Les was in the tradition of wonderful bush contrarians, and raised that stance to immortal eloquence.

Speaking at 10 a.m Thursday at Writers Fest but daughter Meg is speaking at 12.00. What a grand day for an aging writer.

Les Murray, magnificent poet, RIP. Would have been great had he got the Nobel wasted on Dillon. Spiky bloke, but genius!

@ThomasKeneally For Peter Dutton: The Labor woman pleads a missing limb./What missing thing in you makes you so grim?

Robust,briiliant artist Wendy sharp has series on asylum seekers beginning mid- February, Sydney, run by Asylum Seeker Centre.

US critic sd, 'A novl is a fiction of uncertain length with something wrong with it!' I wouldn't miss the joys of this quest though.

Friends, forgive lack of postings. Finishing novel, which means something only to me. Sorry. I think it's a ripper.but am probably deluded.

To give credit, Tony A has been appropriately restrained. Sadly, for the two noble, young dead, the casualty rate is %100. RIP

After frightful deaths, a woman saying, 'I ride with you' helps humanise us again.

Chris Bowen, as'lm seeker-basher, on Lateline as our prospective future leader. Evasive and weasel -worded. God save us!

Revenge, deceit, ideology trump the ABC. And Murdoch smiles. This is the victory of smallness over us, and --I hope-- a temporary one.

See a great new iniative, We're Better Than This, to free the wire-trapped children, which some are happy to call policy. @wbttaus

Ebola's Alfred E. Newman, 'What, me worry?' is Tony A, who says he gave at the office, and that's the limit. It's only Africans after all.

Gough never withdrew from Australia, and was a model and earnest public citizen for the past 40 yrs. See a piece on that, today's SMH

Gough goes, so does Medibank Private. Little blue discs meant to console us for transformation of public capital into just another racket.

Vale, Gough, a man who in a hundred days re-made Australia. Don't forget he flew hundreds of missions in WWII and never flaunted that.

You heard it at the Goa festival, Anil Kumar. I predicted Richard Flanagan's win. The Narrow Rd to the Deep North too good not to win.

Obersturmfuhrer Matthias, my wife is a superb financial brian. Carry on with your labelling in her presence, and see how you go.

J. Birmingham great in SMH. Bring back M.Carlton and give us double the joy. Lay off Hayne, for God's sake. SMH - Sydney Morning Hayne.