a>, won the Walkley Book Award in 2016. <hr /> Review: The Queen is Dead – Stan Grant (HarperCollins) <hr /> In this new book, Grant yearns for a way to comprehend the forces, ideas and history that led to this cultural moment we inhabit. The book, which opens with him grappling with the monarchy and its legacy, is revealing in terms of his decision to step back from public life. Released to coincide with <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronation-arrests-how-the-new-public-order-law-disrupted-protesters-once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity-205328">the coronation</a> of the new English monarch, Charles III, The Queen is Dead seethes with rage and loathing – hatred even – at the ideas that have informed the logic and structure of modernity. Grant’s work examines the ideas that explain the West and modernity – and his own place as an Indigenous person of this land, from Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharawal country. That is: his work explores both who he is in the world and the ideas that tell the story of the modern world. He finds the latter unable to account for him. “This week, I have been reminded what it is to come from the other side of history,” he writes in the book’s opening pages. “History itself that is written as a hymn to whiteness […] written by the victors and often written in blood.” He asks “how do we live with the weight of this history?” And he explains the questions that have dominated his thinking: what is <a href="https://theconversation.com/whiteness-is-an-invented-concept-that-has-been-used-as-a-tool-of-oppression-183387">whiteness</a>, and what is it to live with catastrophe? <h2>The death of the white queen</h2> In his account, his rage is informed by the observation that the weight of this history was largely unexplored on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s death last September. The death of the white queen is the touchpoint always returned to in this work – and the release of the book coincides with the apparently seamless transition to her heir, now King Charles III. <figure class="align-right zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption></figcaption></figure> In the lead-up to the coronation, “long live the king” echoed across the United Kingdom. Its long tentacles reached across the globe where this old empire once ruled, robbing and ruining much that it encountered. The death of the queen and the succession of her heir occurred with ritual and ceremony. Small tweaks acknowledged the changing world – but for the most part, this coronation occurred without revolution or bloodshed, without condemnation – and without contest of the British monarchs’ role in history and the world they continue to dominate, in one way or another. Grant argues the end of the 70-year rule of Queen Elizabeth II should mark a turning point: a global reckoning with the race-based order that undergirds empire and colonialism. Whereas the earlier century confidently pronounced the project of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-yindyamarra-how-we-can-bring-respect-to-australian-democracy-192164">democracy</a> and liberalism complete, it seems time has marched on. History has not “ended”, as Francis Fukuyama <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-history-francis-fukuyamas-controversial-idea-explained-193225">declared</a> in 1989 (claiming liberal democracies had been proved the unsurpassable ideal). Instead, history has entered a ferocious era of uncertainty and volatility. Grant reminds us that people of colour now dominate the globe. Race, <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-is-real-race-is-not-a-philosophers-perspective-82504">as we now know</a>, is a flexible and slippery made-up idea, changing opportunistically to include and exclude groups, to dominate and possess. Grant examines this with great impact as he considers the lived experience of his white grandmother, who was shunned when living with a black man, shared his conditions of poverty with pluck and defiance, then resumed a place in white society without him. And writing of his mother, the other Elizabeth, Grant elaborates the complexity of identity not confined to the colour of skin, but forged from belonging to people and kinship networks, and to place – which condemns the pseudoscience of <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/power-identity-naming-oneself-reclaiming-community-2011">blood quantum</a> that informed the state’s control of Aboriginal lives. This suspect race science has proved enduring. Grant’s account of the death of the monarch is a genuine engagement with the history of ideas to contemplate the reality of our 21st-century present. <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption>Grant argues the end of the queen’s 70-year rule should mark ‘a global reckoning with the race-based order that undergirds empire and colonialism’. Yui Mok/AP</figcaption></figure> <h2>Liberalism and democracy = tyranny and terror</h2> In several essays now, Grant has engaged with the ideas of mostly Western philosophers and several conservative thinkers to explain the crisis of liberalism and democracy. Grant argues that, like other -isms, liberalism and democracy have descended into tyranny and terror. The new world order, dominated by <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-stan-grant-on-how-tyrants-use-the-language-of-germ-warfare-and-covid-has-enabled-them-204183">China</a> and people of colour, is in dramatic contrast to the continued rule of the white queen and her descendants. In this, perhaps more than his other books and essays, Grant moves between big ideas in history – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/criticism-of-western-civilisation-isnt-new-it-was-part-of-the-enlightenment-104567">Enlightenment</a>, modernity and democracy – to consider himself, his identity, and his own lived experience of injustice, where race is an undeniable organising feature. In this story he explains himself, as an Indigenous person, “an outsider, in the middle”; “an exile, living in exile, struggling with belonging”; living with the “very real threat of erasure”. <h2>Love, friendships, family, Country</h2> In the final section of the book, Grant’s focus switches to the theme of “love”, and to friendships, family and Country. He speculates that his focus on these things is perhaps a mark of age. Now, he accounts for the things in life that are truly valuable – and this includes deep affection for the joy that emanates from Aboriginal families. Being home on his Country, paddling the river, he finds quiet and peace. The death of the monarch of the British Empire, who ruled for 70 years, should speak to the history of empire and colonial legacy and all its curses – especially in settler colonial Australia. Yet her passing – which coincides with seismic change in the global economic order with China’s ascendance and the decline of the United States and the UK, the global cultural order and the racial order – has been largely unexamined in public discourse in Australia. The history of colonisation and of ideas that have debated ways to comprehend the past have been a feature of Grant’s intellectual exploration, including on the death of the queen. As he details in his new book, the reaction from some quarters to this conversation has exposed him to unrelenting and racist attack. In this work and in others, exploration of the world of ideas to understand the past and future sits alongside accounts of the everyday; of the always place-based realities of Aboriginal accounts of self. The material deprivations and indignities, the closely held humility that comes with poverty and powerlessness - shared socks, a house carelessly demolished, burials tragically abandoned – are countered by another reality: the intimacy of most Aboriginal lives, characterised by deep love, affection, laughter and belonging. These place-based, “small” stories Grant shares sit alongside the bigger themes of modern history, such as democracy and freedom. In this latest work, Grant details his sense of “betrayal” at the discussion he sought about the monarch’s passing and the discussion that was actually had, the history of ideas and his own place in this. And now, of course, he has announced his intention to exit the public stage. Racism, we are reminded, is an enduring feature of the modern world – a world yet to allow space for an unbowing, Wiradjuri-Kamilaroi-Dharawal public intellectual.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204756/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/heidi-norman-859">Heidi Norman</a>, Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/stan-grants-new-book-asks-how-do-we-live-with-the-weight-of-our-history-204756">original article</a>. Images: Q+A / ABC

