What they say about Pandanus Books

Samurai in the Surf

by Joe Hajdu    Winner of the NSW Premier's Regional History Prize

'Gold Coast and the power of the yen'

'Joe Hajdu, author of Samurai in the Surf, a history of Japanese investment on the Gold Coast,  believes the nature of Japanese investment fundamentally changed the region south of Brisbane.

 ''Having the Japanese there on the coast gave them an overseas investment base for the first time,'' he said. ''They expected the best; they were au fait  with places like Hawaii and California, and they expected the same on the Gold Coast...There were older people...who felt that what the Japanese didn't get with tanks and guns during the War, they were getting now with cheque books.'''

The Australian, 3 March 2005

Journeys in a Small Canoe

by Lloyd Maepeza Gina, edited by Judith A. Bennett and Khyla J. Russell

'Lloyd Maepeza Gina was selected the first speaker of the National Parliament in 1978, the year the Solomon Islands gained  political independence from Britain... the large body of knowledge exhibited by the author...narrated with depth, clarity and originality—is something the serious and cross-cultural-minded reader will not want to miss...for readers looking for an autobiograph y free of supercilious and pompous jargon, one instead narrated from the heart with humility and simplicity, this one qualifies with high marks. '

Journal of the Polynesian Society 114 (1) March 2005         

Speight of Violence

Inside Fiji's 2000 Coup

by Michael Field, Tupeni Baba and Unaisi Nabobo-Baba 

'Fiji illustrates the South Pacific's "hell in paradise" theme vividly with its two coups in 1987 (led by Sitiveni Rabuka) and the even worse misfortunes of the Chaudhry Government in May 2000 at the han ds of the notorious George Speight. This book seeks to shed light on the violent overthrow of Fiji's elected government by Speight and his gang of armed thugs. It does so by offering three "voices", each narrating the events from an individual perspective... The central aim of the book is to ask whether Speight was acting of his own accord or as a front for more sinister forces in Fijian society...Speight of Violence  is a wake-up call to the international community. The South Pacific is rapidly becoming a new "heart of darkness".'

Australian Book Review, October 2005

©  https://www.dianagieseeditorial.com.au/

What they say about Pandanus Books

Day of Reckoning

by Lachlan Strahan 

shortlisted for the NSW Premier's History Award

 'Lachlan Strahan...has written a revealing book about a court case that began with some Chinese labourers beating up a Melanesian on an American military base on Manus Island in 1948. The case eventually wound up in the High Court of Australia in a jurisdictional battle involving Australia, China and the United States... Day of Reckoning examines how Australia tried to re-establish its authority and the rule of law in PNG after the end of World War II.'

Sean Dorney, interviewing the author on Radio Australia, 27 February 2006

'At the end of World War II, the Americans had millions of dollars of army surplus equipment lying around the Pacific . They sold $800 million of equipment on Manus Island, which had recently returned to Australian administration, to the Chinese Nationalists. T ension between Australian administrators, the Chinese contractors and Manus people exploded when four Chinese beat and tortured a 15-year-old Islander. It became a major inte rnational issue of jurisdiction...meticulously researched...a fascinating insight into racism, international politics and the Australian administration of Papua New Guinea immediately after World War  II.'

Bruce Elder, The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 December 2005

'The cases take place in four places: Lae, Kaiapit, Manus and Morotai...The book is not so much about these crimes as about the wider circumstances of post-War Asia-Pacific international relatio ns...Lachlan Strahan...teases out the nuances and implications of these cases, while giving what can only be called "thick description" of the events. The court material has enabled an incredibly detailed text to emerge, in which every minute twist and turn is followed  in an almost forensic way...like a good detective story, it is worth persevering until the end where many emerging themes are tied together, and there is a quite fascinating update on the histories of  the various officials involved...a strength of the book is the international and diplomatic perspective that links through to a nervous Australia making sure that its sovereignty is upheld in New Guinea, against the bullying of the American Allies , within a context of emerging relations with China, the Philippines and Indonesia...Lachlan Strahan has managed to get under the colonial skin of the 1940s and provide us with a broad, but often quite indirect, analysis of both international politics, diplomacy and human behaviour, as well as providing a close vie w of legal processes, which emerge reassuringly strong.'

Clive Moore, History Australia 3 (1), 2006

'Dr Strahan has written a voluminous account of administrative negotiations from local to Embassy level, court room conflicts and cross-cultural clashes in a place and period rarely examined...fifty-eight years after [these events] readers will observe that the country was then being run by a handful of overworked staff who certainly didn't need problems with international ramifications. Yet within ten years a  functioning Public Service had been created of which most members could be modestly proud.'

