Word On Books
with Jeremy Fenton
Working for Rupert
By Hugh Lunn, Published by Hodder
 When Hugh Lunn announced that he was leaving the Australian newspaper after 17 years to write his memoirs, he was widely informed that there was no market for such books.
How wrong the nay-sayers were.
Vietnam: A Reporter's War, Lunn's first book (on the cynicism of journalists in war), received the Age Book of the Year award in 1985 and has not been out of print since its initial publication.
Subsequently, Over the Top with Jim (his first childhood memoir and best known work) has sold over 200,000 copies and is the third highest selling non-fiction book ever published in Australia.
His latest book, Working for Rupert (detailing his time with the then fledgling Australian newspaper under a succession of editors from 1971 to 1987) is another perfectly pitched memoir – laugh-out-loud funny, touching, illuminating and vastly entertaining.
Lunn is the consummate raconteur, with anecdotes and tales filling every page of this wonderful book.
Although this is definitely Lunn's story, the presence of Rupert Murdoch at all times looms large.
'No one ever seemed to know when Rupert was coming, or where he was going, or if he was still around, or when he was leaving, or even where he had been. No one dared ask.'
Really, Lunn is incapable of writing a boring or poorly constructed sentence as his three Walkley Awards for journalism attest. I couldn't put this book down until I had read it from cover to cover. A gem.
2007: A Novel
By Robyn Williams, Published by Hodder
 The year is 2007 and something unprecedented is happening on Earth. For decades scientists have been warning that environmental negligence will reap violent and catastrophic results. And now it's beginning to happen.
Natural disasters have reached a point where the future of the planet now hangs in the balance.
While us humans debate endlessly and try to ignore the critical warning signs, Earth's animals have ideas other than letting their world become uninhabitable.
Beginning a massive campaign to force change – airports are shutdown by enormous numbers of pelicans, whales sink ships, and cows close Melbourne city.
The ‘pets' and domesticated animals of the world soon join the insurrection, as world governments work out just what to do about the problems. Could it be time to release a biological sterilisation agent that will settle the animal problem once and for all time? (With meat then being ‘grown' to order in laboratories).
Enter one Tasmanian scientist – plus his daughter and her dog Jez – to the rescue.
This is ABC science broadcaster Robyn Williams's first novel – and it is very entertaining.
A cracking pace is maintained throughout, with some of the biggest issues ever to face humans canvassed without being overly sanctimonious or pessimistic.
The book (thankfully) is not told from the animals' point of view (although some of the biggest laughs come from Williams's description of cat behaviour), and there are thinly disguised guest appearances from high profile environmentalists/ conservationists like David Suzuki and David Attenborough.
2007 is one very funny and bitingly topical satire on the ‘arrogance of our species'. Recommended.
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