This section of the site is now complete in that I don’t currently have any intention of going beyond the 38 essays offered below. Some readers will be aware that the first 20 essays have now appeared in book form as The Well in the Shadow: a writer’s journey through Australian literature, Transit Lounge, Melbourne 2010. I wish to thank Barry Scott, publisher at Transit Lounge for making this possible, and the Australia Council for some much appreciated financial assistance.

A second set of 18 essays, collectively entitled Truthful Fictions (a name borrowed from Jessica Anderson’s Tirra Lirra by the River), is offered below, and I hope that this collection will also appear in book form but must wait to see the commercial success or otherwise of The Well in the Shadow.

Please note that work is continuing on the translation of the twenty essays in The Well in the Shadow. The translator is Gong Jing (Serene) of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. Thirteen of the twenty essays are currently available. The availability of a translation is indicated under the ‘Download’ button on each page or via the Translations section assessable through the navigation panels.