J.B. Toner, Una Voce, March 2006

©  https://www.dianagieseeditorial.com.au

Pandanus Books

Media 2006

Venom by Dorothy Horsfield

Preview of 2006 books, The Weekend Australian, 31 December-1 January

Author profile, ACT Writers' Centre Newsletter, February 

Interview, Stateline, ABC TV, Canberra, 26 March 2006

Interview, ABC Radio, Canberra, 30 March 

Review, Virginia Cook, Books program, ABC Radio Canberra, 30 March

Review, The Weekend Australian, 4-5 March

Review, The Canberra Times, 11 March

Review, The Courier-Mail, 25 March

Review, Gleebooks Gleaner, April

Mark Riley's Diary, Sunrise, Channel 7, 2 April

Interview, Margaret Throsby, ABC Classic FM, 27 April

Interview, ABC Radio Perth, Afternoon

Review, Good Reading Magazine, June

Review, API Review of Books, July

Strike by David Campbell, edited by John Thompson

Feature, The Queensland News, March

Interview, ABC Radio Adelaide, for Anzac Day

Interview, Warren Boland, ABC Radio Statewide, for Anzac Day

Review, The Weekend Australian, 1-2 April

Serialised on The Book Reading, ABC Radio National, from May

Born of the Sun by Gerald Walsh

Review, The Bulletin, 31 January 

Discussion, Radio 2GB, 27 January

Review, The Wesleyan, and Radio 2GB, January

Interview, Peter Goers, ABC Radio Adelaide, 15 February 

Article and give-away, The Queensland Times, 22 February 

Review, The Courier-Mail, March

Review, The Canberra Times, 4 March 2006

Interview, Mark Darko, ABC Hobart, March

Review, International Journal of History of Sport, forthcoming

Review, Sport in History, forthcoming

Review, Australian Book Review, April

Review, Townsville Bulletin, 5 May

Sunday Menu by Pham Thi Hoai, translated by Ton That Quynh Du

Announcement of launch and news item, Tivi Tuansan Vietnamese newspaper,

Melbourne

Launch notice, SBS Radio, Sydney

Nhan Quyen Vietnamese newspaper

Review, Dan Duffy, Vietnamese Literature Project discussion group Website, USA

Review, Journal of Vietnamese Studies, California

Interview, Radio Australia, April

Interview with Peter Mares, The Book Show, ABC Radio National, April

Review, Australian Book Review, May

Shadow Thief by Marion M. Campbell

Review, Gleebooks Gleaner, May

Review, Wet Ink, May

Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, 3-4 June

Review, API Review of Books, 19 June

Review, The Bulletin, 20 June

Review, The West Australian, 1 July

Review, The Age,15 July

Panel discussion from the Melbourne Writers' Festival, The Book Show, 

ABC Radio National, September

Survival and Change: Three Generations of Balinese Painters by Christopher Hill

Article, ARTCO, Taiwan

Article, Australian Art Review

Interview, Radio Australia, May

Noble Sindhu Horses by Lynette Chataway

Review, Wet Ink, Spring 2006 [plus earlier coverage]

The Hmong of Australia: Culture and Diaspora

by Nicholas Tapp and Gary Yia Lee

Review, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology  [plus earlier coverage]

See the Road Well: Shaping East Timor's Frontier by Neil Sugget

Review and discussion, Radio 2GB, 6 January 

Sing me that lovely song again... by Helga Griffin

Review, ABC Radio, Canberra, 24 April

Interview, Karen James, ArtsSound FM, 2 May

Interview, Joseph Thomsen, ABC Goulburn Murray, 4 May

Review, Wet Ink, May

Articles, Tatura Guardian, 2 May, 16 May

Review, Euroa Gazette, 9 May

Articles and interviews, Shepparton News, 5 May, 18 May

Extracts from book used on Shepparton News Website

Interview, Jon Faine, The Conversation Hour, ABC Radio, Melbourne, 23 May

Interview with John Cleary, ABC Radio National, 8 June

Interview with Phillip Adams, Late Night Live, ABC Radio National, 27 June

Interview, Encounter, ABC Radio National, forthcoming

Feature, Stateline, ABC TV, 1 July

Plus events in Shepperton, Tatura, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane

The Grasshopper Shoe by Carolyn Leach-Paholski

Discussion, The Book Show, ABC Radio National, 2 8 March

Review, Australian Book Review, December 2005-January 

The Book Reading, ABC Radio National, November

Review, Wet Ink, Spring 2006 [plus earlier cover age]

Time and Chance by Siri Ranawake

Review, Gleebooks Gleaner,  April

Interview, Radio  Australia, 5 April

Interview, SBS Radio, 28 April

Launch notice, The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 April

Interviews and launch coverage, Sri Lanka Weekly, Channel 31 T V, 5 May

Dance of the Nomad: A Study of the Selected Notebooks of A.D. Hope by Ann McCulloch

