- One of my favourite interviews was Emma Alberschreechie interviewing Lord Bragg. Her over-excitement at being in the presence of such an eminent lefty was plain to see. Lord Bragg is one of those rare creatures, a lefty with common sense, a grip on reality and without blind hate. We have very few of them in Australia. Emma was effervescent with excitement in anticipation of him ripping Rupert a new one - oops, didn't happen. He gave a thorough, measured and dignified reply that supported Murdoch. Ok, let's try again ... Christians! Surely he hates godbothers? Oh dear, poor Emma's eyes nearly did a Sarah Hanson Young impersonation. He actually credited the Bible as, among other things, being the tool that gave the masses the courage to rise up out of slavery, the message that all men are equal, to those who would oppress and said that it is the most powerful instrument for good. Ooops. Soz, Em, it's not just the words alone that give away the bias of the ABC journos and our left leaning apologist media, it's in your voice and body language as well. - Gee
- So, sue, if there is no bias, how is it that you've detected a 'savage swing to the right?' If it wasn't so left, none of you would watch it! Do you know that they fail to report information that could reflect badly on the govt? It's time to put Aunty to bed, I'm afraid. Only the rusted ons watch her anymore. And again, I'm not a man. - Gee
- Wouldn't that be nice Ro, but this is Australia: the horses will go without grass every few years and have to make do with hay, and the ABC and journalists will always cop flack, just like lawyers! - Dodieh
- You have been around for some time and I have been watching you for the same time. I haven't picked up any political bias on your part. At times I do look for bias, but I have never bothered with you. But I do nail my political colours to the mast by saying, surely you are not so naive to think that when Abbott is elected, he won't indirectly have any say over ABC appointments. - Andrew
- Dodieh, may you journalists, and your horses, always chomp on sweet grass. - ro.watson
- Terra nullius~ what a fiction. RIP - ro.watson
- and let us not forget the brave woman cradling the dead man as Ingrid spoke to the man in the picture... - ro.watson
- Oh, I just realised that the "Gee" above must be the same "mother" with five children that works as a surgeon and can't think of a single work place where children can be present without causing problems! I have been dwelling on that a bit, as I work at my desk writing, or outside with our horses (we have a stud farm), or in the office of my politican employer, with the children near me most of the time... No public broadcaster...now, that would have to be a good thing..? - Dodieh
- Loved girl stuff, and women's stuff, but having had two miscarriages in four months and no babies, it would be helpful if up the duff, (and all other books) took miscarriage seriously instead of it barely rating a mention. if you are pregnant and have a miscarriage it's a lonely feeling to have it barely acknowledged in your pregnancy 'bible'. not every women gets a happy ending., - Lee
- Links to both the extract and competition entry for 'The Yearning' are broken.... - Jacqui
ON THE HIGHWIRE ANSWERS
HOW DO YOU TAKE YOUR CRIME?
The SheKilda festival of Aussie women crime writers is on next weekend. Tales of dastardly deeds have enthralled us forever. From the intrigue of Agatha Christie to the blunt instrument of TV series, Underbelly, there are myriad ways to take your crime. Tell us whether you prefer craftily written thrillers; gritty TV dramas; gripping films or the genre of gruesome, true-life forensic files. Give us their names and whereabouts. Or if it’s not your thing. Give us an alibi.
11 Responses to this article
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Jacqui Horwood October 2, 2011
Hi Wendy and Sarah – being one of the organisers of the SheKIlda Women’s Crime Writing Conference, it wouldn’t surprise you to know that I’m a huge crime fiction reader. I prefer fiction to true crime. A true crime needs to be really written and do more than just play to our vicarious sides to get me reading it. Chloe Hooper’s The Tall Man is an amazing piece of true crime writing.
As far as crime fiction and television goes, I prefer the grittier stuff to the cozies.
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Vikki Petraitis October 2, 2011
I am a true-crime author and I think that crime – whether it’s fiction or non-fiction – gives us an insight into a world where human emotions and reactions are at the extreme. For those of us who have read a book on the Yorkshire Ripper or other terrible crimes, I think we do it to see if we can find an answer. How does this happen? What makes these offenders so different from the average person? Nature or Nuture? I think true-crime stories try to explore these things. Having said all of that, I am now writing funny crime fiction to lighten things up, so I guess I staddle that fence; a little on either side.
