Australia’s ‘asylum seeker issue’ has been pushed off our front pages lately. The Abbott government’s early Christmas presents to school children, car workers, aged care workers, child care workers and low-paid workers of all stripes […]
I spent a good chunk of my childhood reading trashy spy novels in the reading room of Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents Club, oblivious to the real spies who may… or may not… have been drinking […]
Arthur Hacker single-handedly brought civic pride to a Hong Kong generation. It’s impossible to overstate the impact of his creation Lap Sap Chung (literally Litter Worm) on the city in the 1970s. Hong Kong, it […]
When official sources fail, good journalists shine. One of the best was the BBC’s Anthony Lawrence, who died in Hong Kong in September 2013 at the venerable age of 101. One of his greatest stories is an example […]
I don’t know much about golf, but when Adam Scott won the US Masters in 2013 I did know that he would have the honour of choosing the menu for the following year’s Champions Dinner. A cultural […]
My record on picking election winners is poor at best so I’m happy to leave that effort to others. All I have to do is decide who to vote for. It’s an opportunity I haven’t […]
Of all the things I saw during my visit to Rome, nothing moved me more than Bernini’s magnificent sculpture of the Rape of Persephone. Like all my favourite works of art, it drags the viewer […]
When the Spackman family shipped up in Hong Kong, February 1967, we arrived at a turbulent time in the little colony’s history. The Cultural Revolution in China was in full swing and by May had […]
Pity the poor journalist. For every pompous hack filing his or her daily lecture to the nation, there are countless others trying to do more and more every day with less and less. At the […]
When my youngest daughter the Little Chef stood up to an example of Everyday Sexism, she soon discovered she wasn’t alone. Sometimes all you need is an invitation. I was both chilled and thrilled when […]
Copyright: Maria Spackman
