Sneaky Little Revolutions: Selected essays of Charmian Clift

by Charmian Clift, Nadia Wheatley (Editor)

I know it’s a daring suggestion, but I’ll make it anyway.’

Charmian Clift was a writer ahead of her time. Lyrical and fearless, her essays seamlessly blended the personal and the political.

In 1964, Charmian Clift and her husband George Johnston returned to Australia after living and writing for many years in the cosmopolitan community of artists on the Greek island of Hydra. Back in Sydney, Clift found her opinions were far more progressive than those of many of her fellow Australians.

This new edition of Charmian Clift’s essays, selected and introduced by her biographer Nadia Wheatley, is drawn from the weekly newspaper column Clift wrote through the turbulent and transformative years of the 1960s. In these ‘sneaky little revolutions’, as Clift once called them, she supported the rights of women and migrants, called for social justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, opposed conscription and the war in Vietnam, acknowledged Australia’s role in the Asia-Pacific, fought censorship, called for a local film industry — and much more. In doing so, she set a new benchmark for the form of the essay in Australian literature.

‘My regard for Charmian Clift veers uncomfortably close to veneration, which appals me. The figure of Clift as a messy morality tale about what happens when you run off to be a writer comes at the expense of the work she produced, which is to the contrary searing in its clarity. This collection is a reminder of the work behind the her bent, her conviction, and her cool. And the sentences! Clift’s essays evince an ardent attention to life in all its vagaries, which is really the most a person can give.’ — Ellena Savage, author of Blueberries

‘Charmian Clift was ahead of her time and yet also representative of them. Her essays are a fascinating, thoughtful – sometimes judgemental, sometimes lyrical – window into an Australia on the brink of change. Whether you always agree with her opinions or not, she writes like a dream and her voice is wry, insightful and self-aware. It is lovely to see her gaining the recognition she has long deserved.’ — Jane Caro, Walkley Award winning columnist and author

‘When I first stumbled on Clift’s essays, twenty or more years ago, these trashy essays written for a disposable occasion seemed to me to have more lightning and quicksilver, more brilliance and more skill of execution, than any Australian writing other than the great novels of Patrick White and Christina Stead.’ — Peter Craven, Sydney Morning Herald

‘Reading these essays, it’s easy to see why Clift became a cult figure. The chatty, charming and sometimes slightly dippy persona distracts attention just enough from the steely intelligence, the sophisticated sentence structure and the passion for causes that characterise these pieces but might otherwise rather have alarmed her readers … In an era that hadn’t yet thought too much about these things, her columns demonstrated that a woman … could and should be an active citizen of the world.’ — Kerryn Goldsworthy, Australian Book Review

‘From the women’s pages of the Sydney Morning Herald , among advertisements for wrinkle cream and mini-skirts … Clift challenged a complacent society, fashioned a sly and elegant opposing Vietnam, unmasking materialism, championing equality for women.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays

435 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 31, 2022

About the author

Charmian Clift was an Australian writer and essayist during the mid 20th century. She was the second wife and literary collaborator of George Johnston.

Reviews

[Jackson André · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the essay, 'winter solstice', really beautiful. Some of my favourite and most sentimental memories growing up are days at the beach in a storm. And now I find it's the most special time to be on the coast.

Lots of other good stuff and nice to read an author from so close to home.

[Phobbo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m obsessed. This is my new fav book. In awe of her writing. I wish she was alive and I could read her Substack every Thursday….I also want to move to Athens but apparently it’s not very nice..?

[Rachel McCrossin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love her. I did put it down and pick it up a few months later but it’s essays so it’s okay - not bc it was bad just wanted some fiction and also to draw out the process bc I didn’t want to finish. but she writes so fricken well and had such an interesting time and was so progressive for her time which is incredible. So many doggy ears in my fave essays…

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a splendid collection of newspaper articles and essays by the Australian author Charmian Clift; most of the articles/essays appeared during the 1960s in the Sydney Morning Herald.

I remember so vividly my mother telling me how much she looked forward to Thursdays when the articles were published as she admired Charmian Clift's writing so greatly. Having read the collection of works in Sneaky little Revolutions : Selected essays of Charmian Clift I happily agree with my Mum. Charmian writes beautifully and incisively on a wide range of topics many of which relate to her time as an expatriate in England and Greece.

It is however after she returns to live in Australia as a 'migrant' that her writing 'hits the mark' as a critique of Australia as she perceives it in the 1960s. Many of her observations are echoed by writers and ordinary citizens today - environmental degradation courtesy of increasing tourism, the need to preserve the environment for future generations, the right to peacefully protest, the relevance of Australia Day and most emphatically that the indigenous people of Australian are recognised as First Peoples of Australia.

On page 227 of Sneaky Revolutions Clift eloquently prefigures the Apology to indigenous Australians delivered by Kevin Rudd in 2008 on behalf of the Australian people when she says,

"I want to say, I'm sorry." Apologise, absolve myself even though "I did not personally disinherit them of the most sophisticated, ethereal concept of origin that ever a people dreamed."

