This week on The ABR Podcast, Lucy Sussex reviews The Stained Man by Patrick Mullins, a biography of the first Labor Lord Mayor of Sydney, Richard Meagher. Mullins’s book is a ‘genuinely riveting and fascinating’ account of Meagher’s ‘mania for restitution’ following his scandalous errors of judgement as a prominent lawyer. Disbarred after his unethical defence of George Dean, a ferryman accused of poisoning his wife, Meagher sought a second career under the lights of the political stage. Meagher was a ‘rogue’ who ‘loved that drug’ of celebrity, Sussex writes.

Lucy Sussex is a lecturer at La Trobe University who has both written and edited several anthologies of short fiction. She is the author of Outrageous Fortunes: The adventures of Mary Fortune, crime-writer, and her criminal son George, published in 2025.

‘The lie and the law: The biography of a rogue’ by Lucy Sussex is published in the July issue of ABR.

This week on&nbsp;The ABR Podcast, Lucy Sussex reviews The Stained Man by Patrick Mullins, a biography of the first Labor Lord Mayor of Sydney, Richard Meagher. Mullins&rsquo;s book is a &lsquo;genuinely riveting and fascinating&rsquo; account of Meagher&rsquo;s &lsquo;mania for restitution&rsquo; following his scandalous errors of judgement as a prominent lawyer. Disbarred after his unethical defence of George Dean, a ferryman accused of poisoning his wife, Meagher sought a second career under the lights of the political stage. Meagher was a &lsquo;rogue&rsquo; who &lsquo;loved that drug&rsquo; of celebrity, Sussex writes.
Lucy Sussex is a lecturer at La Trobe University who has both written and edited several anthologies of short fiction. She is the author of Outrageous Fortunes: The adventures of Mary Fortune, crime-writer, and her criminal son George, published in 2025.
&lsquo;The lie and the law: The biography of a rogue&rsquo; by Lucy Sussex is published in the July issue of&nbsp;ABR.

Welcome to The ABR Podcast, produced by Australian Book Review. Released every Thursday, The ABR Podcast features a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.

For more information about ABR, visit our website, www.australianbookreview.com.au

Welcome to The ABR Podcast, produced by Australian Book Review. Released every Thursday, The ABR Podcast features a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.
For more information about&nbsp;ABR, visit our website, <a href="http://www.australianbookreview.com.au">www.australianbookreview.com.au</a>

Welcome to The ABR Podcast, produced by Australian Book Review. Released every Thursday, The ABR Podcast features a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.

The ABR Podcast

ABR is delighted to introduce its brand-new podcast, The ABR Podcast.

Released fortnightly every Wednesday, The ABR Podcast will feature a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on the iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.

ABR&nbsp;is delighted to introduce its brand-new podcast,&nbsp;The ABR Podcast.
Released fortnightly every Wednesday,&nbsp;The ABR Podcast&nbsp;will feature a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary. Subscribe on the iTunes, Google, or Spotify Podcasts, or whichever app you use to listen to your favourite podcasts.

This week on The ABR Podcast, Lucy Sussex reviews The Stained Man by Patrick Mullins, a biography of the first Labor Lord Mayor of Sydney, Richard Meagher. Mullins’s book is a ‘genuinely riveting and fascinating’ account of Meagher’s ‘mania for restitution’ following his scandalous errors of judgement as a prominent lawyer. Disbarred after his unethical defence of George Dean, a ferryman accused of poisoning his wife, Meagher sought a second career under the lights of the political stage. Meagher was a ‘rogue’ who ‘loved that drug’ of celebrity, Sussex writes. Lucy Sussex is a lecturer at La Trobe University who has both written and edited several anthologies of short fiction. She is the author of Outrageous Fortunes: The adventures of Mary Fortune, crime-writer, and her criminal son George, published in 2025. Here is Lucy Sussex with ‘The lie and the law: The biography of a rogue’, published in the July issue of ABR.

‘The lie and the law: The biography of a rogue’ by Lucy Sussex

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature Elise Westin’s essay, titled ‘The architecture of erasure’. The third-place winner of the 2026 Calibre Essay Prize, ‘The architecture of erasure’ merges personal intimacy with an examination of the systematic Soviet erasure of Ukrainians. Westin recounts her inability to find records of her great-grandparents’ names at the Holodomor memorial in Kyiv. ‘Erasure is deliberate’, she writes. Her essay is freighted with urgency: ‘When you lose a record of the past, you risk repeating its vulnerabilities.’

