Do we need more books by white male writers?

A furore over a bookseller’s claim that she has no books by men on the shelves anymore; update your writers festival diary and look out Qantas, Joe Aston is on your red tail.

See that prisoner number? Now look at it again, upside down. It’s being held by Phoebe Tonkin, who plays the mum in the Netflix adaptation of Boy Swallows Universe.

Welcome back to the Books pages. I’m saying that to myself, obviously. I enjoyed being a reader-for-pleasure over the holidays. My two favourites were How To Love Your Daughter by Israeli writer Hila Blum (opening scene: a woman looks through the window of her daughter’s apartment, trying to catch a glimpse of the two grandchildren she has never met. Good start, right?); and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (no it’s not about computer games! It’s about work. It’s about ambition. It’s about betrayal. Okay, it’s a little bit about computer games. But you absolutely have to read it. I know nothing about computer games. I haven’t played one since Donkey Kong. The book is still amazing, I promise.). I also adored You Could Make This Place Beautiful by poet Maggie Smith (the title comes from those real estate agents that walk you around total dumps, saying: ‘But it’s got good bones! You could make this place beautiful!’ Because don’t we all feel that way about life sometimes?) Anyway, it’s nice to be back. I have some big news about books to share with you this year, and I hope you will be here for it.

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You may have heard something about Robinson Books over the summer. The owner, Susanne Horman, found herself in strife after saying she wanted to see more books by men, as well as more books featuring men and boys, on her shelves. She expressed herself clumsily, suggesting that she was a bit over all the “rainbow” books and children’s books with kids in wheelchairs on the cover, but she’s not wrong about Australian publishers. They absolutely have been pushing books by female writers, who now take up practically all of the spots on the bestseller lists, as well as books by Indigenous writers, and writers from other minority groups (transgender writers, and so on). Publishers would say it’s righting a wrong. “Pale stale males” who can’t get a look in may well see it differently.

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It pains me to say that I had some awful mail over the holidays, including from people who should know better. Most of it was to do with the situation in the Middle East, people telling me I shouldn’t use this writer, or that one, because of their stance on the conflict. Listen, I run the Books pages. Obviously I won’t publish hate speech but I don’t see myself as a censor of other people’s opinions, which is another way of saying: please don’t come at me, asking for this person or that one to be fired because of something they said about the Middle East on Facebook, or Meta, or Twitter, or X, or whatever those sites are now calling themselves.

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Joe Aston has written a romance about Qantas under Alan Joyce. Not really. It’s actually a crime novel. Not really. It’s long form journalism, doubtless at its best.

Now I know I’m late to this, but Joe Aston has written a book. It’s going to be called The Chairman’s Lounge, and it’s about Qantas under Alan Joyce.

So it’s a crime novel, then.

No, I’m joking! But clearly, it’s not going to be a romance. I know Joe, a bit. He’s absolutely fearless, which is true of too few Australian writers these days, which is totally understandable. Our defamation laws are ridiculous. I do sometimes think, gee, you can’t say anything anymore, without being sued. Anyway, I spoke to Joe, and he says he chose the Qantas story as the one to tell in book form because “most Australians have regular contact with the Qantas brand at some level and have very strong feelings about it … It’s got the huge personalities too so the tale is absolutely loaded with ego, greed and folly.”

Simon & Schuster Australia says the book will be “explosive”. Publishing director Ben Ball says: “Joe’s prose is razor-sharp, funny and fearless … Like Michael Lewis, he has an eye for the telling detail and the mind for the big picture.”

Speaking of pictures, Joe’s had some new author shots taken. I’m told that he’s 40, so he’s clearly got an ageing portrait of himself in an attic somewhere, don’t you think?

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The Canberra Writers Festival is looking for a new CEO to work alongside the marvellous Beejay Silcox, who is artistic director and whose name many of you will know as a literary critic for these pages. She’s going to be reviewing Ceridwen Dovey’s new book for me, later this year. She’s otherwise up to her neck in all things planning. Go, you good thing.

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The line-up for the one-day literary event Words at Wagstaffe on the Central Coast of NSW has been announced. Apparently they intend to “drift to the darker side of the tracks” with crime writers like the mega-seller Michael Robotham andDan Box, author of The Man Who Wasn’t There, who will be chatting with Garry Linnell. The organisers say: “It’s truly criminal how good this line-up is.” Don’t groan! That line is so bad, it’s good. You will find more details online.

