I have a grave responsibility to understand important developments in popular culture, for the purpose of mocking them. This is why it has been my painful duty, for instance, to pay attention to Justin Bieber. But for years, I’ve resisted Twilight. Even as the phenomenon grew, I just couldn’t quite bring myself to endure Mills and Boone with a cast of sexually-frustrated vampires.

And then, a number of people I respect got addicted to the books, and I decided that it was time to see what the latest publishing phenomenon was all about. This weekend, I was staying at a country house which had a copy of the book and not a huge amount else to do, so I finally ploughed through Stephenie Meyer’s bestseller.

Just in case you missed the subtle title of my post, I didn’t like it. Here’s why. Continue Reading →

It was very considerate, I thought, of Julia Gillard to time her election to coincide with the launch of my book about a student election. And given its theme of political ruthlessness, it was even more considerate of her to depose the elected Prime Minister in a palace coup a mere month before its release date. There’s nothing like a bit of cross-promotion to really give your product a boost. Sales of Comrades should receive a substantial boost, I reckon, and also of knives. Continue Reading →

Hello, thanks for visiting. I’m fixing up the site in the spare moments when I’m not working on my second novel, which is called Comrades and will be released later this year if all goes well. Stay tuned for more details!