Author Archives: Nathan Hobby

Update on the origins of the John-Curtin-went-missing story

30 Tuesday Apr 2024

Posted by in John Curtin

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Picture: John Curtin in 1941. John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, JCPML00376/133.

An update on my previous post. To recap, I thought I’d found two independent sources for the legend that on 21 February 1942, in the middle of the ‘cable war’ with Churchill about where returning Australian troops were to be sent, John Curtin went missing and, in the words of Peter Fitzsimons’ column last week, ‘Frederick Shedden organised for messages to be put up on screens in the city’s theatres around Canberra, broadly saying, if you are the Prime Minister, phone home’. One source is a 1995 interview with John Burton, who had then been head of External Affairs, and the other is an unreferenced lengthy quote labelled ‘Shedden’s words’ in a speech by David Black in 1998. But examining these two sources side by side, they are far too similar to be independent of each other. The sequence is exactly the same, the incidents included are exactly the same, and a couple of phrases are nearly verbatim.

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When John Curtin went missing: some notes about a legend in the news today

24 Wednesday Apr 2024

Posted by in archives and sources, biographical method, John Curtin

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John Curtin is in the news – Albo gave him a mention. Peter FitzSimons’ Anzac Day column today repeats the yarn that in the middle of the tense ‘cable war’ with Winston Churchill in February 1942, Curtin went missing and ‘Frederick Shedden organised for messages to be put up on screens in the city’s theatres around Canberra, broadly saying, if you are the Prime Minister, phone home’.

This legend is both intriguing and dubious sounding. John Edwards is not convinced about it in John Curtin’s War. He mentions it only as an endnote: ‘Though it has often been written, I am unconvinced of the accuracy of the story that Curtin was lost in the hills, and Shedden had advertisements for him placed in Canberra cinemas. It has the ring of a good yarn, especially the cinema ads, but is unlikely.’ (location 8195)

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Covid denial – my unanswered emails

14 Sunday Apr 2024

Posted by in Covid

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8 March was a busy day in political offices – I received emails from the Greens, ALP and my federal indepent member, Kate Chaney about the 2025 election. I wrote back to all of them with my concerns about Covid and have heard back from none of them yet, five weeks later. Here’s one of the emails I sent:

Dear Kate,

I am so pleased you are running again! Thank you for the great work you have done, you have been a hard working and effective voice in parliament for Curtin.  I have made a donation.

I’m asking that you please stand up for action on covid. Both federal and state governments are completely ignoring covid and they need to be held to account. The public don’t understand that covid is airborne, long covid is debilitating, and covid causes heart attacks and strokes. I’m yet to recover fully from my last bout of covid and there are many in much worse situations than me. The health of the whole population is suffering and vulnerable people don’t feel safe to leave their houses. We need:

  • Clean air in public buildings.
  • N95 masks in health care and an end to hospital acquired infections.
  • Long covid funding – Mark Butler has failed to implement the recommendations of the long covid inquiry. (Dr Monique Ryan has been a strong voice on this.)
  • A proper public health campaign so that people understand the risks of covid and the simple mitigations they can take, including wearing n95s inside.

The long term effects of repeat infections are playing out now in Britain, with an increase in disability and decrease in work participation. We can’t just keep ignoring covid, it is not going away.

Best wishes, Nathan Hobby

My new project – ‘the Everest of political biographies’?

27 Wednesday Mar 2024

Posted by in John Curtin, Uncategorized

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John Curtin in 1941. JCPML00376/133.

After much hesitation and over-thinking, I plunged into starting my new book one day in July last year. Progress has been slow until recent weeks – I’ve been unwell since I got covid again in September. But now it’s coming together – I think this book has momentum, I think it’s going to work.

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‘The prime-minister’s Shangri-La’: upcoming tour of the Curtin Family Home

26 Tuesday Mar 2024

Posted by in John Curtin, news and events

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I have a wonderful day job, working in the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, looking after our John Curtin collection and the other special collections of Curtin University Library. An upcoming highlight of my job is a rare opportunity to guide tour groups through the Curtin Family Home in Cottesloe. John Curtin, prime minister of Australia from 1941 to 1945, and his wife Elsie had the house built in 1923 and four generations of the family lived on there until 1998. It was purchased by the government and is looked after by the National Trust of Western Australia. Most of the year it is available to stay in as an Airbnb – but as part of the Australian Heritage Festival, it will be open for tours on 18 and 19 April.

