The Rise and Fall of Australia: How a Great Nation Lost its Way, Bantam, North Sydney, 2014
Former BBC correspondent in Australia claims of Australia that ‘never before has its politics been so brutal, narrow and facile, as well as being such a global laughing stock’. Its ‘economic, commercial, diplomatic and cultural clout’, recession-proof economy, lifestyle advantages and artistic exports are offset by its unattractive politics, ‘with the nation’s leaders, on both sides, mired in relatively small problems, such as the arrival of boat people, rather than mapping out a larger and more inspiring national future’. Bryant ‘sets out to describe the new Australia rather than the mythic country so often misunderstood not just by foreigners but Australians themselves’. (blurb)
Mixed reviews in The Saturday Paper, The Australian (Louis Nowra) and The Hoopla. The author talks on Radio National and is interviewed on PM. More reviews in SMH and Herald Sun and Australian Independent Media Network.