Contents

The Art of the Dumb Question

PROLOGUE: Mr Tiarapu

Mr Tiarapu

PART ONE: A Scrapbook, An Album

The Schoolteacher

Why Does the Women Get All the Pain?

My Child in the World

Sad Grove by the Ocean

At Nine Darling Street

A Scrapbook, an Album

Wan, Tew, Three, Faw

Three Acres, More or Less

PART TWO: Sing For Your Supper

Patrick White: The Artist as Holy Monster

Sing for Your Supper

Cypresses and Spires: Writing for Film

Dreams, the Bible and Cosmo Cosmolino

Elizabeth Jolley’s War

Germaine Greer and the Menopause

On Turning Fifty

PART THREE: The Violet Jacket

At the Morgue

Sunday at the Gun Show

The Violet Jacket

Killing Daniel

The Fate of The First Stone

PART FOUR: Cruising

Cruising

Aqua Profonda

A Day at the Show

Five Train Trips

Beggars in New York

Marriage

Death

Labour Ward, Penrith