Adventures of a Girl Reporter
Nostalgia and its trimmings
I was born, as they say, under a wandering star. And the moving around has made it hard to hold on to any artefacts – my mementos, such as they exist, are small, easily carried […]
The Spackman Files
The Spackman Files
My spies through my little eyes
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 […]
Adventures of a Girl Reporter
Collard greens and Vegemite, it’s a cultural thing
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 […]
A Colonial Childhood
Little Red wolves in sheep’s clothing
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 […]
Adventures of a Girl Reporter
Shared rite of reporting passage – dealing with the nutjobs
Once upon a time the general public was largely shielded from the wilder shores of the nuttiness which affects each of us in its own degree. Those who frolic in the deeper end have always […]
The Spackman Files
The Curse of James
Francis James arrived in Hong Kong from Sydney in an ambulance one Friday night, with a briefcase full of greenbacks and a big jar of honey. He was on his way to Moscow to drink […]
Sport
When Spackman beat Gonzo in a gentleman’s sporting bet
Back in 1975 Hunter S. Thompson took in an historic game of cricket at the old Hong Kong Cricket Club and lost ten bucks to my father Jack Spackman. I was 12 years old when […]
Journalism
Tim Page keeps the faith
While some journalists defend the indefensible, others are out there reporting on it and too often losing their lives in the process.