Review, The Weekend Australian, 29-30 October 2005

Review, The Age, 5 November 2005

Review, Australian Book Review, December-January 

Discussion, The Book Show, ABC Radio National, 31 January 

Review, The Canberra Times, 18 February

Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, March

Review, Eureka Street, March-April 2006

Review, The Times Literary Supplement, 19 May

High Wire by Adrian Caesar

Review, The Times Literary Supplement     

Review, Australian Book Review, April

Remnants by Nigel Featherstone

Review, Wet Ink, 5 April [plus earlier coverage]

Speight of Violence by Michael Field, Tupeni Baba and Unaisi Nabobo-Baba

Discussion over an hour, Radio 2GB, 20 February [plus 2005 coverage]

Suburban Anatomy by Penelope Layland

Shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize,

NSW Premier's Literary Awards

Review, The Canberra Times, 4 February 

Review, Australian Book Review, February 2006 

Readings and discussion, The Book Show, ABC Radio National, 4 April

Review, Phil Brown, The Brisbane News, 4 April

Review, API Review of Books, July

[plus 2005 coverage]

Day of Reckoning by Lachlan Strahan

Shortlisted for the NSW Premier's History Award

Interview, Phil Kafcaloudes, Radio Australia, 1 December 2005

Interview, Sean Dorney, Radio Australia, 27 February

Review, The Age, January 

Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 December 2005

Review, Una Voce, March

Review, The Canberra Times, 30 September

Review, Islands Business, Suva, October

Review, History Australia 3 (1), 2006

Kanaky by Jean-Marie Tjibaou

Interview with Helen Fraser, translator, and launch coverage, Jemima Garrett, Radio Australia

Review, The Canberra Times, 25 February

Interviews with Helen Fraser, Late Night Live, ABC Radio National, 28 March, 20 April

A Trial Separation: Australia and the Decolonisation of Papua New Guinea

by Donald Denoon

Shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year

Review, Australian Book Review, March 2006

Interview, Peter Mares, The National Interest, ABC Radio National, 15 October

[plus 2005 coverage] 

Remembering Papua New Guinea: An Eccentric Ethnography

by William C. Clarke

Review, The Contemporary Pacific 18 (1) 2006 [plus earlier coverage]

Art and Social Change: Contemporary Art in Asia and the Pacific

edited by Caroline Turner

Review, Journal of the Polynesian Society  2005 [plus 2005 coverage]

Peeling Apples by Tessa Morris-Suzuki

Review, Australian Book Review, May

Windchimes: Australian  Accounts of Asia in Poetry

edited by Noel Rowe and Vivian Smith

Review, Gleebooks Gleaner, July

Review, Australian Book Review, September

Review, The Times Literary Supplement

The Changing South Pacific 

edited by Serge Tcherkezoff and Francoise Do uaire-Marsaudon

Review, The Times Literary Supplement

The Tread of a White Man's Foot 

by Jane Landman

Asia-Pacific Focus, ABC TV

Political Parties in the Pacific Islands

edited by Roland Rich with Luke Hambly and Michael Morgan

Keith Suter Comments, Radio 2GB and Wesley Mission Website

Bougainville before the conflict

edited by Anthony J. Regan and Helga M. Griffin

Review, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 12

Too Much, Too Soon

by Stephanie Green

Interview with Elaine Harris, ABC Radio Burnie, 17 August

Reading from book, ArtsSound FM, Canberra, 19 September

Review, Australian Bookseller and Publisher, September

Review and author comment, Gleebooks Website

Review, Hobart Mercury

Review, The Canberra Times, 7 October

Review, The Australian, 4-5 November

Review, The Age, 11 November

Review, The Times Literary Supplement

The Patrician and the Bloke

by John Thompson

Review, Stephen Holt, 4 October

Keith Suter Comments, Radio 2GB and Wesley Mission Website

Review, The Canberra Times, 14 October

Interview, ABC Adelaide, 14 November

Review, The Age, 25 November

Review, The Weekend Australian, 25-26 November

Review, Australian Book Review,  December 2006-January 2007

The Voice of the Thunderer: Journalism of H.G. Kippax

selected and introduced by Harry Heseltine

Review, Gleebooks Gleaner, September 

Interview, Valerie Lawson, The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 October

Interview, Phillip Adams, Late Night Live, 22 November

Interview, ABC Adelaide, 29 November

Interview, ABC Sydney, 7 December

Interview, ArtsSound FM, Canberra

Bittersweet

by Brij V. Lal

Discussion, Radio 2GB, 6 November

My Dearest Brown Eyes

edited by Nancy Lutton

Article, Gold Coast Bulletin, 3 November

Discussion, Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Channel 9  television.          Back to top