Books

2023 Australian Book Industry Awards winners announced

The winners of the 2023 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) have been revealed, while a whole host of titles taking home their well-deserved accolades from an impressive shortlist of 70. Categories included Book of the Year for Social Impact, International Book, Literary Fiction, New Writer, General Non-Fiction, Biography, Children’s Picture Book, and more - to the delight of booklovers all across the nation. There was an ‘overall’ winner from the big night, too, with Nagi Maehashi’s RecipeTin Eats: Dinner taking home the Book of the Year award. Nagi took to social media to celebrate her win, in the wake of her self-proclaimed “worst acceptance speech of the year”, to thank everyone and express her enthusiastic gratitude for all of the support for her work. And, of course, to thank her four-legged best friend and ‘co-author’, Dozer the dog. She wasn’t the only one with a smile on her face on the big night, however, with her fellow given plenty of reason to rejoice right along with her. And so, in no particular order, here are all the winners from the 2023 ABIAs! ABIA Book of the Year & Illustrated Book of the Year: RecipeTin Eats: Dinner, Nagi Maehashi “150 dinner recipes. Fail-proof. Delicious. Addictive. The food you want to cook, eat and share, night after night. "Through her phenomenally popular online food site, RecipeTin Eats, Nagi Maehashi talks to millions of people a year who tell her about the food they love. "Now, in her first cookbook, Nagi brings us the ultimate curation of new and favourite RecipeTin Eats recipes - from comfort food (yes, cheese galore), to fast and easy food for weeknights, Mexican favourites, hearty dinner salads, Asian soups and noodles, and special treats for festive occasions.” General Fiction Book of the Year: Dirt Town, Hayley Scrivenor “On a sweltering Friday afternoon in Durton, best friends Ronnie and Esther leave school together. Esther never makes it home. “Ronnie's going to find her, she has a plan. Lewis will help. Their friend can't be gone, Ronnie won't believe it. “Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels can believe it. She has seen what people are capable of. She knows more than anyone how, in a moment of weakness, a person can be driven to do something they never thought possible. “Lewis can believe it too. But he can't reveal what he saw that afternoon at the creek without exposing his own secret. “Five days later, Esther's buried body is discovered.” Literary Fiction Book of the Year: Horse, Geraldine Brooks “A discarded painting in a roadside clean-up, forgotten bones in a research archive, and Lexington, the greatest racehorse in US history. From these strands of fact, Geraldine Brooks weaves a sweeping story of spirit, obsession and injustice across American history … “With the moral complexity of March and a multi-stranded narrative reminiscent of People of the Book, this enthralling novel is a gripping reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America. Horse is the latest masterpiece from a writer with a prodigious talent for bringing the past to life.” General Non-fiction Book of the Year: Bulldozed, Niki Savva “Between 2013 and 2022, Tony Abbott begat Malcolm Turnbull, who begat Scott Morrison. For nine long years, Australia was governed by a succession of Coalition governments rocked by instability and bloodletting, and consumed with prosecuting climate and culture wars while neglecting policy. “By the end, among his detractors — and there were plenty — Morrison was seen as the worst prime minister since Billy McMahon … “Niki Savva, Australia’s renowned political commentator, author, and columnist, was there for all of it … Now she lays out the final unravelling of the Coalition at the hands of a resurgent Labor and the so-called teal independents that culminated in the historic 2022 election. With her typical access to key players, and her riveting accounts of what went on behind the scenes, Bulldozed is the unique final volume of an unputdownable and impeccably sourced political trilogy.” Biography Book of the Year: My Dream Time, Ash Barty “My Dream Time is about finding the path to being the best I could be, not just as an athlete but as a person, and to consider the way those identities overlap and compete. We all have a professional and a personal self. How do you conquer nerves and anxiety? How do you deal with defeat, or pain? What drives you to succeed – and what happens when you do? The answers tell me so much, about bitter disappointments and also dreams realised – from injuries and obscurity and self-doubt to winning Wimbledon and ranking number 1 in the world. “My story is about the power and joy of doing that thing you love and seeing where it can take you, about the importance of purpose – and perspective – in our lives.” Social impact Book of the Year: The Boy from Boomerang Crescent, Eddie Betts “How does a self-described ‘skinny Aboriginal kid’ overcome a legacy of family tragedy to become an AFL legend? One thing’s for sure: it’s not easy. But then, there’s always been something special about Eddie Betts … “Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic and always honest – often laceratingly so – The Boy from Boomerang Crescent is the inspirational life story of a champion, in his own words. Whether he’s narrating one of his trademark gravity-defying goals from the pocket, the discrimination he’s faced as an Aboriginal person or the birth of his first child, Betts’s voice – intelligent, soulful, unpretentious – rings through on every page. “The very human story behind the plaudits is one that will surprise, move and inspire.” Book of the Year for Older Children (ages 13+): Blood Traitor, Lynette Noni “Kiva thought she knew what she wanted - revenge. But feelings change, people change … everything has changed. “After what happened at the palace, Kiva is desperate to know if her friends and family are safe, and whether those she wronged can ever forgive her. But with the kingdoms closer to the brink of war than they’ve ever been, and Kiva far away from the conflict, more is at stake than her own broken heart. “A fresh start will mean a perilous quest, forcing mortal enemies and uneasy allies together in a race against the clock to save not just Evalon, but all of Wenderall. With her loyalties now set, Kiva can no longer just survive - she must fight for what she believes in. For who she believes in. But with danger coming from every side, and the lives of everyone she loves at risk, does she have what it takes to stand, or will she fall?” Book of the Year for Younger Children (ages 7–12): Runt, Craig Silvey (illustrated by Sara Acton) “Annie Shearer lives in the country town of Upson Downs with her best friend, an adopted stray dog called Runt. The two share a very special bond. “After years evading capture, Runt is remarkably fast and agile, perfect for herding runaway sheep. But when a greedy local landowner puts her family's home at risk, Annie directs Runt's extraordinary talents towards a different pursuit - winning the Agility Course Grand Championship at the lucrative Krumpets Dog Show in London. “However, there is a curious catch: Runt will only obey Annie's commands if nobody else is watching. “With all eyes on them, Annie and Runt must beat the odds and the fastest dogs in the world to save her farm. “Runt is a heart-warming and hilarious tale of kindness, friendship, hurdles, hoops, tunnels, see-saws, being yourself and bringing out the best in others.” Children’s Picture Book of the Year (ages 0–6): What to Say When You Don’t Know What to Say, Davina Bell & Hilary Jean Tapper “A warm and whimsical guide to negotiating life's little moments and big emotions with empathy, kindness and words from the heart.” International Book of the Year: Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus “Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. “But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Forced to resign, she reluctantly signs on as the host of a cooking show, Supper at Six. But her revolutionary approach to cooking, fuelled by scientific and rational commentary, grabs the attention of a nation. “Soon, a legion of overlooked housewives find themselves daring to change the status quo. One molecule at a time.” Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year: The Dreaming Path, Paul Callaghan “The Dreaming Path has always been there, but in the modern-day world, it can be hard to find. There are so many demands on us – family, health, bills, a mortgage, a career – that it can be hard to remember what’s most important: you. “It’s time to reconnect with your story. “Through conversations, exercises, Dreamtime stories and key messages, Paul Callaghan and Uncle Paul Gordon will sit you around the fire and share knowledge that reveals the power of Aboriginal spirituality as a profound source of contentment and wellbeing for anyone willing to listen. "This ancient wisdom is just as relevant today as it ever was.” Small Publishers’ Children’s Book of the Year: Off to the Market, Alice Oehr “Sunday is market day. We are looking for pumpkin, apples, eggs, and bread. What else will we find? Where did it come from? And what will we make with it? “Learn all about produce in this delightful child’s tour of a food market, full of fun facts, delicious new discoveries, and charming characters. “A loving ode to the people who bring food to our table and connection to our community, from acclaimed artist Alice Oehr.” Audiobook of the Year: The Whitewash (Siang Lu, Wavesound) “Siang Lu's searing debut is a black comedy about the whitewashing of the Asian film industry, told in the form of an oral documentary. It sounded like a good idea at the time - a Hollywood spy thriller, starring, for the first time in history, an Asian male lead. With an estimated $350 million production budget and up-and-coming Hong Kong actor JK Jr, who, let's be honest, is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but probably the hottest, Brood Empire was basically a sure thing. Until it wasn't … “The Whitewash is the definitive oral history of the whole sordid mess. Unofficial. Unasked for. Only intermittently fact-checked, and featuring a fool's gallery of actors, producers, directors, film historians and scummy click-bait journalists, to answer the question of how it all went so horribly, horribly wrong.” The Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year: WAKE, Shelley Burr “Evelyn simply vanished …Mina McCreery's life has been defined by the intense and ongoing public interest in her sister's case. Now a reclusive adult, Mina lives alone on her family's sunbaked, destocked sheep farm. The million-dollar reward her mother established to solve the disappearance has never been paid out. “Enter Lane Holland, a private investigator who dropped out of the police academy to earn a living cracking cold cases. Lane has his eye on the unclaimed money, but he also has darker motivations. “WAKE is a powerful, unsparing story of how trauma ripples outward when people's private tragedies become public property, and how it's never too late for the truth to set things right.” Images: Instagram

