Eucalyptus (novel)
''Eucalyptus'' is a 1998 novel by Australian novelist Murray Bail. The book won the 1999 Miles Franklin Award and the 1999 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Plot introduction ''Eucalyptus'' tells the story of ''Ellen Holland'', a young woman whose "speckled beauty" and unattainability become legend far beyond the rural western New South Wales town near the property where she grows up. Her protective father's obsession with collecting rare species of Eucalyptus trees leads him to propose a contest - the man who can correctly name all the species on his property shall win her hand in marriage. Thematic concerns The novel contrasts a detailed, scientific classifying of Eucalyptus trees, with the story of Ellen told from a parodied fairy tale perspective. This fits well with Bail’s status as a writer of fiction and non-fiction. The novel begins with a discussion of Australian culture “the poetic virtues which have their origins in the bush of being belted about by droughts, bushfires ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Murray Bail
Murray Bail (born 22 September 1941) is an Australian writer of novels, short stories and non-fiction. In 1980 he shared the Age Book of the Year award for his novel ''Homesickness.'' He was born in Adelaide, South Australia. He has lived most of his life in Australia except for sojourns in India (1968–70) and England and Europe (1970–74). He lives in Sydney. He was trustee of the National Gallery of Australia from 1976 to 1981 and wrote a book on Australian artist Ian Fairweather. A portrait of Bail by the artist Fred Williams is hung in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. The portrait was done while both Williams and Bail were Council members of the National Gallery of Australia. Career He is most well known for ''Eucalyptus'', which won the Miles Franklin Award in 1999. His other work includes the novels ''Homesickness'', which was a joint winner of The Age Book of the Year in 1980, and ''Holden's Performance'', another award-winner. Reviewers recently compa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bryce Dallas Howard
Bryce Dallas Howard (born March 2, 1981) is an American actress and director. Howard was born in Los Angeles and attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, initially leaving in 2002 to take roles on Broadway but officially graduating in 2020. While portraying Rosalind in a 2003 production of '' As You Like It'', Howard caught the attention of director M. Night Shyamalan, who cast her as the blind daughter of a local chief in the psychological thriller '' The Village'' (2004). She later starred in the leading role of a naiad who escapes from a fantasy world in Shyamalan's fantasy thriller ''Lady in the Water'' (2006). Howard's performance in Kenneth Branagh's '' As You Like It'' (2006) earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination and she subsequently appeared as Gwen Stacy in Sam Raimi's superhero film '' Spider-Man 3'' (2007). She went on to appear as Kate Connor in the action film ''Terminator Salvation'' (2009) and as Victoria in the fantasy film '' The Twilig ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1998 Australian Novels
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon's poles. * January 11 – Over 100 people are killed in the Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria. * January 12 – Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning. * January 17 – The ''Drudge Report'' breaks the story about U.S. President Bill Clinton's alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky, which will lead to the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives' impeachment of him. February * February 3 – Cavalese cable car disaster (1998), Cavalese cable car disaster: A United States military pilot causes the deaths of 20 people near Trento, Italy, when his low-flying EA-6B Prowler severs the cable of a cable-car. * February 4 – The 5.9 February 1998 Afghanistan earthquake, Afghanistan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1999 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1999. Events *May 1 – Andrew Motion is appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom for ten years. *June 19 – Stephen King is hit by a van while taking a walk. He is hospitalized for three weeks and only resumes writing his next book, '' On Writing'', in July. *September 7 – Black Diamond, designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, is inaugurated as an extension to the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen. *''unknown date'' – Persephone Books is founded in Bloomsbury, London, by Nicola Beauman, to reprint mid-20th century fiction and non-fiction, mainly by women. New books Fiction *Isabel Allende – ''Daughter of Fortune (Hija de la fortuna)'' *Aaron Allston **''Solo Command'' **''Starfighters of Adumar'' *Laurie Halse Anderson – '' Speak'' *Max Barry – ''Syrup'' *Greg Bear – ''Darwin's Radio'' * Raymond Benson **''High Time to Kill'' **''The World Is Not Enough'' *Maeve Binchy â ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Benang
''Benang: From the Heart'' is a 1999 Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Australian author Kim Scott. The award was shared with ''Drylands'' by Thea Astley. Context of Novel One of the main contexts in the novel deals with the process of "breeding out the colour". This was a process in which children were forcibly removed from their homes and assimilated into the white Australian society. These children were forced to "breed" with white Australians in order to lessen the appearance of the Aboriginal in them. It was believed that through this continuous process that eventually there would be no trace of Aboriginal in the future generations. Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, A. O. Neville, was a key player in this process and he believed that it would work. This process occurred due to the government's inability to classify mixed children for the government system, as well as their fear of what mixing would do for the society. It was originally claimed that ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Drylands (novel)
