The Fierce Country
The Fierce Country is a collection of 19 stories about the 'Dead Heart', our attempts to conquer it, or at least live with it, understand it, and maybe love it.
The open spaces and isolated places outside Australia’s cities have unsettled us from first European settlement to today – often with very good reason. In this nail-biting book combining the notorious and little-known, acclaimed author Stephen Orr has collected true stories that have shaped and continue to haunt the Australian psyche: mysteries, disappearances, mistreatment and murder. Fatal conflicts between an Aboriginal tracker and the police employers hunting his community. An itinerant conman picking up tips for the perfect murder from a famous novelist around a campfire on the Rabbit-Proof Fence. Together, these tales chart an undercurrent of shifting cultural tensions as Australians find, lose and question who we are.
A chat about the book with Phillip Adams on Late Night Live.
From the Guardian Books, a think-piece (and final chapter) here.
Some thoughts about true crime and crime fiction on the Booktopia Blog.
Read a previously published extract ('Lasseter's Reef') here.
Indaily extract (Chapter 16: Robert Bogucki) here.
Advertiser extract (Chapter 10: Nicholas Bannon) here.
Adelaide Review extract (Chapter 12: The Faraday School Kidnapping) here.
The open spaces and isolated places outside Australia’s cities have unsettled us from first European settlement to today – often with very good reason. In this nail-biting book combining the notorious and little-known, acclaimed author Stephen Orr has collected true stories that have shaped and continue to haunt the Australian psyche: mysteries, disappearances, mistreatment and murder. Fatal conflicts between an Aboriginal tracker and the police employers hunting his community. An itinerant conman picking up tips for the perfect murder from a famous novelist around a campfire on the Rabbit-Proof Fence. Together, these tales chart an undercurrent of shifting cultural tensions as Australians find, lose and question who we are.
A chat about the book with Phillip Adams on Late Night Live.
From the Guardian Books, a think-piece (and final chapter) here.
Some thoughts about true crime and crime fiction on the Booktopia Blog.
Read a previously published extract ('Lasseter's Reef') here.
Indaily extract (Chapter 16: Robert Bogucki) here.
Advertiser extract (Chapter 10: Nicholas Bannon) here.
Adelaide Review extract (Chapter 12: The Faraday School Kidnapping) here.
The Cruel City
The Cruel City is a 2011 book about Adelaide, its history of crime, growing out its governments', its leaders' refusal to acknowledge key problems in social, economic and political realms.
minor literature[s]
March 2018. This piece in minor literature[s] concerns James Agee, and the writing of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, as well as some of the pitfalls (and costs) of turning fact into fiction.
The Adelaide and Melbourne Review
'The Art of Reading' (December 2012)
Have our bookshops become the Library of Babel? Gibberish, trivia and a thousand ways to cook mince? What is the fate of literature in the Age of Distraction?
'History' (April 2013)
What did our grandparents listen to on the nightly radio? What did they cook? How did their kids entertain themselves? What are Condy's crystals? And does anything old really matter any more?
'Being Glenn Gould' (August 2013)
From Bach to The Idea of North (the radio documentary). Gould knew all about isolation.
'Year of the Luddite' (February 2014)
Why are we so obsessed with technology? A lesson from history.
'Pennies for Eileen' (August 2014)
A strange little Eileen biopic from 1951 perfectly captures Australian values from a bygone era.
'Fifty-One' (January 2015)
Robin Boyd's take on the lot of the Australian creative artist seems truer now than ever.
'Adelaide, Summer: 2015' (February 2015)
James Agee's lyrical masterpiece settles on the long lawns and coiled hoses of Adelaide, and the memory of Barbara Hanrahan, a hundred years later.
'Young Beavis' (April 2015)
Beavis Beck lived for books. Worked in EW Cole's Melbourne bookshop. Spent his life spreading the word.
'The Bones' (September 2015)
Every day we become smarter, yet less willing to use our intelligence.
'Life Between graveyards and bookshops' (May 2016)
An essay on deja vu, and how it follows us, reminding us of where we might have been.
'Dismaland' (July 2016)
A feature about Banksy's Dismaland, and how it might be a point of reflection for many of us (especially those interested in starting nuclear waste dumps).
'Adelaide in 1936: A Year of Great Promise' (March 2017)
A hundred years old, and still hopeful. So what's changed?
'Could Adelaide ever be the Berlin of the South?' (April 2017)
What makes Berlin big, in its thinking, ambitions, creativity? What are the lessons for Australian cities?
'I'm an Anarchist - So What?' (June 2017)
What makes Max Harris a great poet, and what has he got to tell us about freedom of speech?
'On the trail of the Stasi' (November 2017)
Describes a visit to the former East Berlin Stasi headquarters and prison, and asks is this a vision of the past, or future?
'A Tale of a Lit City' (January 2018)
To be a UNESCO City of Literature, Adelaide would at least have to like books.
'The Last Man in Adelaide' (February 2018)
Explores the growing number of ways governments encourage compliance.
'City of Smells' (April 2018)
Smell, memory and the past.
'Why?' (November 2018)
Asks a lot of questions that probably don't have any answers. The point? Of anything?
'Sunny-boy and story-free' (December 2018)
A small tetrahedral ice-block saved this country (almost) from illiteracy.
'Why I want to praise Ern Malley, 75 years on' (June 2019)
In my final piece for The Adelaide Review, I examine what we really make of freedom, fraud and poetry.