Books

Iconic Aussie author caught up in bizarre book ban

Australian author Mem Fox, best known for her iconic Possum Magic book, has become the latest writer caught up in Florida’s wave of book bans. Her 1988 release Guess What? is the target, facing the ban in schools throughout Duval County over allegations of “pornography” in its depictions of nudity. The 2022 Florida law, part of the parental rights in conservative governor Ron DeSanti’s education bill, prohibits adults from distributing on school premises any content “of a person or portion of the human body which depicts nudity or sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sexual battery, bestiality, or sadomasochistic abuse and which is harmful to minors". Punishment for not complying includes a third-degree felony, which can mean a prison sentence of up to five years for any individual caught. The book asks children to guess the identity of character Daisy O’Grady with a series of questions - all yes or no - before finally revealing that she’s actually a witch. Illustrations through Guess What? - created by illustrator Vivienne Goodman - see Daisy going about her day-to-day routine, including one key ‘problem’ activity: taking a bath. It’s this scene that caused the trouble for Fox, with some dubbing it “pornographic”. However, it isn’t the first time that Guess What? has come into question for its depictions - past reviews took issue with its images of dead fish in underwear as well. <img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2023/05/GuessWhat_Embed.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /> Fox doesn’t seem too concerned about the ban though, with her agent even telling The Guardian that “Duval County is a county of 997,000 people in Florida. It is not important." As Fox herself said on ABC Radio, “it's pitiful, isn't it? It's like, the Americans keep killing each other with guns and then they do things like this as well. "You just feel sorry for them, you just think, 'people, you're so unsophisticated, you're so pitiful'.” She went on to note that Americans had treated her well in the past, in her 100-plus visits to the country over the course of her career. "They were so kind to me, they were so, so good, so generous, so warm-hearted, so affirming,” she said. “I just grieve for them.” And when it came to the bath time scene, she was firm in her stance that it is “completely appropriate. "She's washing herself, she's sort of sitting in this sink, you can't see any of her private parts at all. "The whole book is about guessing who this person is, it turns out to be a witch in the end." Images: Getty, Facebook

Books

5 authors who hated the film adaptation of their book

Most movies these days are adapted from something – whether it’s a book, a musical, a news story or even another film. However, commercial and critical success doesn’t necessarily guarantee everyone will be happy. Surprisingly, the authors of these 5 movies didn’t think much of the film adaptations of their books. 1. Mary Poppins Author of Mary Poppins P. L. Travers initially had no problem with her book being turned into a film, until she discovered that Disney had disregarded almost all of her edits. When it was released in 1964, then-65-year-old Travers voiced her disapproval at the animated scenes and the downplaying of Poppins’ stricter side. She reportedly spent most of the film premiere crying, and vowed never to let Disney near another of her books. 2. The Shining With such a prolific author like Stephen King, there are bound to be a few hits and misses when it comes to film adaptations. After King put his faith in acclaimed director Stanley Kubrick, whom he greatly admired, he found himself extremely disappointed in the final product, which went on to become a horror classic. “Kubrick just couldn't grasp the sheer inhuman evil of The Overlook Hotel,” the author explained. “So he looked, instead, for evil in the characters and made the film into a domestic tragedy with only vaguely supernatural overtones.” 3. Forrest Gump The 1995 Best Picture winner was a hit with everyone – except author Winston Groom, that is. Angry at the filmmakers for toning down the language and sexual references as well as omitting certain important plot points, Groom got back at Hollywood in the first few lines of the book’s sequel: “Don't never let nobody make a movie of your life's story,” he writes "Whether they get it right or wrong, it don't matter.” Groom sued the producers after failing to receive his promised 3% cut of the profits, and wasn’t mentioned in any of the six Oscar acceptance speeches by the cast and crew. 4. A Clockwork Orange It’s one thing to hate the film adaptation of your book, but to end up hating the book itself? It seems strange, but that’s exactly what happened to Anthony Burgess. Years after the release of the book and the film, Burgess claimed he regretted writing the book, which he wrote in three weeks and only because he was desperate for money, so was unhappy when it was turned into a film that “seemed to glorify sex and violence.” He adds, “The film made it easy for readers of the book to misunderstand what it was about, and the misunderstanding will pursue me till I die.” 5. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory One of the most beloved films of all time, the adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory certainly wasn’t beloved by Roald Dahl. He thought the 1971 film was “crummy” and that Gene Wilder’s portrayal of Willy Wonka was “pretentious” and “bouncy”, claiming director Mel Stuart had “no talent or flair”. For this reason, as long as the rights to his work is in the hands of his family, you’ll never see the book’s sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, grace the silver screen. Images: Getty

Books

“A lesson learned”: Uni student lands herself in an overdue book nightmare

A university graduate student received the shock of her academic career when an email arrived in her inbox to inform her she owed her school’s library a whopping $11,900 in overdue book fines. Hannah took to TikTok to share her story, posting a snippet of the horror email, and the news that her library account had amassed a debt of “$11,9000 owed for 119 lost books”. The books had been declared lost, though Hannah was quick to note that she was “still using” each of them, and had every intention of returning them once she was finished with her studies. To drive home the fact that the books were not missing, and instead safely in her scholarly possession, Hannah panned around the various piles of tomes stacked around her home, with a caption reading “the books aren’t lost, I’m just hoarding them until I finish my dissertation.” The email itself explained the books were marked as lost in the library’s system if they exceeded 30 days overdue, and that there was a flat rate of $100 per book in such instances. And according to the library, it was up to each patron to renew their books, and that Hannah “received overdue notices on the following dates prompting you to renew your library books before they are declared lost.” As she explained to The Daily Dot, she had checked out her collection three years prior while she’d been preparing for exams, and confirmed that she had received four reminders to either renew or return the books, but she’d put it off each time. “Then I got the automatic email,” she added, “saying all of the books were marked as lost and my account was charged $100 per book.” Hannah’s woe drew a mixed response from her audience, with some surprised that her library had even let her withdraw that many books in the first place, others unable to wrap their heads around the fact she could have let her situation get so bad, and many quick to defend the librarian, who they declared had only been doing her job. “My library only lets me check out 5 books at a time,” one wrote. “That’s why keeping library books past their due date is considered stealing,” another said, to which Hannah responded to promise her lesson had been learned. “Only 30 days over due??? Damn give a lil more time,” said one, with Hannah informing them that she’d had the books for years by that point. It wasn’t all bad for the budding scholar though, with Hannah explaining in another comment that “it was hunky dory”, as the library had waived her fees as soon as she’d responded to them, and that she’d been allowed to keep all 119 for an additional year. And, as she told another follower, “I’ve never replied to an email faster.” Images: TikTok

Books

Murder charge levelled at children's book author

Author Kouri Richins wrote a children’s book on grief following the death of her husband in 2022. She is now being charged with his murder. Richins was arrested on May 7 in Utah and is accused of charging documents of poisoning her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl at their home in Kamas, a small mountain town near Park City. Prosecutors allege Richins called authorities in the middle of the night in March 2022 to report that her husband, Eric Richins, was “cold to the touch”. The mum-of-three told authorities she had made her husband a mixed vodka drink to celebrate him selling a home and then went to soothe one of their children in their bedroom. She later returned and found her husband unresponsive, which prompted her to call 911. A medical examiner later found five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl in his system. Additionally, Richins is facing charges involving the alleged possession of GHB - a narcolepsy drug typically used in recreational settings, including at dance clubs. The charges, which are based on officers’ interactions with Richins that evening and the account of an “unnamed acquaintance” who claimed to have sold her the fentanyl, come two months after Richins appeared on local television to promote Are You With Me, a picture book she wrote to help children cope with the death of a loved one. For a segment called Good Things Utah, Richins referred to her husband’s death as unexpected and explained how it sent her and her three boys spiralling. In terms of children, she said, grieving was about “making sure that their spirit is always alive in your home”. “It’s ... explaining to my kid just because he’s not present here with us physically, doesn’t mean his presence isn’t here with us,” she told the reporters, who commended her for being an amazing mother. Richins’ lawyer, Sky Lazaro, declined to comment on the charges. Image credit: Instagram

