When Linda Funnell and I began the online review journal the Newtown Review of Books (https://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au) seven years ago, we thought we would like a regular columnist to add interest to the site. We asked Peter if he would do it and from our first post in March 2012 he only ever missed a few weeks when he was hospitalised. He ended up writing over 300 columns for us, usually of about 500–600 words. Many of them were snippets from a writer’s life; others were discussions of books he had read or was reading; some were social or political commentary. Some were personal history. Some were reminiscences of people he had known who had somehow impressed him. We gave him carte blanche. The selection that follows centres mainly on writing or writing-related themes.

In the last few years of his life, when he could no longer write for extended periods, these columns were his only outlet. He hated missing deadlines and we usually had several columns up our sleeves. We still had one unpublished when he died.

—JB