''Drylands'' (1999) (subtitled "A Book for the World's Last Reader") is a Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Australian author Thea Astley. This novel shared the award with ''Benang'' by Kim Scott. Awards *Miles Franklin Literary Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–19 ..., 2000: joint winner * Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Best Fiction Book, 2000: winner Review * * Kerryn Goldsworthy: "''Drylands'' is Astley's ''Waste Land'', with a cast of exhausted and alienated characters wandering through it in the death-grip of entropy, pursued by '' fin-de-siècle'' furies and other personifications of failure and defeat. In the small town of Drylands there are no fragments shored against anybody's ruin (well, there are, but even the fragments get vandalized and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jack Maggs
''Jack Maggs'' (1997) is a novel by Australian novelist Peter Carey. Plot summary Set in 19th century London, ''Jack Maggs'' is a reworking of the Charles Dickens novel ''Great Expectations''. The story centres around Jack Maggs (the equivalent of Magwitch) and his quest to meet his 'son' Henry Phipps (the equivalent of Pip), who has mysteriously disappeared, having closed up his house and dismissed his household. Maggs becomes involved as a servant in the household of Phipps's neighbour, Percy Buckle, as he attempts to wait out Phipps or find him in the streets of London. He eventually cuts a deal with the young and broke up-and-coming novelist Tobias Oates (a thinly disguised Charles Dickens) that he hopes will lead him to Phipps. Oates, however, has other plans, as he finds in Maggs a character from whom to draw much needed inspiration for a forthcoming novel which he desperately needs to produce. Critical reception Hermione Lee called the book "an imaginative and daring ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jonathan Mills (composer)
Sir Jonathan Mills AO FRSE (born 21 March 1963) is an Australian composer and festival director. He was born and raised in Sydney and has dual Australian and UK citizenship. His work includes two operas, an oratorio, a ballet, song cycles, concertos, and chamber music.Fowler, Prof Will, 28 June 2013University of St Andrews, Laureation address: Sir Jonathan Edward Harland Mills. Retrieved 23 April 2014 He has directed a number of arts festivals in Australia, and from 2006 to 2014 he was director of the Edinburgh International Festival. Biography Jonathan Edward Harland Mills was born in Sydney on 21 March 1963.''The Guardian'', 3 August 2007Profile: Jonathan Mills Retrieved 23 April 2014 He has Scottish roots, his maternal grandfather having been a Scot from Partick, and he has dual Australian and British citizenship. His father, Frank Harland Mills AO (1910–2008), was a heart surgeon. He gained a Bachelor of Music in composition from the University of Sydney in 1984, where h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fred Schepisi
Frederic Alan Schepisi ( ; Kael, Pauline (1984). ''Taking It All In''. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. p. 55. born 26 December 1939) is an Australian film director, producer and screenwriter. His credits include ''The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith'', '' Plenty'', '' Roxanne'', ''A Cry in the Dark'', '' Mr. Baseball'', ''Six Degrees of Separation'', and ''Last Orders''. Life and career Frederic Alan Schepisi was born in Melbourne, the son of Loretto Ellen (née Hare) and Frederic Thomas Schepisi, who was a fruit dealer and car salesman of Italian descent."Fred Schepisi Biography (1939– )" FilmReference.com. Retrieved 16 September 2011. He began his career in advertising and directed both commercials and documentaries before making his first feature film, '' [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Last Orders
''Last Orders'' is a 1996 novel by British writer Graham Swift. The book won the 1996 Booker Prize. In 2001, it was adapted for the film ''Last Orders'' by Australian writer and director Fred Schepisi. Plot The story makes much use of flashbacks to tell the convoluted story of the relationships between a group of war veterans who live in the same corner of London, the backbone of the story being the journey of the group from Bermondsey to Margate to scatter the ashes of Jack Dodds into the sea, in accord with his last wishes. The narrative is split into short sections told by the main characters as well as updates along the journey at Old Kent Road, New Cross, Blackheath, Dartford, Gravesend, Rochester, Chatham Naval Memorial and Canterbury Cathedral. The title 'Last Orders' not only refers to these instructions as stipulated in Jack Dodd's will, but also alludes to the ' last orders (of the day)' - the last round of drinks to be ordered before a pub closes, as drinking was a f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford (; born 16 August 1940) is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 50-year career, both locally and internationally in the United States. Beresford's notable films he has directed include ''Breaker Morant'' (1980), ''Tender Mercies'' (1983), ''Crimes of the Heart'' (1986) and the multiple Academy Award winning ''Driving Miss Daisy'' (1989). Biography Early life Beresford was born in Paddington, New South Wales, the son of Lona (née Warr) and Leslie Beresford, who sold electrical goods. He grew up in the then outer-western suburb of Toongabbie, and went to The King's School, Parramatta. He made several short films in his teens including ''The Hunter'' (1959).Stated in a 2007 interview on Radio National in Australia (oLate Night Live Sydney University He completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English at the University of Sydney, where he graduated in 1964. While at university he made the short film ''The Devil to Pay'' (196 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Driving Miss Daisy
'' Driving Miss Daisy'' is a 1989 American comedy-drama film directed by Bruce Beresford and written by Alfred Uhry, based on his 1987 play of the same name. The film stars Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman, and Dan Aykroyd. Freeman reprised his role from the original Off-Broadway production. The story defines Daisy and her point of view through a network of relationships and emotions by focusing on her home life, synagogue, friends, family, fears, and concerns over a twenty-five-year period. ''Driving Miss Daisy'' was a critical and commercial success upon its release and at the 62nd Academy Awards received nine nominations, and won four: Best Picture, Best Actress (for Tandy), Best Makeup, and Best Adapted Screenplay. , it is the most recent PG-rated film to have won Best Picture. Plot In 1948, Daisy Werthan, or Miss Daisy, a 72-year-old wealthy, Jewish, widowed, retired schoolteacher, lives alone in Atlanta, Georgia, except for a black housekeeper, Idella. When Miss Dai ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |