The first sentence

‘Trying to write before you’re ready is like trying to squeeze toothpaste out of an empty tube,’ I wrote in exasperation after I allowed yet another day to...

Teleporting

I raided my local library and met Australian reporter Lynne O’Donnell. That is, I read her book. ‘High Tea in Mosul’ is the result of O’Donnell’s...

From the hard earth

In my garden, there is a patch of brown dirt that is unremarkable. My irrigation line doesn’t extend here so the earth starts to dry out in summer. By February fissures...

Unfinished business

“You’ll send me a copy, won’t you?” said Mr Malcolm Fraser to me as we stood at the door of his office, high above Collins Street in Melbourne. I...

Ancient civilisations meet

When I drove across Adelaide for my first interview with Sabah and Lamia from Iraq, I had fanciful ideas about 5000 years of Chinese civilisation meeting 5000 years of...

Button Boy

Students come and go, but some of them leave a mark on you. As my last day of teaching in an organisation draws near, I think back and remember. I remember the young man, the...

Refuge

During the summer break, I spent two weeks in Malaysia and Singapore. Going back home tends to make time lose meaning for me – no school drop offs, no rush hour –...