ELLIS BOOK PRAISES CLARE MARTIN

Despite his bumbling, incoherent recent performance on the ABC’s Q and A , author Bob Ellis is undoubtedly a great national asset . His odd utterances during the debates made the quaint Young Liberal on a previous show ,unable to put a meaningful sentence together, seem like a clued- up Einstein Factor contestant with a special subject - waffling. His performance may be due to the fact that he seems to make frequent quick return car trips from Sydney to Canberra and work through the night to meet deadlines for plays, books and film scripts. It is to be hoped viewers not aware of the existence of ALP warhorse Ellis ( hard to believe ) are not put off reading his latest book And So It Went… Night Thoughts in a Year of Change , Viking , a Penguin imprint. Ellis is akin to the great American writer , Norman Mailer, who pummelled , prodded and punched his nation with great literary onslaughts of new journalism , combining actual events, autobiography, political and social commentary , history and poetry .

Ellis’s bumper book is masterful, informative, entertaining , full of political insights and despair . Somehow, it seems the NT media has completely overlooked the NT content . The relentless search for crocs, unidentified flying objects and g-strings apparently leaves little time for local scribes to read anything other than the police blotter and PR hand outs.

Former NT Chief Minister , Clare Martin, whom Ellis calls a brave Labor heroine, likening her to film star Deborah Kerr , rates several mentions , and he muses that she could have become Prime Minister. Martin’s successor , Paul Henderson , is described in the book as “ inept”.

Ellis uses strong and unusual language to describe the Howard intervention in the NT – the investigation of Aboriginal children dubbed Ar*se Prodders Without Borders. Martin “ the most effective female politician in Australia’s history”, is brought down by the child abuse issue , he writes; the disgraced Bob Collins and his suicide is also mentioned.

Also covered in detail is Kevin Rudd’s visit to the New York strip club avec the NY Post editor, Col Allan, son- in -law of the late NT News editor, Jim Bowditch, and Warren Snowdon, Member for Lingiari , with scathing comments about the media .

On hearing of Norman Mailer's death , Ellis wrote that the writer had influenced his own literary efforts in earlier years . Mailer also put the hard word on Germaine Greer and regretted not having done the same to Marilyn Monroe . This is a worthy tome to buy for $35 and never lend because the borrower will almost certainly fail to return it to you . Take it to dinner parties and barbies to both entertain and infuriate lotus eaters by reading passages in between drinks .