My Country: Stories, Essays & Speeches

by David Marr

David Marr is the rarest of one of Australia’s most unflinching, forensic reporters of political controversy, and one of its most subtle and eloquent biographers. In Marr’s hands, those things we call reportage and commentary are elevated to artful and illuminating chronicles of our time.My Country collects his powerful reflections on religion, sex, censorship and the law; striking accounts of leaders, moralists and scandalmongers; elegant ruminations on the arts and the lives of artists. And some memorable new pieces.‘Marr articulates our questions, frustrations and suspicions, capturing the nation’s apprehensiveness towards the politicians we vote in and employ to serve us.’ —Artshub‘A writer who can capture the power and paranoia of politics with supreme artistry.’ —Richard Ferguson‘David Marr is as brilliant a biographer and journalist as this country has produced.’ —Peter Craven

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Australia, Politics, Journalism, Current Affairs, History

721 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 5, 2018

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Eminent Australian journalist, author, and progressive political and social commentator. David Marr is the multi-award-winning author of Patrick White: A Life, Panic and The High Price of Heaven, and co- author with Marian Wilkinson of Dark Victory. He has written for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian Australia and the Monthly. He has been editor of the National Times, a reporter for Four Corners and presenter of ABC TV’s Media Watch. He is also the author of two previous bestselling biographical Quarterly Essays: Power Trip: The Political Journey of Kevin Rudd and Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott. His areas of expertise include Australian politics, law, censorship, the media and the arts. David Marr began his career in 1973 and is the recipient of four Walkley awards for journalism. He also appears as a semi-regular panellist on the ABC television programs Q&A and Insiders.

Reviews

[Lyn Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy David Marr's acerbic view of the world and acute observations on art, life and politics, but the time span of this collection is too long to hold me all the way through.

It's been on my currently reading shelf for months and it's time to clear it, and though I'm leaving it half read I know I can come back and dip into it with pleasure.

[Anne Fenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Marr is one of our greatest essayists. This is a hugely rewarding revelation of his writing life. His speeches, essays, opinion pieces, personal recounts, all remind us of political events that hurt at the time but since then we may have moved on to more recent controversies. I most enjoyed his delineation of the destructive emotive language used so often it may be in our own talk by now. Too much good stuff to comment on for me to say more. I found I dipped in again and again until I read or reread the most interesting pieces.

[Tim Hoar · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gift. To see such a great writer’s thought and output over such an extended period of time. Even if I don’t care for everything as much as Marr does, particularly the minutiae of the labor party, everything he writes has such distinctive thought and well satisfied curiosity behind it.

[MargCal · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 ☆
Finished reading … My Country: stories, essays & speeches / David Marr ... 22 September 2020
ISBN: 9781760640804 … 561 pp.

I don't know David Marr well. I didn't read the newspapers and journals he writes/wrote a lot for, not until he started writing for The Guardian. I haven't read his books. I have read one of his Quarterly Essays and I did watch him on Media Watch but only sometimes, it wasn't on my “must watch” list. But I've always found his views interesting and thought-provoking, often, but not always, reflecting my own views.

My real bias is that I have loved David Marr since meeting him at an art gallery in Vienna in 2014 where I plonked myself on a seat next to him in the foyer. He was the most delightful person – happy to chat away with this fellow-Aussie who was feeling a bit homesick for the sound of an Aussie accent. He expressed such enthusiasm, with recommendations about what to see in that city, and told me about the artist who sculpted a piece I admired when I bumped into him later as we wended our separate ways through the gallery space.

The pieces in this collection cover Marr's long writing career. Reading his commentaries over the years has, looking back, given me a better perspective on some events in recent Australian history. However, there were times when I'd have loved to read an update. What does Marr himself think now, looking back and seeing what has happened since he wrote those early pieces? A case in point is Pauline Hanson. In this volume she is disappearing from history. Her resurrection is still to come.

The pieces are vaguely themed in chapters but no piece is dependent on another. There is no right or wrong way to read the book. You can dip in and out of it as easily and legitimately as reading it straight through as I did. You don't even need to know Marr's name (I'd forgotten it, that day in Vienna) to profit from this book. You can enjoy it simply for the history, not an historian's academic treatise but history nevertheless. You will laugh, cry, fume, agree, disagree, and more. And you will be enlightened.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to my friends from school who gave me this as a “significant birthday” present.

[Alan Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with almost everything David Marr writes. Normally a collection of articles and essays like this one vary in quality and/or interest for me. The overwhelming majority had me saying a loud "Amen". which brings me to my only reservation about the book. While I accept that his early experiences of Christian faith were life denying I would like him to affirm those parts of the church that affirm justice and peace and human rights. Many of the Christians I know would feel at home on his company.

[indy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marr's prose is refreshing, especially compared to the business and marketing books I've been reading for work. The personal pieces are the most enjoyable and engaging (4 stars). Some of the political essays were insightful, but others were less engaging (2 stars). Maybe it's just me, but the momentum putters out after the halfway mark; I felt like my Kindle sat between 60% and 70% for days.

[Tony Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marr

What a fabulous way to relive my life through a great contemporary’s eyes, politically, morally and aesthetically. Thank you, David Marr.

[James Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

Loved the book, love David Marr. Captivating, thoughtful, interesting, revealing. Thanks David. Salute.
By Catherine from Sandringham, Victoria, Australia, The World.

[Alex D · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Marr is a national treasure and this book should be required reading.

[Eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting way to revisit some of our recent history, both political and social. Marr writes so well that it is a pleasure to read him on any topic.

[Philip Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such versatility! Such clarity of writing. Such insightful observations. Such great journalism. Here is a kind of "Best of..." of David Marr. One of our greats.