Legal

Artist keeps craft alive with beautifully bound books

In a world taken over by digitised forms of just about everything, book artist Liz Constable says her beautifully bound bohemian journals, handmade envelopes and painstakingly stitched self-help books still inspire the biggest shrieks of delight from total strangers. Journaling in cafés, Constable often feels eyes shrouding over her diary. "They say, oh that looks like a very old book," Constable says. "Oh yes, it's two weeks old," she laughs. Type 'book art' into online creative depository, Pinterest, and it will come up with 636 ways of turning old, clunky books into works of art. Likewise, Google images paints a pretty picture of the ways you can up-cycle unwanted novels. But unlike the art we relegate to a shelf or a picture hook, Constable's creations are usable. They're designed to be drawn on, hauled around in a tote and pulled out to illustrate ideas, and are made with any material she can get her hands on. "It's that old worldy style," she says. "Everyone wants things to look old. You see people with laptops in bags that look like they're carrying old typewriters." What started off as a hobby 16 years ago turned into a full time business called Book Art Studios in 2007, when Constable, then a careers counsellor, says she counselled herself out of her former job and into where her heart truly lay- making books. It began with dying her journal papers with tea and coffee, then a friend introduced her to coloured dye. Now the "scavenger by nature" says her books are made with paper taken from the likes of old shipping maps, cloth and other recycled materials, before being stitched and bound in her own West Auckland studio. The UK migrant makes books for the likes of happy couples who need something special to keep track of wedding guests, to soda giant Coca Cola who commissioned Constable to make books for staff training, and Fonterra, whose Constable-made creations went all the way to a conference in China. Constable believes it's the nostalgia that inspires such gushing responses from people who frequently request to hug her when they see her creations. Not so long ago she hand delivered a job application written in a handmade book, nestled in a mail art envelope. She despairs walking into bookstores and seeing the rows and rows of identical book spines, prompting ever more thoughts about how she can make her work stand out. It's a thought at the forefront of her mind as Constable prepares to undertake something she's never done- producing her first book series en masse by enlisting the help of potential publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. After years of ensuring each of her works is unique, Constable said the decision to take hand made to mass made came after reading a theory that it takes 10,000 hours to perfect a skill. Constable realised she'd clocked up more than enough over time, and enjoyed 'the simple life' long enough to begin relishing the fruits of her labour. She wants to produce a series of semi-autobiographical self-help books, whose roots can be traced back to the death of Constable's aunt many years ago. "Oh, I see a door," were her finals words on her death bed, prompting Constable to wonder just what exactly was behind that door. "I was so curious," Constable says. The words kept coming and before she knew it, nine books were conceived. The Martha series, she calls it. Stories for adults grappling with bigger issues. In March she published and began selling another self-help book, One Small Drop, in order to help fundraise for Frankfurt. Unlike the text heavy self help books of yester-year, you can hold One Small Drop in one hand. The pages are laser cut with small drops that turn into hearts with every page turn, the colours gradually turning from dark to light. More than 7,000 authors and book makers at the book fair will be vying for the attention of publishers who scout the exhibits for "innovate business models". After attending the fair some years ago Constable walked around searching for fellow book artists, disheartened to find they were "miles away from anywhere." Her exhibit, she promises, will be like walking into one of her storybooks. "I came back and I said I'm not going to stand in a queue trying to get someone to read it. I said I don't care how it happens, I'm going to get someone to pick up the Martha series." Written by Kelly Dennett. First appeared on <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stuff.co.nz</a>. Image credit: Getty

Books

Why reading books is good for society, wellbeing and your career

TikTok allows video up to 10 minutes, but says surveys show almost half its users are stressed by anything <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/tiktok-wants-longer-videos-like-not">longer than a minute</a>. An Instagram video can be up to 90 seconds, but experts reckon the ideal time to maximise engagement is <a href="https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-reel-length/">less than 15 seconds</a>. Twitter doubled the length of tweets in 2017 to <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/30/twitters-doubling-of-character-count-from-140-to-280-had-little-impact-on-length-of-tweets/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAE7Ou03VeQ_VU9SZA2zdsZOLh6KKtVl5dj2ti0R3YgY_T_G9h7s3Ry9GOzQNecfcZbs_ko9I9YGELzKTM_2Ox9PTglVrcKM_xbBwh23aBAm12Q126TLMvre8SujfV3KkZnRIisVGD19Q3j5uP-P3RMMJuATO_ooLJgkF19ECOs3g">280 characters</a>, but the typical length is more like <a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/10/many-characters-tweet-ask-experts/">33 characters</a>. It’s easy to get sucked into short and sensational content. But if you’re worried this may be harming your attention span, you <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/02/attention-span-focus-screens-apps-smartphones-social-media">should be</a>. There’s solid evidence that so many demands on our attention make us <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/news/media-release/short-attention-spans-linked-to-social-media-distress/">more stressed</a>, and that the endless social comparison <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-social-media-makes-you-feel-bad-and-what-to-do-about-it-197691">makes us feel worse</a> about ourselves. For better mental health, read a book. Studies show a range of psychological benefits from book-reading. Reading fiction can increase your capacity for <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1239918">empathy</a>, through the process of seeing the world through a relatable character. Reading has been found to reduce stress as effectively as <a href="https://clutejournals.com/index.php/TLC/article/view/1117">yoga</a>. It is being prescribed for depression – a treatment <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2004-95164-009">known as bibliotherapy</a>. Book-reading is also a strong marker of curiosity – a <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/09/the-business-case-for-curiosity">quality prized</a> by employers such as Google. Our research shows reading is as strongly associated with curiosity as interest in science, and more strongly than mathematical ability. And it’s not just that curious minds are more likely to read because of a thirst for knowledge and understanding. That happens too, but our research has specifically been to investigate the role of reading in the development of curious minds. <h2>Tracking reading and curiosity</h2> Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00036846.2023.2174943">findings</a> come from analysing data from the <a href="https://www.lsay.edu.au/aboutlsay">Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth</a>, which tracks the progress of young Australians from the age of 15 till 25. Longitudinal surveys provide valuable insights by surveying the same people – in this case a group of about 10,000 young people. Every year for ten years they are asked about their achievements, aspirations, education, employment and life satisfaction. There have been five survey cohorts since 1998, the most recent starting in 2016. We analysed three of them – those beginning in 2003, 2006 and 2009, looking at the data up to age 20, at which age most have a job or are looking for one. The survey data is rich enough to develop proxy measures of reading and curiosity levels. It includes participants’ scores in the OECD <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Programme for International Student Assessment</a> tests for reading, mathematics and science ability. There are survey questions about time spent reading for pleasure, time reading newspapers or magazines, and library use. To measure curiosity, we used respondents’ answers to questions about their interest in the following: <ul> <li>learning new things</li> <li>thinking about why the world is in the state it is</li> <li>finding out more about things you don’t understand</li> <li>finding out about a new idea</li> <li>finding out how something works.</li> </ul> We used statistical modelling to control for environmental and demographic variables and distinguish the effect of reading activity as a teenager on greater curiosity as a young adult. This modelling gives us confidence that reading is not just correlated with curiosity. Reading books helps build curiosity. <h2>Gloom and doom-scrolling</h2> Does this mean if you’re older that it’s too late to start reading? No. Our results relate to young people because the data was available. No matter what your age, deep reading has benefits over social-media scrolling. The <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Dopamine-Nation-Finding-Balance-Indulgence/dp/152474672X">short-term dopamine rush</a> of scrolling on a device is an elusive promise. It depletes rather than uplifts us. Our limbic brain – the part of the brain associated with our emotional and behavioural responses – remains trapped in a spiral of pleasure-seeking. Studies show a high correlation between <a href="https://academic.oup.com/hcr/article-abstract/44/1/3/4760433">media multitasking and attention problems</a> due to <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315167275/emotional-cognitive-overload-anne-fran%C3%A7oise-rutkowski-carol-saunders">cognitive overload</a>. The effect is most evident among young people, who have grown up with <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11126-017-9535-6">social media overexposure</a>. US social psychologist <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00296-x">Jonathan Haidt</a> is among the researchers <a href="https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/social-media-mental-illness-epidemic">warning</a> that high social media use is a major contributor to declining mental health for teenage girls, "Boys are doing badly too, but their rates of depression and anxiety are not as high, and their increases since 2011 are smaller." Why this “giant, obvious, international, and gendered cause”? Haidt writes, "Instagram was founded in 2010. The iPhone 4 was released then too — the first smartphone with a front-facing camera. In 2012 Facebook bought Instagram, and that’s the year that its user base exploded. By 2015, it was becoming normal for 12-year-old girls to spend hours each day taking selfies, editing selfies, and posting them for friends, enemies, and strangers to comment on, while also spending hours each day scrolling through photos of other girls and fabulously wealthy female celebrities with (seemingly) vastly superior bodies and lives." In 2020 Haidt published <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00296-x">research</a> showing girls are more vulnerable to “fear of missing out” and the aggression that social media tends to amplify. Since then he’s become even more convinced of the correlation. Social media, by design, is addictive. With TikTok, for example, videos start automatically, based on what the algorithm already knows about you. But it doesn’t just validate your preferences and feed you opinions that confirm your biases. It also varies the content so you don’t know what is coming next. This is the same trick that keeps gamblers addicted. <h2>Tips to get back into books</h2> If you are having difficulty choosing between your phone and a book, here’s a simple tip <a href="https://www.katymilkman.com/book">proven by behavioural science</a>. To change behaviour it also helps to change your environment. Try the following: <ul> <li> Carry a book at all times, or leave books around the house in convenient places. </li> <li> Schedule reading time into your day. <a href="https://howtoliveameaningfullife.com/you-should-read-everyday-but-for-how-long-the-science-says/?fbclid=IwAR03mbaXPpM19aoaO4p1AsTD0EvZsLgFQJy0RoJo8JTx9g1Q6ukh4_FEbIU">20 minutes is enough</a>. This reinforces the habit and ensures regular immersion in the book world. </li> <li> If you’re not enjoying a book, try another. Don’t force yourself. </li> </ul> You’ll feel better for it – and be prepared for a future employer asking you what books you’re reading. This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-reading-books-is-good-for-society-wellbeing-and-your-career-200447" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. Images: Getty

