Thanks to all the Clift fans who became along to Better Read than Dead (Newtown) on the evening of 29 April to celebrate the republication of Charmian Clift’s Selected Essays.
In the first of a number of promotional events, I talked about the book with former ABC radio journalist Robyn Ravlich, whose award-winning body of work included a wonderful program about Charmian Clift.
This new edition of Charmian Clift’s essays is drawn from the weekly newspaper column Clift wrote through the turbulent and transformative years of the 1960s. In these ‘sneaky little revolutions’, as Clift once called them, she supported the rights of women and migrants, called for social justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, opposed conscription and the war in Vietnam, acknowledged Australia’s role in the Asia-Pacific, fought censorship, called for a local film industry — and much more. In doing so, she set a new benchmark for the form of the essay in Australian literature.
In Conversation with Robyn Ravlich about SNEAKY LITTLE REVOLUTIONS at Better Read than Dead, 29 April 2022