The house retains much of the feel of how it would have been in John Curtin’s day. ‘Shangri-La’ was an earthly paradise in the Himalayas in James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon (1933). The Curtin Family Home isn’t that even in a metaphorical sense; the subheading of the Women’s Weekly article above is more true than the headline – ‘Mrs Curtin has made a true haven of their modest bungalow home’. The modesty of the house speaks to John Curtin and his prime ministership. He was a true believer with a vision of a better world who lived simply in accordance with his beliefs. He led by example in the austerity drive through the Second World War with Elsie as the face of the campaign and people knew of his sincerity and integrity. Yet being prime minister was difficult on the family, and some of the complexities show through in the depictions of life in the Curtin Family Home left by his children. Our tour uses oral histories, photographs, objects and contemporaneous glimpses in newspapers and letters to create a picture of a life both typical of the 1920s to 1940s in many ways and atypical in some important ways. It will give a sense of an ordinary extraordinary family and the strangeness of a prime minister hailing from this suburban house in Cottesloe.

You can book your free ticket here.

Katharine Susannah Prichard in the WA Women’s Hall of Fame – upcoming talk

24 Sunday Mar 2024

Posted by in news and events

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Katharine Prichard looking out the window of her writing cabin, ca. 1930s.

Katharine Susannah Prichard was ambivalent about feminism because she didn’t think gender inequality could or should be addressed without tackling class inequality. Yet she was a shining example of a woman who broke free of the constraints placed on her by the patriarchy in the early twentieth century to achieve a stellar literary career. She also spoke at several International Women’s Day events between the wars. It’s fitting, then, that in a ceremony at Government House on 7 March, she was one of the inductees to the WA Women’s Hall of Fame posthumous ‘Roll of Honour’.

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Upcoming event – Katharine Susannah Prichard in Glen Eira

20 Wednesday Mar 2024

Posted by in news and events

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Katharine Susannah Prichard grew up mainly in Caulfield South and was shaped by Federation-era Melbourne. Her Melbourne backstory, and particularly her connection to the Glen Eira era, will be the focus of an upcoming talk I’m giving about my book, The Red Witch. It’s at 12pm AEST on Wednesday 15 May at Bentleigh Library in Melbourne (not to be confused with Perth’s Bentley library!). I will be appearing via Zoom – you can either watch with others in person at Bentleigh Library or via Zoom like me. The event is hosted by the Glen Eira Historical Society. I’m grateful for GEHS’s interest in my biography; I spent some time looking at GEHS’s collection to learn more about the area when I was in Melbourne in 2015 and they were very helpful. Bookings can be made here.

Red Witch review in the Australian Journal of Biography and History

20 Tuesday Feb 2024

Posted by in My KSP biography, news and events

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I’m glad reviews don’t come out all at once. The new issue of the Australian Journal of Biography and History has the most generous and engaged review by Dr Christina Spittel of my book, The Red Witch. Dr Spittel saw in my book so many things I was hoping readers would see. And her review shows such attention to the biographical process, its methods and ethics – a rare and wonderful thing! I’m so happy and grateful. You can read the review here. This new issue of AJBH is so full of interesting articles on biography and reviews of recent releases – the full open-access contents is here.

How To Do Biography by Nigel Hamilton

15 Thursday Feb 2024

Posted by in biographies, book review

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I’ve started writing a new biography but I still have some doubts, so I’m not ready to announce it yet. But I’ve re-read Nigel Hamilton’s How To Do Biography: A Primer (2008) as part of my process. I first read it just as I began writing the Katharine Prichard biography and it’s been a great refresher a decade later. One of the joys of this book is his dedication to the art of biography and his strong rebuttal of the criticisms which are made of the genre. There’s a sense of having a well-armed ally on my side.

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Talks on Katharine Susannah Prichard this coming week – Guildford and Morley

10 Saturday Feb 2024

Posted by in news and events

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I’m giving two talks on the life of Katharine Susannah Prichard in this coming week and I would love to see you there.

Swan Guildford Historical Society
Monday 12th February, 7pm for a 7.30pm start.
Location: St Matthew’s Hall, Stirling Square, Meadow Street Guildford
This is the monthly meeting of the society and guests are welcome.

The Life, Loves and Books of Katharine Susannah Prichard, the Red Witch of Greenmount
Thursday 15 February, 5:30pm
Location: Morley Public Library, 240 Walter Road West Morley, WA 6062
This is for the City of Bayswater’s Library Lovers Week. Free but please book a ticket – https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/library-lovers-week-the-red-witch-with-biographer-nathan-hobby-tickets-743349306787

And if you are coming, please feel free to wear an n95 mask in this age of ongoing covid – I will be!