The 2007 Labor campaign was the most presidential in Australian history, with a slogan - Kevin07 - exceeded in its banality only by its success.
Look at the history of literature, and you find the history of beauty on the one hand and the IOUs on the other.
I was struck by the way Europeans see history as something neatly linear. For me, it's not that; it's not some kind of straight railway.
I think all novels are contemporary. When people went to see 'Antony-Cleopatra' at the Globe in the 16th century, they were not going to get a history lesson on the Roman Empire. It was about love, sex, and also about dynastic troubles.
History, like journalism, is ever a journey outwards, and you must report back what you find and no more.
John Howard, willing to apologise to home owners for rising interest rates, would not say sorry to Aborigines. He refused to condone what he referred to as 'a black armband version' of history, preferring a jingoistic nationalism.