Clift comments often on the prevailing social situations including the migrant experience, the evolving roles of men and women particularly in marriage and what she and others perceived as the inability of Australia to “evolve manners, modes and fashions of our own.” which she conceded probably came about through the tyranny of distance.p.213 If she was writing today I’m sure she would be applauding the many changes ‘for the better’ that have taken place in Australia in the intervening decades.

Recommended.

[Anne Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend reminded me of Charmian Clift recently and I remembered I'd wanted to read her work for some time. This turned out to be a very rewarding experience. This book is a collection of articles she wrote back in the sixties for her newspaper column and very much reflects the social, cultural and political issues of the times. Except that in her views she was way ahead of those times. A startlingly original and brilliant writer, it's a pity her career was eclipsed by that of her husband George Johnston, not that there's anything new about that situation - she, after all, had to mind the kids and keep the household running! Fascinating pieces also on Greece, and her experiences visiting the remote Australia. A couple of quotes:

“One thing is certain. No repressive legislation will prevent women terminating pregnancies they do not want. Surely it is in the best and truest interests of society to accept this …” (so topical still)

“I don’t know that we’re so young anymore. Youngish perhaps, but old enough to stop making youth an excuse for our dreadful irresponsibility towards ourselves and our inheritors. Old enough to stop indulging ourselves in one long lazy hedonistic weekend that is not a reward for any real achievement but only an endless public holiday, self-decreed and honouring nothing – excepting our marvellous climate, perhaps, which is actually not marvellous at all, but brutal, savage, fickle and conducive of much skin cancer." (I love her wry wit and smart wrist slaps for our apathy and complacency - sadly still so topical).

[Robert Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a joy to read this superb collection of Charmian Clift’s essays. Timeless, full of insight and passion. I have found myself wanting to read paragraphs to anyone and everyone within earshot, so taken was I with her acute observations of the everyday. Her pieces on the right to peaceful protest , reinforcing that change will not occur by sitting back and accepting the status quo, are a powerful rebuttal to the draconian laws we have seen drafted here. People being jailed for protesting against the felling of old growth forest or against the ongoing burning of fossil fuels is insane and unwarranted and Charmian would definitely have had something to say about it.
What a remarkable person she was and this collection gives us readers a great insight into her life and the values that framed it.

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, edited by Clift's biographer and former daughter-in-law Nadia Wheatley, is marketed as 'selected essays'. More properly, they are a selection of 80 of her 225 newspaper columns published mainly in the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's Herald between 1964 and 1969, when they came to an abrupt halt with her suicide....

Is there any point to re-publishing seventy year old newspaper columns? Yes, I think there is in exceptional cases, and few newspaper columnists have that honour bestowed upon them. I think that it rescues some good thought, good thinking and prescience from the flow of ephemera and evokes a humility in us to remember that many others have held certain political positions and made similar observations in the past.

For my complete review, please visit:
https://residentjudge.com/2025/06/28/...

[Andreas Sekeris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of essays really does read like the memoir of an Australian trying to fit back into life in Australia after living away for many years. The unique point of view lets Charmain write eloquently on how we could do better in Australia. Better suburban nightlife, better development, better attitudes to immigrants. What’s amazing is these essays are from the late 60s. All topics still relevant today.
As someone with a Greek background I loved her writing about island life and the junta in Greece. She wrote about Greece in the 50s and 60s more beautifully than I’ve read before.
Must read if you’re interested in life in Australia or just life in general.

[Tilda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book really told me I want to read more Clift, but its overall format wore on me about halfway through. A compilation of short essays (roughly 4-5 pages each) had me initially appreciating the brevity but eventually I just craved more substance and analysis. I think they are meant to be read as standalone rather than sandwiched together. Probably best read over a really long time where you do 2-3 a day. But my patience ran out so it was DNF after about halfway through. Look forward to reading her other works though.

[Suz Bennett]

Now I remember why I liked reading Charman Clift. She wrote so well and her essays are a pleasure to read.

[Lynette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just dipped in and out of this book.

[Margery Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love her writing and am sad to be finished this book.

[Katie Steuerwald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. So interesting to read about life in 60's Australia and how similar some of the issues were to today

[Bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a long way back to the sea’s jaw. The world’s end.

Brilliant. I felt inspired and consumed by this. My perception forever changed.

[Hannah Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

good stuff. insane sentence lengths. australiana expat core

[Jade O'Donohue · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I love first nights, last nights, shady bars, sooty spires, glittering parties, stalls of flowers, overheard conversations, beggars who play music, balloon sellers, the backstage of every theatre, delicatessens, subways, the new beauty of TV towers, students' demonstrations, mouldy museums, lights smeared on wet pavements, brass nameplates, glass offices, air terminals, famous people glimpsed in hotel foyers, sailors' pubs, art openings, pretentious intellectuals, tarts in tight dresses, lovers in parks, and in parks, too, the Sunday soapboxes, empty early morning streets, eccentrics, brass bands, ambulances, police cars, fire engines.
Only in cities can one live in daily expectation of the unprecedented. That, I think, is why I love them so much…”