Elise Westin is an Australian writer whose work explores identity in the afterlives of displacement. Her poetry was longlisted for the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, while her prose has appeared in The Saltbush Review and Kindling, and was performed at the International Association of Genocide Scholars conference.

Here is Elise Westin with ‘The architecture of erasure’, published in the July issue of ABR.

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature Elise Westin&rsquo;s essay, titled &lsquo;The architecture of erasure&rsquo;. The third-place winner of the 2026 Calibre Essay Prize, &lsquo;The architecture of erasure&rsquo; merges personal intimacy with an examination of the systematic Soviet erasure of Ukrainians. Westin recounts her inability to find records of her great-grandparents&rsquo; names at the Holodomor memorial in Kyiv. &lsquo;Erasure is deliberate&rsquo;, she writes. Her essay is freighted with urgency: &lsquo;When you lose a record of the past, you risk repeating its vulnerabilities.&rsquo;
Elise Westin is an Australian writer whose work explores identity in the afterlives of displacement. Her poetry was longlisted for the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, while her prose has appeared in&nbsp;The Saltbush Review&nbsp;and&nbsp;Kindling, and was performed at the International Association of Genocide Scholars conference.
Here is Elise Westin with &lsquo;The architecture of erasure&rsquo;, published in the July issue of ABR.

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature Elise Westin’s essay, titled ‘The architecture of erasure’. The third-place winner of the 2026 Calibre Essay Prize, ‘The architecture of erasure’ merges personal intimacy with an examination of the systematic Soviet erasure of Ukrainians. Westin recounts her inability to find records of her great-grandparents’ names at the Holodomor memorial in Kyiv. ‘Erasure is deliberate’, she writes. Her essay is freighted with urgency: ‘When you lose a record of the past, you risk repeating its vulnerabilities.’ Elise Westin is an Australian writer whose work explores identity in the afterlives of displacement. Her poetry was longlisted for the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, while her prose has appeared in The Saltbush Review and Kindling, and was performed at the International Association of Genocide Scholars conference. Here is Elise Westin with ‘The architecture of erasure’, published in the July issue of ABR.

‘The architecture of erasure’ by Elise Westin

This week, on The ABR Podcast, Jessica White reviews Crip Stories: An anthology of disabled writers that attempts to ‘represent as wide a variety of multiply marginalised disabled experiences as possible’. The writing collected in this book is multivalent, taking a ‘welcome intersectional approach to anthologising’. Yet, despite growing interest in disabled people’s writing, White notes, we are still far from an ‘accessible disabled literary utopia’. ‘In a world of increasing homogenisation,’ White points out, ‘disabled people’s writing remains a refreshing reminder of the creativity that our bodies generate.’

Jessica White is a Deaf author and academic living on Kaurna country. She has published two novels, as well as a hybrid memoir about deafness in 2019, Hearing Maud, which won the Michael Crouch Award for a début work of biography and was shortlisted for four major literary awards. Her most recent work is Silence is my Habitat: Ecobiographical essays (2025). White is Associate Professor in Creative Writing and Literary Studies at Adelaide University.

Here is Jessica White with ‘And yet: Towards disabled literary utopia’, published in the July issue of ABR.

This week, on The ABR Podcast, Jessica White reviews Crip Stories: An anthology of disabled writers that attempts to &lsquo;represent as wide a variety of multiply marginalised disabled experiences as possible&rsquo;. The writing collected in this book is multivalent, taking a &lsquo;welcome intersectional approach to anthologising&rsquo;. Yet, despite growing interest in disabled people&rsquo;s writing, White notes, we are still far from an &lsquo;accessible disabled literary utopia&rsquo;. &lsquo;In a world of increasing homogenisation,&rsquo; White points out, &lsquo;disabled people&rsquo;s writing remains a refreshing reminder of the creativity that our bodies generate.&rsquo;
Jessica White is a Deaf author and academic living on Kaurna country. She has published two novels, as well as a hybrid memoir about deafness in 2019,&nbsp;Hearing Maud, which won the Michael Crouch Award for a d&eacute;but work of biography and was shortlisted for four major literary awards. Her most recent work is&nbsp;Silence is my Habitat: Ecobiographical essays&nbsp;(2025). White is Associate Professor in Creative Writing and Literary Studies at Adelaide University.
Here is Jessica White with &lsquo;And yet: Towards disabled literary utopia&rsquo;, published in the July issue of ABR.