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Speaking of literary festivals, guess how many there are going to be this year? Too many to count, surely. Yet Jill Langhammer is giving it a shot on her website, Literary Listings, which she started after “being disappointed when missing literary events I’d not known about”.

“Victoria has a staggering 43 festivals planned, with 35 in New South Wales, 14 in Queensland, with Tassie, SA, WA, NT & ACT sharing the remaining dates,” she says, bringing the total up over 100. Two are brand new: Western Port Writes on the Mornington Peninsula (September) and the Manly Writers Festival in NSW (March). The latter has already released their guest list. The Queenscliffe Literary Festival has migrated to two weekends in October, and the Bendigo Writers Festival will be in August. Head to the website and start marking your calendars.

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Phoebe Tonkin plays Frances Bell in Boy Swallows Universe. Look at her prisoner number, upside down.

Guess which book returned to the top spot on the Bestsellers list over summer? Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton of course. The novel returned to the charts on the back of the Netflix series, which is getting rave reviews about the world (even The New York Times has weighed in on what they called “a gritty coming-of-age in 1980s Australia.)

If you haven’t yet binged, what’s stopping you? The setting is beautiful suburban Brisbane, which hasn’t changed in forty years. Nerdy types should look out for so-called Easter eggs (meaning, little in-jokes, or surprises, hidden across the various episodes.) One example: take a look at the prisoner number, as held by Phoebe Tonkin, who plays Frances Bell, who is the Mum in the book. Now look at it upside down.

Clever, right? Many female prisoners have nowhere to go after they get out; homelessness was often part of their experience before they went in. Homelessness is the theme of Dalton’s newest novel, Lola in the Mirror.

That prison number has Dalton’s fingerprints all over it. Speaking of Dalton, he makes a cameo! You can see it at my Instagram @overingtonc.

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Annette Bening as Joy, Jake Lacy as Troy, Sam Neill as Stan in Apples Never Fall, based on the book by Liane Moriarty.

Speaking of adaptations, don’t miss Apples Never Fall, based on the novel about a toxic tennis family by Liane Moriarty, streaming on Binge from March 14.

Sam Neill’s in it.

To quote Bob Dylan, I’d see him in anything.

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Jessica Alice has been announced as the new Byron Bay writers’ festival director

Back to festivals, the Byron Writers Festival has recruited a new artistic director, and it’s the brilliant Jessica Alice, who will join the organisation in February. The festival will take place at the Bangalow Showgrounds between August 9-11.

Alice has been working in Adelaide, where she’s been CEO of Writers SA, chair of the Arts Industry Council of South Australia and chair of the National Young Writers Festival.

 Byron’s festival moved to Bangalow for a host of complicated reasons last year, and apparently the crowds quite liked being in the shade of the majestic gum trees, so that’s where the festival will stay this year.

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Still with festivals, who is the surprise Australian guest at this year’s Jaipur Literary Festival? None other than Australia’s 29th prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

From the program: “As a young lawyer, Mr Turnbull successfully defended former MI5 agent Peter Wright against the British Government in the 1986 Spycatcher trial before running his own investment banking firm ... As Prime Minister, he reformed Australia’s personal income tax, education and childcare systems, oversaw the legalisation of same-sex marriage and announced the construction of Snowy Hydro 2.0, the biggest pumped hydro scheme in the southern hemisphere.”

He will be in conversation with Navdeep Suri on the topic: Fossil Free: Energizing India, plus he will be talking the New Indo-Pacific Vision, and probably not about the Abbott government, although he doesn’t seem to be able to help himself there, does he?

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Today’s pages: welcome back Peter Craven, writing on Raimond Gaita. Welcome back Samuel Bernard, who has rounded up some Notable Books.

We have an extract from a book by Rodney Syme, who died in 2021. Syme was a medical doctor. He was also a fierce proponent of euthanasia, and wanted the so-called right-to-die extended to patients with dementia, as well as to the “frailed aged” who may not be sick, but believe their lives to be complete. It’s a tricky topic, but take a read, and let me know what you think on Instagram at @overingtonc or by email at [e-mail].

Happy reading everyone.