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Karen C October 2, 2011
Hey Jacqui – imagine meeting you here
I’m with Jacqui on the grittier side – on TV a number of the Scandinavian series have really appealed. I’m not a fan of those forensic styled (mostly it seems American series) around as I’m more interested in the why than the how / or the wizbangery. On the fiction side I’ve been a reader of crime fiction for more years than I’m comfortable admitting to, and I also tend more to the psychological thriller end of the scale as a personal preference – but I read / review as much as I possibly can from different styles as there is such a wide range of options available to readers of all tastes (including here – we’ve got some fabulous crime writers in this country). I do read True Crime as well, but again my personal preference is for books that look at the why more than anything from the sensationalist side of the scale.
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Lindy Cameron October 2, 2011
I too am one of the SheKIlda organisers, and a crime writer myself. I love all kinds of crime but prefer fiction – even though I write both.
And Wendy – et al – if you’re interested in the forensics of crime, then come along to SheKilda because (it’s all interesting) we will be having ‘a body’ by the pool and a panel in which real-life experts – a cop, a forensic pathologist and an forensic entomologist – will SOLVE that crime. -
Paula Duggan October 2, 2011
Thrillers for sure, the ones where you are on the edge of your seat. I love being afraid!!! Mysteries are great as well. I am fascinated by the forensic investigations. Basically I love CRIME.
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Katherine Howell October 2, 2011
Hi Sarah and Wendy,
as a crime author and delighted participant in SheKilda next week, I’m fascinated by how people have different feelings on whether the crime they read about/watch is real. A number of readers I’ve talked to prefer fiction to true crime because they can tell themselves it’s not real (plus the ending is satisfying where in real life this isn’t always the case). A number of other readers prefer true crime as they feel fiction doesn’t give them enough precisely *because* it’s made-up. Two sides of the same coin? What does everyone else think?
cheers,
Katherine
http://www.katherinehowell.com -
Keziah Hill October 2, 2011
Can’t wait for SheKilda. I like all types of crime writing. From Dexter to Harlan Coban to Daisy Dalrymple to Leigh Redhead. Plus home grown Helene Young and Bronwyn Parry. Prefer some romance in the mix but not always. Helen Garner’s Joe Cinque’s Consolation remains a favorite true crime.
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Margaret October 4, 2011
I love fictional crime, writers like the brits, Elizabeth George, Peter James, Peter Robinson, and yanks like J>D>Robb(crimes in the middle of the 21st cent), Leigh Childs, Harlan Coben, David Baldacci. Terrific, also I love historial romance, as written by our own Stephanie Laurens, so one lot balances the other. I think it is really good, dont want to read the newspapers about real crime, just do the crosswords(not cryptic, I am simple person).
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TortoiseMum October 5, 2011
I have been reading crime fiction for all of my adult life. I recently went cold turkey because I realised I was reading more and more things that nauseated me but because of the conventions of the genre, felt comfortable and comforting.
I think I will return to my old favourites which are more along the sleuth line and seem to me to be relatively less exploitative and gratuitous.
I wrote about my turn-off moment on my blog here: http://tortoisetales2.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/on-literature-gratuitousness-and-things-that-make-you-squirm/
When the next Phryne Fisher comes out I’ll have to dust off my detective hat but for now I’m enjoying a break from all the pain on the page.
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Mary Moody: I'm not crazy about crime writing, although I have read Gabrielle Lord's books and they are absolutely gripping. As for television, my husband is addicted to 'dead body shows' as I call them. I sometimes feel guilty leaving him alone in front of the box, so one night I decided to hang in for an episode of one of his favourite forensics. The opening scene showed two fishermen in a dinghy discovering the body of a newborn baby in an old esky that was floating in the water. Now call me old-fashioned, but watching stuff like this does not relax me after dinner. I left him to it!
