Reviews - September 2005

Moments of Truth
Bill Leak
Scribe $39.95

Cartoonists are the powder monkeys of newspapers, drawing regardless of editorial policy. Michael Leunig is a law unto himself (hooray!), and so is the Australian's Bill Leak. To enter this book is to partake of a finely honed despair. Mostly his cartoons speak for themselves, with occasional bitter epigraphs from the likes of Gore Vidal and Goering.

Also noteworthy is an introduction which encapsulates the political cartoonist's art. Moments of Truth covers Leak's cartoons from 2001-5. Nobody gets any mercy, except the blameless, like Margaret Hassan.

Leak's visual obituary for her is perhaps the finest moment in the book.

YOUNGER READERS

Millions
Frank Cottrell Boyce
Macmillan $14.95

Millions is the first book of noted screenwriter Boyce, also responsible for Hilary and Jackie. It won the Carnegie Medal and has also been made into a film. Imagine an Irish and Catholic My Life as a Dog, with added heist caper. Anthony's mother is dead, and he has become obsessed with Saints. Now he is seeing them, just when he has found a bag full of stolen pounds. Robbers, and an imminent changeover to the Euro, add suspense to this wry, bittersweet plot. It would be very easy to ruin it, but the charm and humour win through.

NB The film is out, but is not quite as sharp as the book. Unsurprisingly, lines like "Bloody privatisation!" spoken by a Saint, have been lost.

BIOGRAPHY

Lady Hester: Queen of the East
Lorna Gibb
Faber $45.00

Lady Hester Stanhope was an English aristocrat with attitude. When her uncle, Prime Minister Pitt II died, she left Downing street for the deserts. Fired by a prophecy that she would be Queen of the Jews, she became a famous middle-eastern traveller. Notions of feminine decorum she ignored, adopting male Arab dress and taking younger lovers. Not even shipwreck nor the Napoleonic wars much deterred her. She was dismissed as mad, and Byron called her "That dangerous thing, a female wit." But behind the calumnies was a woman with the courage and initiative to live life on her own terms.

All images and text copyright (c) Lucy Sussex 2007 - except where noted. webmaster

Last Modified: 19/10/2005