This week, on The ABR Podcast, Jessica White reviews Crip Stories: An anthology of disabled writers that attempts to ‘represent as wide a variety of multiply marginalised disabled experiences as possible’. The writing collected in this book is multivalent, taking a ‘welcome intersectional approach to anthologising’. Yet, despite growing interest in disabled people’s writing, White notes, we are still far from an ‘accessible disabled literary utopia’. ‘In a world of increasing homogenisation,’ White points out, ‘disabled people’s writing remains a refreshing reminder of the creativity that our bodies generate.’ Jessica White is a Deaf author and academic living on Kaurna country. She has published two novels, as well as a hybrid memoir about deafness in 2019, Hearing Maud, which won the Michael Crouch Award for a début work of biography and was shortlisted for four major literary awards. Her most recent work is Silence is my Habitat: Ecobiographical essays (2025). White is Associate Professor in Creative Writing and Literary Studies at Adelaide University. Here is Jessica White with ‘And yet: Towards disabled literary utopia’, published in the July issue of ABR.

‘And yet: Towards disabled literary utopia’ by Jessica White

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature Clinton Fernandes’s commentary titled ‘“Depths that we today are barely able to imagine”: The quality of disinterestedness on the 250th anniversary of the United States of America’. Noting that the Trump Cabinet is ‘the wealthiest in modern history, with thirteen billionaires and a combined net worth of US$60 billion’, Fernandes asks, ‘How does Trump’s America compare to the America that adopted the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776?’ The new republic’s leaders were ‘disinterested gentlemen’ – impartial, committed to the public good, ‘free of interested ties’, and ‘paid by no masters’. Today, Fernandes writes, ‘Young voters do not look at our politics and see any good guys. They see a dying empire led by bad guys.’

Clinton Fernandes is part of the University of New South Wales’s Future Operations Research Group, which analyses the threats, risks, and opportunities that military forces will face in the future. He is a former intelligence officer in the Australian Army.

‘“Depths that we today are barely able to imagine”: The quality of disinterestedness on the 250th anniversary of the United States of America’ by Clinton Fernandes is published in the July issue of ABR.

This week on The ABR Podcast, we feature Clinton Fernandes&rsquo;s commentary titled &lsquo;&ldquo;Depths that we today are barely able to imagine&rdquo;: The quality of disinterestedness on the 250th anniversary of the United States of America&rsquo;. Noting that the Trump Cabinet is &lsquo;the wealthiest in modern history, with thirteen billionaires and a combined net worth of US$60 billion&rsquo;, Fernandes asks, &lsquo;How does Trump&rsquo;s America compare to the America that adopted the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776?&rsquo; The new republic&rsquo;s leaders were &lsquo;disinterested gentlemen&rsquo; &ndash; impartial, committed to the public good, &lsquo;free of interested ties&rsquo;, and &lsquo;paid by no masters&rsquo;. Today, Fernandes writes, &lsquo;Young voters do not look at our politics and see any good guys. They see a dying empire led by bad guys.&rsquo;
Clinton Fernandes&nbsp;is part of the University of New South Wales&rsquo;s Future Operations Research Group, which analyses the threats, risks, and opportunities that military forces will face in the future. He is a former intelligence officer in the Australian Army.
&lsquo;&ldquo;Depths that we today are barely able to imagine&rdquo;: The quality of disinterestedness on the 250th anniversary of the United States of America&rsquo; by Clinton Fernandes is published in the <a href="index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=32867:depths-that-we-today-are-barely-able-to-imagine-the-quality-of-disinterestedness-on-the-250th-anniversary-of-the-united-states-by-clinton-fernandes&amp;catid=1639:july-2026-no-488&amp;Itemid=416">July issue of ABR</a>.

‘“Depths that we today are barely able to imagine”: The quality of disinterestedness on the 250th anniversary of the United States of America’ by Clinton Fernandes | The ABR Podcast #282

‘The lie and the law: The biography of a rogue’ by Lucy Sussex

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