Books

"The wilderness of mirrors": 70 years since the first James Bond book, spy stories are still blurring fact and fiction

"The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning." With these opening words, Ian Fleming (1908-64) introduced us to the gritty, glamorous world of James Bond. Fleming’s first novel, <a href="https://www.ianfleming.com/items/casino-royale/">Casino Royale</a>, was published 70 years ago on April 13 1953. It sold out within weeks. British readers, still living with rationing and shortages after the war, eagerly devoured the first James Bond story. It had expensive liquor and cars, exotic destinations, and high-stakes gambling – luxurious things beyond the reach of most people. The novel’s principal villain is Le Chiffre, the paymaster of a French trade union controlled by the Soviet intelligence agency SMERSH. After losing Soviet money, Le Chiffre takes to high-stakes gambling tables to recover it. Bond’s mission is to play against Le Chiffre and win, bankrupting both the Frenchman and the union. The director of British intelligence, known only by his codename “M”, also assigns Bond a companion – Vesper Lynd, previously one of the agency’s assistants. The two infiltrate the casino, play at the tables, and dodge assassination attempts, while engaging in a dramatic battle with French communists, the Soviets, and each other. Fleming’s Bond – the sophisticated, tuxedo-clad secret agent – is an enduring image of espionage. Since 1953, martinis, gadgets, and a licence to kill have been part of how ordinary people understand spycraft. Some of this was real: Fleming drew on his own work as a spy for his novels. Intelligence work is often less glamorous than he depicted, but in both espionage and novel-writing, the difference between fact and fiction is not always easy to distinguish. <h2>Ian Fleming, Agent 17F</h2> Fleming came from a wealthy, well-connected British family, but he was a mediocre student. He only lasted a year at military college (where he contracted gonorrhoea), then missed out on a job with the Foreign Office. He could write, though. He spent a few years as a journalist, but drifted purposelessly through much of the 1930s. The outbreak of war in 1939 changed everything. The director of British Naval Intelligence, Admiral John Henry Godfrey, recruited Fleming as his assistant. Fleming excelled, under the codename 17F. He didn’t see much of the war firsthand, but was involved in its planning. He was an ideas man, not overly concerned with practicalities or logistics. Fleming came up with the fictions; other people had to turn them into realities. In 1940, for example, he developed “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/entertainment-britain-fleming-bond-finea-idCAL1663266620080416">Operation Ruthless</a>”. To crack the German naval codes, Fleming planned to lure a German rescue boat into a trap and steal its coding machine. They would obtain a German bomber, dress British men in German uniforms, and deliberately crash the plane into the channel. When the German rescue crew arrived, they would shoot them and grab the machine. Preparations began but Fleming’s plan never eventuated. It was too difficult and risky – not least because crashing the plane might simply kill their whole crew. Fleming worked on various operations. When he began writing after the war, these experiences found their way into Bond’s world. Fleming and Godfrey had visited Portugal, a neutral territory teeming with spies, where they went to the casino. Fleming claimed he played against a German agent at the tables, an experience that supposedly inspired Bond’s gambling battles with Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. Godfrey maintained that Fleming only ever played against Portuguese businessmen, but Fleming never let facts get in the way of a good story. Fleming picked up inspiration everywhere. Godfrey became the model for M. Fleming’s secretary, Joan Howe, inspired Moneypenny. The Soviet SMERSH coding device in <a href="https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/From_Russia_with_Love_(novel)">From Russia, With Love</a> (1957) was based on the German Enigma machine. Many of Fleming’s characters were named for real people: one villain shares a name with Hitler’s Chief of Staff, another with one of Fleming’s schoolyard adversaries. It became something of a sport to hypothesise about the inspiration for Bond. Fleming later called him a “compound of all the secret agents and commando types” he met during war. There were elements of Fleming’s older brother, an operative behind the lines in Norway and Greece. Fleming also pointed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Reilly">Sidney Reilly</a>, a Russian-born British agent during the First World War. He had access to reports on Reilly in the Naval Intelligence archive during his own service. Other possible models include <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_O%27Brien-ffrench">Conrad O’Brien-ffrench</a>, a British spy Fleming met while skiing in the 1930s, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Dunderdale">Wilfred “Biffy” Dunderdale</a>, MI6 Station Chief in Paris, who wore handmade suits and was chauffeured in a Rolls Royce. Stories of discovering <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/mr-bond-i-presume-20141017-117xji.html">the real-life James Bond</a> still appear. But there was also much of Fleming himself in Bond. He gave 007 his own love of scrambled eggs and gambling. Their attitude towards women was similar. They used the same brand of toiletries. Bond even has Fleming’s golf handicap. Fleming would play with this idea, teasing that the books were autobiographical or that he was Bond’s biographer. Much like a cover story for an intelligence officer, Bond was Fleming’s alter-ego. He was anchored in Fleming’s realities – with a strong dash of creative licence and a little aspiration. <h2>The changing world of Bond</h2> The success of Casino Royale secured contracts for more Bond novels. In the early 1960s, critics began to denounce the books for their “sex, snobbery, and sadism”. Bond’s attitude toward women, in particular, was clear from the beginning. In Casino Royale, he refers to the “sweet tang of rape” in relation to sex with his MI6 accomplice and paramour Vesper Lynd. But the public appeared to be less concerned. Bond novels still sold well, especially after John F. Kennedy listed one among his top ten books. The first film adaptation, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055928/">Dr. No</a>, appeared in 1962 and Fleming’s success continued apace. Bond’s world was evolving, though. From Casino Royale to For Your Eyes Only (1960), Bond battled SMERSH, a real Soviet counter-espionage organisation. The early Bond novels were Cold War stories. Soviet Russia was the West’s enemy, so it was Bond’s. But East-West relations were thawing in 1959 when Fleming was writing Thunderball (1961). The Cold War could plausibly have ended and he didn’t want any film version to look dated, so Fleming created a fictional villain: SPECTRE. This was an international terrorist organisation without a distinct ideology. It could endure beyond the battles