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Author: Gillian Bouras

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    What men call history

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 30 May 2023
    8 Comments

    Exploring the cyclical nature of history, contemporary historians Christopher Clark and Serii Plokhy shed light on current geopolitics — from Greece to Ukraine — and illuminate the intertwining of past and present, underlining the enduring wisdom that while history may not repeat, it often rhymes.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    That other coronation

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 01 May 2023
    5 Comments

    As the UK prepares for the coronation of King Charles, ideas about national pride and loyalty to the crown have been revolutionised since Queen Elizabeth's coronation, as attitudes towards the British monarchy continue to  change both at home and abroad. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The magic of Dessaix's Abracadabra

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 28 April 2023
    2 Comments

    While our lives plod along in an ordinary groove, the great writers astound us and lift us on to another plane. The state of reading, Dessaix believes, is one of intense attention: in every true reading of literature in adult life, we revert to that early attitude of plasticity and innocence before the text.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Recipe for welcome

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 11 April 2023
    6 Comments

    Food has the power to evoke memories, connect people, and bridge cultural divides. In Australia, the diverse range of cultural influences enriching the culinary landscape stands as a testament to that sense of connection. In a time where the world feels increasingly divided, perhaps sharing a meal is just what we need.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Roosevelt's freedoms

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 15 March 2023
    6 Comments

    In his 'Four Freedoms' series, iconic artist Norman Rockwell depicted a vision of America where people were free from want and free from fear. But with the threat of nuclear war looming, and arms merchants benefiting from conflict, how far off are we from truly achieving this ideal?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The book corner: The Jane Austen Remedy

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 10 March 2023
    1 Comment

    It's a truth universally acknowledged that a book can change a life, but can certain books help a reader live more fully at any age? Ruth Wilson, a 90-year-old author, thinks so. Her book, The Jane Austen Remedy, explores the belief that books can cure an ailing soul. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Forgiving and forgetting

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 23 February 2023
    6 Comments

    During a trip to Poland, an encounter with the story of Auschwitz survivor Eva Mozes Kor, who chose to forgive those who persecuted her and her family, serves as a reminder of the costly and essential need for remembrance and reconciliation.   

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Eternal questions?

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 18 January 2023
    7 Comments

    The ‘no religion’ question is complicated and interesting and connected with social change. We live in a much more complex world than previously. Even in my own childhood, it was accepted as a fact that most people were believers of varying degrees of conviction and form. Agnosticism and atheism were not matters for discussion.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Intimations of immortality

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 06 December 2022
    8 Comments

    The child, Wordsworth thought, is able to witness the divine in nature, but gradually this ability fades. Whereas once everything seemed apparelled in celestial light/ the glory and the freshness of a dream, four stanzas end with the questions Whither is fled the visionary gleam? Where is it now, the glory and the dream? We know this development happens to us all.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The book corner: Act of Oblivion

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 25 November 2022

    In August 1660, the English Parliament passed the Indemnity and Oblivion Act, targeting those involved in the trial and execution of Charles I. The death warrant for Charles I had been signed by 59 judges, and 31 of them were still alive in 1660. Those caught suffered a terrible death of being hanged, drawn and quartered. Pursuit of the guilty was unremitting. Act of Oblivion follows the careers of three regicides and Civil War veterans who fled to the British colonies in America. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Our frightening times

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 08 November 2022
    8 Comments

    There are a great many despairing people about, with parents of children fearing they have no future; believing that by the time they are grown up the world as we know it will have ceased to exist. Floods, drought, wars, pandemics, climate change. In a world ever smaller and more connected, encouragement is needed.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The book corner: The Escape Artist

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 11 October 2022

    Jonathan Freedland’s book is an extremely harrowing tour de force: at one stage I could read only a chapter at a time. But by the end I had been reminded of the power of the human spirit, and of the way in which some people, those with a sense of mission, can endure almost any trial. Resilience is a great gift.

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