Have our bookshops become the Library of Babel? Gibberish, trivia and a thousand ways to cook mince? What is the fate of literature in the Age of Distraction?
'History' (April 2013)
What did our grandparents listen to on the nightly radio? What did they cook? How did their kids entertain themselves? What are Condy's crystals? And does anything old really matter any more?
'Being Glenn Gould' (August 2013)
From Bach to The Idea of North (the radio documentary). Gould knew all about isolation.
'Year of the Luddite' (February 2014)
Why are we so obsessed with technology? A lesson from history.
'Pennies for Eileen' (August 2014)
A strange little Eileen biopic from 1951 perfectly captures Australian values from a bygone era.
'Fifty-One' (January 2015)
Robin Boyd's take on the lot of the Australian creative artist seems truer now than ever.
'Adelaide, Summer: 2015' (February 2015)
James Agee's lyrical masterpiece settles on the long lawns and coiled hoses of Adelaide, and the memory of Barbara Hanrahan, a hundred years later.
'Young Beavis' (April 2015)
Beavis Beck lived for books. Worked in EW Cole's Melbourne bookshop. Spent his life spreading the word.
'The Bones' (September 2015)
Every day we become smarter, yet less willing to use our intelligence.
'Life Between graveyards and bookshops' (May 2016)
An essay on deja vu, and how it follows us, reminding us of where we might have been.
'Dismaland' (July 2016)
A feature about Banksy's Dismaland, and how it might be a point of reflection for many of us (especially those interested in starting nuclear waste dumps).
'Adelaide in 1936: A Year of Great Promise' (March 2017)
A hundred years old, and still hopeful. So what's changed?
'Could Adelaide ever be the Berlin of the South?' (April 2017)
What makes Berlin big, in its thinking, ambitions, creativity? What are the lessons for Australian cities?
'I'm an Anarchist - So What?' (June 2017)
What makes Max Harris a great poet, and what has he got to tell us about freedom of speech?
'On the trail of the Stasi' (November 2017)
Describes a visit to the former East Berlin Stasi headquarters and prison, and asks is this a vision of the past, or future?
'A Tale of a Lit City' (January 2018)
To be a UNESCO City of Literature, Adelaide would at least have to like books.
'The Last Man in Adelaide' (February 2018)
Explores the growing number of ways governments encourage compliance.
'City of Smells' (April 2018)
Smell, memory and the past.
'Why?' (November 2018)
Asks a lot of questions that probably don't have any answers. The point? Of anything?
'Sunny-boy and story-free' (December 2018)
A small tetrahedral ice-block saved this country (almost) from illiteracy.
'Why I want to praise Ern Malley, 75 years on' (June 2019)
In my final piece for The Adelaide Review, I examine what we really make of freedom, fraud and poetry.
Inside History
'Point Puer Prison'
Apparently, at some point, locking children away in this remote prison seemed like a good idea.
'The Tea and Sugar'
A train that serviced the needs of fettlers and their families along the Nullarbor for decades.
'Lasseter's Reef'
The life and legend of Harold Lasseter and his elusive reef of gold.
Apparently, at some point, locking children away in this remote prison seemed like a good idea.
'The Tea and Sugar'
A train that serviced the needs of fettlers and their families along the Nullarbor for decades.
'Lasseter's Reef'
The life and legend of Harold Lasseter and his elusive reef of gold.
The Guardian
A piece written to coincide with the release of The Fierce Country. What do Australians make of their own country, its landscapes, its myths and stories? Are we in denial about where we live, out history, and how it's formed us (for better or worse)? Find out here.
Good Reading
'A Modest Discovery' (July 2016)
A tour of writers' houses in Dublin, London, Edinburgh and Berlin.
'Victor Hugo's Wallpaper' (April 2019)
The tour continues in Paris!
A tour of writers' houses in Dublin, London, Edinburgh and Berlin.
'Victor Hugo's Wallpaper' (April 2019)
The tour continues in Paris!
The Advertiser
'Great Expectations' (23 September 2010)
The story of South Australia's most talented politician, Kelly Vincent.
'Turn of Fate' (12 March 2011)
The tragedy of the loss of the Page family in the outback.
Boom Crash Opera - wrestling's back! (24 September 2011)
A night at Riot City Wrestling.
'Afterlife: the tour to die for' (10 December 2011)
Behind the scenes at Centennial Park cemetery.
'After Midnight' (25 February 2012)
When the sun sets and the offices are closed, a different cast of people come out on to the city's streets.
'Sachsenhausen' (May 2016)
A day at Hitler's first concentration camp is a sobering experience.
'What's Behind The Door?' (January 2018)
Scott McCarten spends his spare time scouring the state for images of the past.
The story of South Australia's most talented politician, Kelly Vincent.
'Turn of Fate' (12 March 2011)
The tragedy of the loss of the Page family in the outback.
Boom Crash Opera - wrestling's back! (24 September 2011)
A night at Riot City Wrestling.
'Afterlife: the tour to die for' (10 December 2011)
Behind the scenes at Centennial Park cemetery.
'After Midnight' (25 February 2012)
When the sun sets and the offices are closed, a different cast of people come out on to the city's streets.
'Sachsenhausen' (May 2016)
A day at Hitler's first concentration camp is a sobering experience.
'What's Behind The Door?' (January 2018)
Scott McCarten spends his spare time scouring the state for images of the past.
Indaily
Various articles here.
New Matilda
Various articles at www.newmatilda.com