of the Cold War – and did. It features in the 2021 Bond film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2382320/">No Time To Die</a>. Fleming’s more fantastic plots were always anchored in reality by recognisable brands and products. Bond’s watch was a Rolex; his choice of bourbon was Jack Daniels. His cigarettes were Morlands, like Fleming’s. In the novels, Bond drove Bentleys – the Aston Martin was introduced in the 1964 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058150/">Goldfinger</a>. The films have changed Bond’s brands to keep up with the world around them (and secure lucrative product-placement deals): Omega replaced Rolex in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113189/">Goldeneye</a> (1995); the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/apr/17/bond-taste-for-beer-skyfall">martini was swapped for a Heineken</a> in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074638/">Skyfall</a> (2012). Bond now carries a Sony phone. Other changes brought the 1950s spy into the 21st century. Recent films have more diverse casting. Their female characters do more than just spend a night with Bond before their untimely deaths. The novels, too, continue to change – the 70th-anniversary editions have had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/27/james-bond-novels-to-be-reissued-with-racial-references-removed">racial slurs and some characters’ ethnic descriptors removed</a>. Some have criticised this as censorship. But as with <a href="https://theconversation.com/roald-dahl-a-brief-history-of-sensitivity-edits-to-childrens-literature-200500">recent rewritings of Roald Dahl’s books</a>, changes like this are not new. Fleming’s family has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-28/ian-fleming-james-bond-books-changes-to-new-editions/102035958">defended the alterations by citing similar removals</a> in 1955, when Live and Let Die was first published in the United States. There is a risk that this whitewashes Fleming’s attitudes, making them appear more palatable than they really were. But the revised Bond novels will include a disclaimer noting the removals. Casino Royale itself has not been altered (Bond’s rape comment remains intact), so the changes will perhaps be less extensive than the media coverage suggests. <h2>Spies After Bond</h2> Fleming is not the only ex-spy to have successfully turned his hand to spy fiction. John le Carré’s George Smiley is perhaps an anti-Bond: slightly overweight, banal, and essentially a bureaucrat. He relies on a shrewd mind rather than gadgets or guns. Le Carré introduced his readers to a more mundane, morally grey world of espionage. He had worked for MI5 and MI6 in the 1950 and ‘60s. He thought Bond was a gangster rather than a spy. Le Carré’s stories have also shaped how we think about espionage. Words like “mole” and “honeytrap” – the terminology of spycraft – <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2023/02/john-le-carre-spy-came-in-from-cold-book/673227/">entered common usage via his novels</a>. Stella Rimington, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/apr/23/stella-rimington-i-fell-into-intelligence-by-chance">the first female director-general of MI5</a>, began writing fiction after retiring from intelligence in the late 1990s. Her protagonist, 34-year-old Liz Carlyle, hunts terror cells in Britain. Like Smiley, Carlyle appears rather ordinary. She is serious and conscientious. We get glimpses of the everyday sexism she experiences. Carlyle triumphs by remaining level-headed, not by fiery gun battles or explosions. After three decades of agent-running for the CIA, Jason Mathews wrote his <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/series/The-Red-Sparrow-Trilogy">Red Sparrow</a> trilogy to occupy himself in retirement. He called it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/books/shadowing-jason-matthews-the-ex-spy-whose-cover-identity-is-author.html">a form of therapy</a>. There’s a little more Bond in Mathews’ books than in those of le Carré or Rimington. His protagonists Nate Nash and Dominika Egorova are attractive, charismatic and entangled in a personal relationship of stolen moments and high drama. This is counterbalanced by the many hours they spend running surveillance-detection routes before meeting targets. The more tedious and banal aspects of spycraft – brush passes, broken transmitters, and dead drops – accompany the glamour and romance. <h2>The wilderness of mirrors</h2> Spy fiction is never just about entertainment. The real world of espionage is so secret that most of us only ever encounter it on pages or screens. We don’t usually look to Bond films for accurate representations of espionage. But the influence of Fleming’s spy and the general aura of secrecy surrounding intelligence work lend some glamour and excitement to the work of real spies. These fictions also influence our views on real intelligence organisations, their activities, and their legitimacy. This is why the <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-cia-goes-to-hollywood-how-americas-spy-agency-infiltrated-the-big-screen-and-our-minds/">CIA invests time and money into fictionalisations</a> dealing with its work. From stories based on true events, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024648/">Argo</a>(2012) or <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790885/">Zero Dark Thirty</a> (2012), to fictional series like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1796960/">Homeland</a> (2011-20), the agency’s image is shaped via the media we consume. This was true when Fleming was writing, too. Soviet authorities <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Russia-and-the-Cult-of-State-Security-The-Chekist-Tradition-From-Lenin/Fedor/p/book/9780415703475">were preoccupied</a> by Sherlock Holmes’ surging popularity behind the Iron Curtain and fretted over the release of the Bond novels and films. The KGB studied both carefully. It was likely Bond who prompted KGB officers to release classified details about their most successful spy story: the career of <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-name-s-sorge-richard-sorge/">Richard Sorge</a>. Former intelligence officers such as Fleming are often quite good at fiction – perhaps because it is a core part of spycraft. A solid cover story has to be grounded in reality, with just enough fiction to protect the truth or gain a desired outcome. A good operation often requires creativity, to outwit a target or evade detection. And spreading fictions – disinformation – can sometimes be just as useful as gathering information. The world of espionage is sometimes referred to as the “wilderness of mirrors”. Spycraft relies on both reflections and distortions. The line between fact and fiction, between real stories of intelligence work and invented ones, can become blurry – and intelligence agencies often prefer it that way. Image credits: Columbia Pictures This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wilderness-of-mirrors-70-years-since-the-first-james-bond-book-spy-stories-are-still-blurring-fact-and-fiction-201373" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Books

