Carol Middleton

Carol Middleton reviews 'Alien Roots: A German Jewish girlhood: from belonging to exile' by Anne Jacobs

May 2007, no. 291 • 01 May 2007

Alien Roots is a remarkable memoir of pre-war Germany, written in Melbourne by Anne Jacobs (born Annemarie Meyer). Jacobs wrote it in the 1960s, at a time when the Holocaust was rarely mentioned in Australia. Charles Jacobs collated his wife’s memoir for the family, and her children arranged for its publication in late 2006, twenty-four years after her death. The Melbourne-based Makor Jewish Com ... (read more)

Carol Middleton reviews 'Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne by Ben Hills

February 2007, no. 288 • 30 March 2022

Ben Hills’s biography of Princess Masako has a second subtitle: The Tragic True Story of Japan’s Crown Princess. It is a taste of the work to come, of both the hyperbole and the author’s tendency to explain everything to the reader. But then, the book is promoted not as a serious biography but as a ‘romance gone wrong’. Written by a Fairfax investigative reporter, it reads like an extend ... (read more)

Carol Middleton reviews 'This Much Is True' by Miriam Margolyes

January–February 2022, no. 439 • 22 December 2021

The title of Miriam Margolyes’s memoir, This Much Is True, strikes a declamatory note, well suited to the octogenarian actor whose greatest asset is her voice, with its diverse accents, timbres, and moods. It also proclaims that we are not going to have the wool pulled over our eyes, or to be frustrated by authorial modesty, tact, or political correctness. ... (read more)

Carol Middleton reviews 'Swimming' by Enza Gandolfo

April 2010, no 320 • 01 April 2010

Set in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Swimming is an impressive début novel by Melbourne academic Enza Gandalfo. Kate Wilks, a childless writer in her early sixties, is a strong swimmer, and images of the sea texture the narrative. Now happily married for a second time, Kate encounters her first husband, and the ensuing flood of memories, regret and guilt provides the driving force of the nov ... (read more)

Carol Middleton reviews 'Word of the Day 2' by Kel Richards

October 2006, no. 285 • 01 October 2006

The popularity of his ABC radio program WordWatch gives Kel Richards the licence to publish a second volume of definitions of words and phrases and ‘terse verse’. Word of the Day 2: Wordwatching reads like an exact transcript of Richards’s radio program, complete with off-the-cuff comments. ... (read more)

Carol Middleton reviews 'Soar: A life freed by dance' by David McAllister with Amanda Dunn

January–February 2021, no. 428 • 17 December 2020

David McAllister, known affectionately as ‘Daisy’ to his fellow dancers, completed this memoir just as Covid-19 put paid to the exciting program he had devised for his final year as artistic director of the Australian Ballet. In spite of the cancelled world premières, McAllister makes no complaint about what must surely have been a disappointing finale to a stellar career, but he remains upbe ... (read more)

Carol Middleton reviews 'Headlong: A novel' by Susan Varga

June 2009, no. 312 • 01 June 2009

Susan Varga’s latest novel, Headlong, is set in Australia in the opening years of the twenty-first century, with the Tampa episode and detention camps as background. This setting reflects Varga’s own work with refugees and the Nazi camps of her family’s Hungarian past. Headlong relates the downward spiral that the previously indomitable Julia undergoes after the death of her husband. Her two ... (read more)

Carol Middleton reviews 'The Woman Who Cracked the Anxiety Code: The extraordinary life of Dr Claire Weekes' by Judith Hoare

April 2020, no. 420 • 20 March 2020

On Boxing Day 1962, The Australian Women’s Weekly opened with a two-page spread on a new publication, Self Help for Your Nerves, by Sydney physician Dr Claire Weekes. Her four precepts for people suffering from ‘nerves’ appeared in huge, bold type: facing, accepting, floating, and letting time pass. Positive reviews followed, including one by Max Harris in ABR’s December 1962 issue. Wary o ... (read more)

Carol Middleton reviews 'Mirka Mora: A life making art by Sabine Cotte

November 2019, no. 416 • 24 October 2019

A year after her death, Mirka Mora is still regarded as a ‘phenomenon’ in the Melbourne art world, not least for her vibrant personality and provocative behaviour. Now Sabine Cotte, a French-Australian painting conservator, in this modest account of her research into the artist’s methods and materials, offers a new perspective on Mora’s creative process and the significance of her work. M ... (read more)

Carol Middleton reviews 'The Bridge' by Enza Gandolfo

June-July 2018, no. 402 • 24 May 2018

‘Accidents happen.’ In the aftermath of a fatal car accident, one of two accidents that frame the narrative of The Bridge, these words are tossed up in the turbulent minds of a grieving relative. But accidents, unlike natural disasters – earthquakes, floods, droughts – don’t just happen. Whether it’s the collapse of the Westgate Bridge or a car crash, accidents are due to human error. ... (read more)