TALKING THROUGH YOUR ARTS – KILLING FAIRFAX

Man is essentially political. What is unsayable is nonetheless said.  Any manner of speaking will be good as long as it serves its objective: to make see, to be present what is at issue, what is to be said, what is to be governed.

Consider the course of this here plot: a description of Sydney citizens going about their business, darting across the traffic, colliding and mingling with each other. The bridge a blueprint for avoiding boats that try to cut through the urban seascape. A tanker eases its way through the mouth of the harbour and heads for mooring.

Let the eyes rove. Imagine a vision of blind adherence to the letter of the law and the adherence of state. A narrative that spins a knot of dialogues between the city and the bush, between the politics of legislature and the politics of the street.

These ghostly images begin to suggest their own possibilities of an unfinished story, a place where people may reinvent themselves. Two-time Ned Kelly Award winner for crime novels Michael Robotham began as a journalist and then went on to cut his teeth as a ghostwriter of many bestselling autobiographies including politicians and pop-stars.

Robotham’s latest thriller Watching You imagines a character who needs to cut loose from her missing husband and the feeling of being eyeballed by shadows. He will be cutting lines from the book as part of Writers Live, a series of evening events on writers and writing at Berkeleouw Books in Paddington and Mona Vale.

You can learn how to cut things out by decluttering your life.

Mother of two and expert consultant on packing, removal and unpacking, Kim Carruthers will help condition your emotions by providing practical techniques to clear away and keep away.

Investigative journalist and editor of the Financial Review, Pamela Williams will cut-to-the-chase on the demise of a media empire in Killing Fairfax: Packer, Murdoch and the Ultimate Revenge. Williams writes on a decade and a half of mismanagement and the damaging influence of the mogul cutter-uppers and downers – James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch.

I think you’d have to say from the beginning, there have been times when we, as a society feel able to take risks, to give space to imagination, to allow hope precedence over fear. (AS)

Pamela Williams, Aug 27, Berkelouw Books, 12-14 Park Street, Mona Vale; Michael Robotham, Aug 29 & Kim Carruthers, Sep 5, Berkelouw Books, 19 Oxford St, Paddington, $8.50, berkelouw.com.au

BY ANGELA STRETCH