Ever feel like your life is a performance? Everyone does – and this 1959 book explains roles, scripts and hiding backstage

Shakespeare’s adage — “All the world’s a stage” — suggests human beings are conditioned to perform, and to possess an acute social awareness of how they appear in front of others. It resonates in the age of social media, where we’re all performing ourselves on our screens and watching each other’s performances play out. Increasingly, those screen performances are how we meet people, and how we form relationships: from online dating, to remote work, to staying in touch with family. While the idea of performance as central to social life has been around for centuries, <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199756384/obo-9780199756384-0228.xml">Erving Goffman</a> was the first to attempt a comprehensive account of society and everyday life using theatre as an analogy. His influential 1959 book <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life-9780241547991">The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life</a> is something of a “bible” for scholars interested in questions of how we operate in everyday life. It became a surprise US bestseller on publication, crossing over to a general readership. Goffman wrote about how we perform different versions of ourselves in different social environments, while keeping our “backstage” essential selves private. He called his idea <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003160861-3/dramaturgy-charles-edgley?context=ubx&refId=6e9b71d0-973c-4ebe-b90b-41a372d12623">dramaturgy</a>. Playwright Alan Bennett <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v03/n19/alan-bennett/cold-sweat">wrote admiringly</a> of him, “Individuals knew they behaved in this way, but Goffman knew everybody behaved like this and so did I.” <h2>Goffman as influencer (and suspected spy)</h2> In a <a href="https://www.isa-sociology.org/en/about-isa/history-of-isa/books-of-the-xx-century">poll of professional sociologists</a>, Goffman’s book ranked in the top ten publications of the 20th century. It influenced playwrights such as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/019027250907200402">Tom Stoppard</a> and, of course, Bennett, who <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Alan-Bennett-A-Critical-Introduction/OMealy/p/book/9780815335405">was interested in</a> depicting and analysing the role-playing of everyday life that Goffman identified. Goffman was <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781444396621.ch24">born in Mannville</a>, Alberta in 1922 to Ukrainian Jewish parents who migrated to Canada. The sister of the man who would become famous for his theatre analogies was an actor, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0062844/">Frances Bay</a>: late in life, she would play quirky, recognisable roles such as the “marble rye” lady on <a href="https://theconversation.com/science-of-seinfeld-131606">Seinfeld</a> and a recurring part on <a href="https://theconversation.com/ill-see-you-again-in-25-years-the-return-to-twin-peaks-32624">Twin Peaks</a> (as Mrs Tremond/Chalfant). The path to Goffman’s book was an unusual one. It didn’t come from directly studying the theatre, or even from asking questions about theatregoers. While completing postgraduate studies at the the University of Chicago, Goffman was given the opportunity to conduct fieldwork in the Shetland Islands, an isolated part of northern Scotland, for his <a href="https://www.mediastudies.press/pub/ns-ccic/release/4">PhD dissertation</a>. Goffman pretended to be there to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470999912.ch3">study agricultural techniques</a>. But his actual reason was to examine the everyday life of the Shetland Islanders. As he observed the everyday practices and rituals of the remote island community, he had to negotiate suspicions he may <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Goffman-Social-Organization-Sociological-Routledge/dp/0415112044">have been a spy</a>. In Goffman’s published book, the ethnography of the Shetland Islands takes a back seat to his dramaturgical theory. <h2>More than a popular how-to manual</h2> <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life-9780241547991">The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life</a> quickly became <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Sociological-Bent-InsideMetro-Culture/dp/0170120015">a national bestseller</a>. It was picked up by general readers “as a guide to social manners and on how to be clever and calculating in social intercourse without being obvious”. This fascinating and complex academic work could indeed be read as a “how-to” manual on how to impress others and mitigate negative impressions. But Goffman <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Erving-Goffman/Smith/p/book/9780415355919">didn’t mean</a> “performance” literally. Reading the book as a guide to middle-class etiquette misses some of its nuances. One is the sophisticated understanding of how reality and contrivance relate to each other. A good performance is one that appears “unselfconscious”; a “contrived” performance is one where the fact the social actor is performing a role is “painstakingly evident”. In everyday language, we tend to describe the latter as trying too hard. But Goffman is making a more general point, about the way we all perform ourselves, all the time – whether the effort is visible or not. If “All the world is not, of course, a stage”, then “the crucial ways in which it isn’t are not easy to specify”. <h2>Playing roles and being in character</h2> Today, we regularly use theatrical terms like “role”, “script”, “props”, “audience” and being “in and out of character” to describe how people behave in their everyday social life. But Goffman is the one who introduced these concepts, which have become part of our shared language. Together, they highlight how social life depends on what Goffman terms a shared definition of particular situations. Whether we are performing our work roles, having dinner with someone for whom we have romantic affections, or dealing with strangers in a public setting, we need to produce and maintain the appropriate definition of that reality. These activities are “performances”, according to Goffman, because they involve mutual awareness or attentiveness to the information others emit. This mutual awareness, or attention to others, means humans are constantly performing for audiences in their everyday lives. <h2>Being in and out of character</h2> It matters who the audience is – and what type of audience we have for our performances. When thinking about how people adapt their behaviour for others, Goffman differentiates between “front regions” and “back regions”. Front regions are where we must present what is often referred to as the “best version of ourselves”. In an open-plan office, a worker needs to look busy if their supervisor is about. So, in the front region, they need to look engaged, industrious and generally perform the role of being a worker. In an open-plan office, a worker needs to be constantly “in character”, as Goffman puts it. Back regions are where a social actor can “let their guard down”. In the context of a workplace, the back regions might refer to the bathroom, the lunchroom or anywhere else where the worker can relax their performance and potentially resort to “out of character” behaviour. If the worker takes a diversionary break to gossip with a colleague when their supervisor is no longer in earshot, they could be said to be engaging in back region conduct. Front and back regions are not defined by physical locations. A back region is any situation in which the individual can relax and drop their performance. (Of course, this means regions overlap with physical locations to some extent – people are more likely to be able to relax when they’re in more private settings.) Thus, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/08/opinion/open-plan-office-awful.html">open-plan offices</a> are often unpopular because workers feel they are constantly under surveillance. Conversely, the work-from-home arrangements that have become more common since the era of COVID lockdowns are popular because they allow people to relax their work personae. Renowned writer Jenny Diski <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v26/n05/jenny-diski/think-of-mrs-darling">reflected</a> in 2004, "reading Goffman now is alarmingly claustrophobic. He presents a world where there is nowhere to run; a perpetual dinner party of status seeking, jockeying for position and saving face. Any idea of an authentic self becomes a nonsense. You may or may not believe in what you are performing; either type of performance is believed in or it is not." <h2>21st-century Goffman</h2> Dramaturgy has survived the onset of our new media environment, where the presentation of the self has migrated to platforms as diverse as <a href="https://theconversation.com/instagram-and-facebook-are-stalking-you-on-websites-accessed-through-their-apps-what-can-you-do-about-it-188645">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-corn-how-the-online-viral-corn-kid-is-on-a-well-worn-path-to-fame-in-the-child-influencer-industry-189974">TikTok</a>. In some ways, it’s more relevant than ever. Goffman’s approach has been applied to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/no-sense-of-place-9780195042313?cc=au&lang=en&">electronic media</a>, radio and <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Media_and_Modernity/asB7QgAACAAJ?hl=en">television</a> <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003160861-19/reception-goffman-work-media-studies-peter-lunt">studies</a>, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262515047/new-tech-new-ties/">mobile phones</a> – and, more recently, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13548565211036797">social media</a> and even <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0263276419829541">AI studies</a>. The “successful staging” (as Goffman terms it) of our social roles has only become more complex. This is perfectly illustrated by “BBC Dad” Robert Kelly, whose 2017 <a href="https://junkee.com/bbc-dad-pictures-kids-now-marion-james/324165">live television interview</a> from his home study was interrupted when his children wandered into the room. This was before COVID lockdowns, when our home and work lives (and personae) increasingly merged. “Everyone understands that now,” <a href="https://junkee.com/bbc-dad-pictures-kids-now-marion-james/324165">wrote Reena Gupta</a> in 2022. “You or someone in your family or circle of friends has been BBC Dad.” Maintaining and maximising performances still matters. And so does Goffman. This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/ever-feel-like-your-life-is-a-performance-everyone-does-and-this-1959-book-explains-roles-scripts-and-hiding-backstage-195939" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. Images: Getty

