Was he the greatest broadcast voice of all time? A farewell to Alistair Cooke. If it happened in or around America in the past half a century, chances are Alistair Cooke or, at least, his golden voice was part of it. In 1946, the BBC’s augustly titled Director of the Spoken Word suggested to Alistair Cooke that he start a weekly radio broadcast from New York, “… about, well, all the things in American life you’ve talked to me about. Read more >

It was the knickers that brought him down. One day Alan Gold was king of the esoteric world of marketing, with a swanky office in North Sydney, a staff of 20 and a shelf-full of awards for his campaigns to sell Scotch whisky, tissues and batteries. The next, he was sitting in the Supreme Court as a judge branded him a liar, said he was responsible for the biggest balls-up in Australian marketing history and declared him liable for a compensation bill that could run to more than $1 million. Read more >

How police used Kim, then threw her out. Kim Hollingsworth always wanted to be a police officer like her father. But along the way her career took a number of interesting turns – shop assistant, waitress in a Chinese restaurant, flower-seller, university student, model. None of the jobs paid much, and by the time she was 21, Kim was supplementing her income by working as a prostitute. Read more >

The Australian way of death. How our funeral homes are being taken over by foreigners. As luck would have it, I am just in time for “an insertion”. The steel door is flung open, revealing the roaring orange maw of the furnace, the trolley is trundled into place, and two strong men heave the heavy wooden coffin into the flames. The soul of Mrs Jones, as we’ll call her, may be on its way to heaven. Read more >

Peter Blazey, tourjours gai – farewell to a friend. You haven’t had such a bad innings,” I tell the wasted figure lying among the electronic monitors ticking his life away, with the plastic tube of a feeding drip up his nose, “13 years would have to be close to the record for someone with AIDS.” “Seventeen,” corrects Peter Blazey, his dark sunken eyes suddenly alert, “I wasn’t diagnosed until 1984, but I got it four years earlier in New York. I remember the night well. Read more >

Harry Seidler. The architect Sydney loves to hate comes a cropper. For once in his life, the operatic Harry Seidler was playing it cool. “There might have been a few antics and histrionics beforehand, but when the moment came he was quite calm and businesslike,” said Tony Caro, the trusted lieutenant who was at his side for the final showdown. Read more >

Harry Seidler. The architect Sydney loves to hate comes a cropper. For once in his life, the operatic Harry Seidler was playing it cool. “There might have been a few antics and histrionics beforehand, but when the moment came he was quite calm and businesslike,” said Tony Caro, the trusted lieutenant who was at his side for the final showdown. Read more >

When a secretive German company took over Australiaʼs oldest and most iconic magazines — including the Australian Womenʼs Weekly — there was plenty of Shock! and Horror! Venerable titles have been closed, hundreds of people sacked… and now the business itself is struggling to stay afloat. Read more >

Casinos. Why Australians are the West’s biggest gamblers. Australians were the biggest punters in the Western world. Then the number of casinos doubled. Do we need them? Alan Massie winces as he passes the centrepiece of his casino, a garish tableau featuring an enormous urn spilling out a torrent of ersatz gold coins above a sign advertising that the “pot of gold” prize has reached $22,000, payable in cash or bullion. Read more >

The Family Court “is the abattoir of the nation.” It’s Day One of my sea change and this is the only radio station I can find at six in the morning, a talkback host indulging some barking-mad caller on an AM station in faraway Lismore. Where are Margaret Throsby’s dulcet tones, or my morning fix of NewsRadio? All I can get on the FM band is a sound like a storm at sea. TV doesn’t work either. Read more >

Ark-eology. A Melbourne geologist takes on religious fundamentalists over the Bible’s literal truth. And loses. “Over there.” Ian Plimer shades his eyes against the glare of the desert sun with one strong, brown hand and points with the other to a cleft in the bosom of the next range of hills. “It’s about the right size and shape … see how the sides taper together at the bow.” Read more >

A chance encounter in a court-room. A tale of bribery and the illegitimate child of a Melbourne billionaire, Richard Pratt. It was standing room only in Ms Judith Fleming’s court at Waverley last Thursday, with police, lawyers, witnesses and people accused of various crimes and misdemeanours milling around waiting for their case to be called on. Read more >

We were barreling down the Western Freeway, midway between Melbourne and the old gold-mining city of Ballarat, when Daniel Andrews twisted around from the front seat of the government limousine. Read more >

He’s the $60 billion man — that’s how much Mitch Hooke saved the mining industry (or cost the Australian tax-payer) when he led the fight against the mining tax in 2010. In the process he cost a prime minister his job. Ben Hills returns to Fairfax newspapers in 2012 with this hard-hitting profile of Australia’s most powerful lobbyist. Read more >