It’s been two years since publisher Louise Adler and Melbourne University Press pointedly parted ways. So it must have been with some measure of whiplash that some of Melbourne’s more prominent citizens received an invitation from Adler and MUP to launch Adler’s latest project.

Of course, not that MUP, one or two slips of the tongue aside. Monash University Publishing (same acronym, different outfit) asked Adler, now a professorial fellow at that university, to “curate” its new In The National Interest series. The first cohort of 20,000-word, pamphlet-like books on topics of national importance was launched last Thursday night at Melbourne’s RACV Club, to a mostly local audience that due to recent captivities hadn’t seen a canape in months.