Books

Hollywood’s 15 best movies based on kids’ books

Steven Spielberg’s recent film The BFG is the 12th adaptation of a Dahl book (11th, if you discount an animated “BFG,” done for British television, that aired in 1989). And because they have captured the imagination of people such as Spielberg and Tim Burton (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and Nicolas Roeg (The Witches), they tend to turn out quite nicely, thank you. As I see it, two of them belong on anyone’s short list of truly excellent big-screen interpretations of kid-lit classics. Fantastic Mr Fox and James and the Giant Peach make my cut here among the 15 best of all time. There are talking animal stories on my list, there are kind wizards and evil witches, there are boys and girls who must find the courage to fend for themselves. There are horses that can run like the wind, a robot from outer space. If your favourites aren’t here, apologies. And let me know what they are. Like a certain green ogre whose tale I include, your BFFC (big, friendly film critic) is all ears. This is a subjective list, after all. But it’s a list that abounds with magic and adventure, danger and delight. Babe (1995) From Dick King-Smith’s 1983 children’s book The Sheep-Pig (published as Babe: The Gallant Pig in the US.), the film, co-written by Mad Max’s George Miller, received seven Oscar nominations, including one for best picture. It’s the tale of a pig who believes he is better-equipped to herd sheep, and who is befriended by a duck (who thinks he’s a rooster), a border collie and an ewe. James Cromwell is farmer Hoggett, and thanks to some innovative CG lip-synching and animatronics, Babe and company walk and talk without a hitch. A charmer. The Black Stallion (1979) Based on Walter Farley’s 1941 classic and directed by Carroll Ballard, this beautiful horse-and-his-boy adventure begins with a dramatic shipwreck off the coast of North Africa. The boy (Kelly Reno) and the horse (an Arabian stallion) bond on a desert island, are eventually rescued, and find their way to America, where Black – thanks to the help of an old, forgotten jockey (Mickey Rooney) – proves himself lightning fast on the track. As the race announcer says, “He could be the greatest sensation in racing history!” The Brave Little Toaster (1987) Jerry Rees’ animated feature, adapted from Thomas M Disch’s 1980 novel The Brave Little Toaster: A Bedtime Story for Small Appliances, answers the oft-asked question: Do household appliances have souls? OK, maybe not so often asked, but the film - nominated for the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize - answers anyway, with wit and whimsy, as the title character and four best buds (a vacuum cleaner, a lamp, a radio and an electric blanket) go on a quest to find their owner. David Newman wrote the score, Van Dyke Parks contributed songs, and influences from Busby Berkeley to Walt Disney to General Electric are homaged. Coraline (2009) From Neil Gaiman’s 2002 Hugo-winning novella, a glorious - and gloriously spooky - story about a misfit girl who discovers a parallel and seemingly idyllic universe through a small door in her family’s creaky new home. Henry Selick, of The Nightmare Before Christmas, directed the stop-motion animated gem. Moral: Beware of loving moms with buttons for eyes. Fantastic Mr Fox (2009) Wes Anderson’s meticulously staged, magically realised stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1970 book, about a wily fox, his painter wife, and an alliance of forest critters forced to do battle against some menacing farmers. Nominated for the animated feature Academy Award, it’s unique in modern-day ‘toons for Anderson’s decision to record his cast (George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Bill Murray among them) together, in an outdoorsy, woodsy setting, rather than isolate each voice actor in a sterile studio sound booth. The chemistry and spontaneity is palpable, the detail of the scale-model sets astounding. And is there a more dapper dresser than Mr. Fox? We think not. Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) The third entry in the film franchise based on J.K. Rowling’s series of boy-wizard best-sellers is the first to fully capture that Hogwarts magic on the big screen. Thanks go to Alfonso Cuaron, who took over the directing job from HP 1 and 2’s Chris Columbus. Cuaron’s skills as a visual storyteller are out of this world, a fact borne out by his best director Oscar win in 2014 for the space odyssey Gravity. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) A young woman, a witch’s curse, a heroic wizard, an ambulatory steampunk castle - the fairy-tale elements come together with the grace and beauty that Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki is known for. An immersive and imaginative take on Diana Wynne Jones’ 1986 book. The Iron Giant (1999) Ted Hughes wrote the 1968 novel (called The Iron Man in the UK), about a humongous robot from outer space and the Earth boy who befriends him. Brad Bird, who would go on to direct Pixar’s The Incredibles and Ratatouille (and the rollicking live-action Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol), oversaw the traditionally animated adventure, injecting energy and emotion into the Ike-era tale. James and The Giant Peach (1996) Roald Dahl’s surreal yarn - first published in 1961 - follows our boy hero as his parents are killed, and he is sent to live with two impossibly cruel aunts. A man with a bag of magic crocodile tongues comes along, a withered peach suddenly swells to gigantic proportions, and James meets a septet of talking insects who live inside the fruit. What’s next? A trans-Atlantic journey – by peach – to view the skyscrapers of New York, of course. Henry Selick’s terrific stop-motion animated adaptation, with a soundtrack courtesy of Randy Newman. A Little Princess (1995) “I am a princess – all girls are!” a defiant Liesel Matthews tells a severe Eleanor Bron in Alfonso Cuaron’s dazzling screen reading of the 1905 Frances Hodgson Burnett novel. Matthews plays Sara, a girl sent to boarding school when her father goes off to World War I. When news comes that he has been killed, the headmistress played by Bron makes the pampered schoolgirl scrub and toil for her keep, and sends her to a cold, uncomfortable space in the attic to live. But the stories Sara spins in secret captivate the other schoolgirls, and goodness and kindness win the day. National Velvet (1944) Elizabeth Taylor is 12-year-old Velvet Brown, an English girl who wins a horse in a contest, and who - with the help of a wanderer played by Mickey Rooney - trains the gelding to compete in the Grand National Steeplechase. Nothing can stop the girl and her horse - not even the fact that girls can’t be jockeys, and when the rider’s true identity is found out, well, who knew Enid Bagnold’s 1935 novel was a stealth feminist tract? Pinocchio (1940) Walt Disney’s adaptation of the 19th-century Carlo Collodi tale about a wooden puppet-turned-real-life-boy is one of the great cartoon features to emerge from the House of (Mickey) Mouse. Fun and frightening, an allegory about self-realization and social assimilation, the landmark animated film is full of iconic moments - the terrifying transformation on Pleasure Island, Geppetto’s journey with(in) Monstro the whale - and classic songs (“I’ve Got No Strings,” “When You Wish Upon a Star”). As Jiminy Cricket says, let your conscience be your guide. Shrek (2001) William Steig’s smart and snappy 1990 picture book - about a profoundly ugly ogre who must win the heart of an equally unsightly princess - experienced a fairy-talelike transformation of its own, losing the book title’s exclamation point, but gaining kazillions of dollars as a DreamWorks Animation megahit. With Mike Myers’ supplying the voice of the big green galumph, and Cameron Diaz as the princess, Fiona (no longer ugly, at least not during daylight hours), and Eddie Murphy as the wisecracking tagalong “steed” (a donkey), the eye-popping, computer-animated film mashes up a bookshelf of fairy tales, and also merrily bashes up (as in parodies) the tropes and traditions of its more-established competition, the Walt Disney Studio. Diehard fans of author/illustrator Steig’s original work grumble about the liberties and lampooning going on in the movie, but it’s hard not to laugh - a lot - at what the filmmakers have wrought. Watership Down (1978) Quiet and gentle and yet fierce in its depiction of how death shapes us all, the British animated hit based on Richard Adams’ 1972 novel follows a small band of rabbits on the run, forced to find a new warren before “the terrible thing” happens. The animals have their own laws, their own mythologies - and the voices of some wonderful British actors, including Denholm Elliot, Michael Hordern, John Hurt and Ralph Richardson. Set in rolling English countryside, with meadows and woods, with dangers from beast and man, this talking-animal cartoon has a poetry, and a profundity, that feels very real, indeed. Bonus points if you know the lyrics to Watership Down’s signature song, Art Garfunkel’s “Bright Eyes.” The Wizard of Oz (1939) Not just one of the best film adaptations of a children’s book ever, but one of the best films ever, period. With a teenage Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, the Kansas lass who rides a twister all the way to a magical Technicolor land, populated by Munchkins and flying monkeys and a seriously wicked witch. L. Frank Baum’s 1900 fantasy The Wonderful Wizard of Oz provided the rich source material, and Victor Fleming (with assists from several other directors) provided the Hollywood vision, casting a trio of unforgettable sidekicks - Ray Bolger’s Scarecrow, Jack Haley’s Tin Man, and Bert Lahr’s Cowardly Lion - to join Dorothy on her journey down the yellow brick road. Iconic. Which of these films was your favourite? How about your grandchildren? Let us know in the comments below. Written by Steven Rea. First appeared on <a href="http://Stuff.co.nz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stuff.co.nz</a>. Images: Shutterstock

Movies

5 films we didn’t know were books first

While you might already know that films such as Gone With The Wind or The Shining were based on books, there are some other very well known films that you may not have realised started out the same way. Not many people know that, for instance, Forrest Gump was actually a novel first. How many of these have you seen? 1. Jaws The film that made us scared to go back in the water started out as a chilling novel called Jaws by Peter Benchley. Interestingly, Benchley based the novel on a series of real shark attacks at the Jersey Shore in the early 1900s. The producers of the film read an advanced copy of Benchley’s book and purchased the rights to the 1975 film before the book was even published. 2. Forrest Gump This box office sensation was based on a novel of the same name by Winston Groom. There were many differences between the two, and several more ‘out there’ parts of the novel were left out of the film. For instance in the novel Forrest is sent on a mission for NASA where he meets an ape named Sue. They crash in the jungle and get attacked by cannibals. 3. Die Hard Bruce Willis became a household name starring in the 1988 film adaptation of Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. Thorp penned the novel based on NYPD detective Joe Leland (the main character’s name is changed to John McClane in the film). The movie has a relatively happy ending compared to the book - one might assume they had planned to make the sequel if the original film was successful. 4. Slumdog Millionaire The smash hit Academy Award winning film directed by Danny Boyle was based on the novel Q&A by Indian author Vikas Swarup. Both the novel and the film follow the story of a young orphan who faces accusations of cheating after becoming a winner on a popular game show. One of the main differences is the main character’s motivation for going on the game show – in the novel his love interest Latika is a prostitute and Jamal hopes to win the prize money to pay off her pimp. In the film he hopes to reach out to Latika as he knows that she watches the program and hasn’t seen her in a long time. 5. Psycho Robert Bloch sold the rights to his horror novel Psycho to Alfred Hitchcock for $9,500 in 1959. So keen was Hitchcock to keep the story a secret that he bought every copy of the novel in the country. Psycho became one of the director’s most popular films but at the time Paramount Pictures didn’t want it made. Hitchcock believed in the film and used his own money to make it, shooting in black-and-white to save money on production costs. Related links: <a href="/entertainment/books/2016/04/five-books-to-read-before-seeing-film-2016/">Read these five books before you see the film</a> <a href="/entertainment/books/2016/04/best-books-to-read-in-autumn/">6 classic books to get you in the mood for autumn</a> <a href="/entertainment/books/2016/03/celebrities-who-have-written-books/">7 celebrities that you didn’t know have written a book</a>

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