Showing results by narrator "Marie Walker" in All Categories

Marnie, Tina and Lee are in their 20s when they share a house in Bondi. Each is running away from something: Marnie, wild, privileged and impetuous, is escaping from the stifling conservatism of Melbourne - and a father who will mark her relationship with men forever. Tina, driven to leave Brisbane and her migrant background, promises herself she'll own a home on the harbour by the time she's 30. But what if the price of success is too high? Lee dreams of showbiz fame to save her from suffocating life in the suburbs of Newcastle.

In Love & Money, Anne Manne looks at the religion of work - its high priests and sacrificial lambs. As family life and motherhood feel the pressure of the market, she asks whether the chief beneficiaries are self-interested employers and child-care corporations. Manne argues that devaluing motherhood - still central to so many women's lives - has done feminism few favours. For women on the frontline of the work-centred society, it has made for hard choices. Manne eloquently tells what happened when feminism adapted itself to the free market.

In the third Quarterly Essay of 2004, Margaret Simons takes a long hard look at Mark Latham, the self-proclaimed "club buster" and the man who would be prime minister. Few doubt Latham's intelligence and ambition, but what will this amount to in government? Simons argues that if Labor is elected, it will not be "business as usual". Rather we can expect a reformist government in the spirit - if not the letter - of Latham's political tutor, Gough Whitlam. It is also likely to be a government that has little time for the totemic issues of the Labor elites.

In the second Quarterly Essay of 2005, Gail Bell investigates Australia's depression epidemic. Why, she wonders, do well over a million Australians now take anti-depressant drugs? This is a fresh, frank and independent look at the depression culture and the move to medicalise sadness. Bell examines how the prescription culture operates, scrutinising the role of big drug companies and GPs and talking to those who take - and don't take - the new anti-depressants, from anxious students to lonely retirees.

From the Hillsong Church to the Family First Party, Australia appears to be experiencing an evangelical revival. In the second Quarterly Essay for 2006, Amanda Lohrey investigates that revival - its shape and scope, and what it means for the mainstream churches and the nation's politics. She talks to young believers and analyses the machinations of the Christian Right. She discusses, with humour and insight, the appeal of the megachurch, the changing image of Jesus and the political theories of George Pell and Peter Jensen.

What is the Liberal Party's core appeal to Australian voters? Has John Howard made a dramatic break with the past, or has he ingeniously modernised the strategies of his party's founder, Sir Robert Menzies? For Judith Brett, the government of John Howard has done what successful Liberal governments have always done: it has presented itself as the true guardian of the national interest. Full of provocative ideas, Relaxed & Comfortable will change the way Australians see the last decade of national politics.

In the third Quarterly Essay for 2006, Inga Clendinnen looks past the skirmishes and pitched battles of the history wars and asks what's at stake - what kind of history do we want and need? Should our historians be producing the "objective record of achievement" that the Prime Minister has called for? For Clendinnen, historians cannot be the midwives of national identity and also be true to their profession: History cannot do the work of myth.

Where were you when America elected Barack Obama? Kate Jennings was in New York, eyes wide open, completing her take on an amazing time: "the run-up to the election... a time when every day felt like a year and we became slightly crazed from worry but also mesmerised, unable to switch off the cable news stations, obsessively tracking the DOW, VIX, LIBOR spreads, polls in red states. So much at stake. American Revolution is a dazzling and perceptive look at the United States between hope and despair.

These two women's lives have been shaped by the decisions they made back in 1968 – when they were young, idealistic and naïve. In a world that was a whirl of politics and protest, consciousness raising and sexual liberation, Zoë and Julia were looking for love, truth and their own happy endings. They soon discover that life is rarely that simple, as their bad behaviour leads them down paths that they can never turn back from.

Margot detests shopping malls. Any distraction is welcome, and the woman who has chained herself to the escalator, shouting about the perils of consumerism, is certainly that. She recognises Dot immediately - from their campaigning days, and further back still, to when Margot married Laurence.

Cursed by revenge, hunted by darkness, bound by love. Isabelle’s transformation into a beast was the price she paid for revenge, but it may cost her everything. As her humanity fades, she finds herself entangled with a skilled archer who sees beyond her monstrous form. But the curse grows stronger with every heartbeat, and the darkness within her threatens to consume them both. Together, they must face the dark forces hunting her—but the greatest battle may be within herself.