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Fiona Scott-Norman: Mmm. Not an anorak when it comes to crime. I used to love the Agatha Christie films - all those hats and deco frocks! - and I frigging adore Dexter. Recently got into Kate Atkinson. On the whole, though, I've seen too much crime fiction inhaled at old people's homes for me not to feel like it's what you do when you've got no life left.
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Tara Moss: I like my crime old-school (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes), with authenticity (Crime & Investigation Network), reality (Anne Rule), great research (Lynda La Plante), and with a fair bit of drama (13th Street Universal). I love a story with female strength (Prime Suspect), the odd psychopath (Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter/Patricia Highsmith's Ripley), and possibly a touch of naughtiness (Leigh Redhead's Simone Kirsch). And I certainly like my crime hard-boiled. As Raymond Chandler would say, 'When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.'
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Charlotte Wood: I have never been much of a crime reader or watcher - I hate the feeling of adrenaline, so most of my crime to date has been taken in the hilariously pathetic form of Midsomer Murders - the only crime show on TV that involves no adrenaline whatsoever. Gotta love Inspector Barnaby, the crinkled old devil.
Part of the reason I don't much turn to TV crime is that I get very weary of seeing young women's bodies on morgue slabs. Why is it always women who are chopped up in pieces, and sexually tortured, and mutilated, and so on? Sounds earnest, I suppose, but gahd I get sick of it.
That said, I have two absolutely favourite newish female crime fighters.
The first is Sarah Lund, the protagonist of the brilliant Danish series The Killing. I didn't watch this for ages because of the title, but when I finally did I was completely gripped by the psychological realism and the tenderness of it as much as the plot. Still a girl who gets the chop, but the structure of the series, in staying with one crime and attending as much to the family as the cops for the whole series, is very moving. Not to mention completely edge-of-the-seat gripping. Not sure if I will be able to watch series 2 when it comes; I could be way too anxious.
My other favourite new crimebuster is Nhu ‘Ned’Kelly, the flawed young Vietnamese-Australian detective and star of PM Newton’s brilliant novel The Old School. PM Newton was herself a Sydney homicide detective for 13 years, and she brings to Ned’s experience all the truth one would expect of such experience, as well as a freshness and integrity that is completely refreshing. It’s an absolutely gripping read, but also a brilliant portrayal of women in Australian policing, and captures a point in time quite wonderfully. I wouldn’t recommend any fiction, crime or other, that wasn’t well written – and PM Newton can WRITE, sister. I understand she is working on a sequel and I can’t wait to see what happens to Ned next.Go read The Old School now.
Latest 2 of 4 comments
Oh but woops I must make clear that The Killing and The Old School have absolutely nothing in common with Midsomer Murders! i.e. they both gave me the scary adrenaline jitters bigtime.
I’m thinking that Wendy better steer clear of The Killing, don’t you Charlotte? The scene where the parents return home from identifying their daughter to break the news to her two little brothers, and – instead of the usual cut-away – we are made to sit with that grief …..
I was in bits, and not because it was gratuitous, or emotionally manipulative but because it was honest.
Joss Whedon said that the most disrespectful thing you can do to a character is to kill them. The Killing shows how you do it, and make it mean something.
Thanks for your kind words about the book Charlotte.
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Sarah Maddison: Crime fiction and crime TV are such a deliciously guilty pleasure - unfortunately not one shared by my soft hearted partner who just finds it distressing. But my love of crime certainly makes travelling for work far more bearable - a night in a hotel room allows me to indulge my love of crime TV til late...
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Wendy Harmer: I confess to watching Forensic Files on Foxtel ( even though husband thinks I am a ghoul). I'm fascinated by the science of forensics- how analysis of a stray fibre, tyre track or footprint can solve a crime. I'm amazed by the advances in technology.
I'm less attracted by the real (or manufactured) human emotion surrounding a crime in film, TV and novels. I like the facts, m'am, nothing but the facts. For me it's: "Take this down to forensic".
You might say I'm cold-hearted, but it's the opposite. I can't deal with the immense pain and loss wreaked by murder, so I can only deal with the science of it.
But I still can't look away and I feel quite guilty about that.
I once flipped through the pages of a book about the Yorkshire Ripper and was utterly nauseated and never bought it. There are just some images I don't want ever implanted in my brain.
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