John Button, Great Friend To Writing

The Age

Saturday April 12, 2008

Jason Steger

BOOKMARKS the former Labor politician and cabinet minister not only wrote with panache and wit but served the Melbourne Writers' Festival tirelessly, writes Jason Steger.

JOHN BUTTON, WHO DIED on Monday, was a great friend to Australian books and writing, and a terrific writer himself. He published three books, Flying the Kite, As it Happened and On the Loose, and was a frequent reviewer in these pages and elsewhere. His prose was always a joy to read and his observations original and perspicacious. His publisher at Text, Michael Heyward, said he had no doubt that had he not become a politician he would have become a writer. "He had a beautiful ear for a sentence, wonderful comic timing and he wrote about things with compassion and humanity."

Button was also a chair of the Melbourne Writers' Festival in the '90s. Such was the affection in which he was held that when he stepped down, the board wouldn't let him leave - it created the title of festival patron especially for him. Button was a familiar sight standing at the side of one of the Malthouse theatres listening intently before nipping out to sample another session. He probably saw more of each festival than anyone else. The then director Simon Clews said he made board meetings "that were riddled with windbaggery lightning fast and efficient. If he needed to call a board member a complete f---ing lunatic he would not hesitate to".

He remained a board member of Australian Book Review until last Thursday when he sent in a hand-written letter of resignation "with extreme regret".

Reading for Rudd

The fiction judges for the PM's new literary prizes - fiction: Peter Pierce, John Marsden and Margaret Throsby; non-fiction: Hilary Charlesworth, Sally Morgan and John Doyle - had their first link-up this week as they prepared to tackle the 90 or so novels entered for the $100,000 award. And there could be more. Pierce, the former professor of Australian literature at James Cook University and a frequent reviewer in these pages, said the judges could call in books should they feel like it. (Gluttons for punishment? Not at all.) He said they were likely to produce a shortlist by the end of June - they received bulging boxes last week - with the winner announced in September or October, depending on the availability of all concerned - authors, judges, public servants and one rather crucial politician. The judges are being paid what is called in public-service parlance a sitting fee, which seems appropriate given what they are being asked to do. Pierce for his part is very optimistic about the state of fiction - he abhors the phrase "literary fiction" - in Australia. "I think the shortlist will be a quality list."

Pop goes an Orange judge

But judges come and judges go. One to go is pop star Lily Allen, whose naming as an Orange Prize judge sparked a flurry of disgruntlement in some quarters in Britain. She has cited ill health as her reason for quitting the panel. Apparently she joined the discussion for the longlist by phone but took no part in shortlist discussions that were held last week. That shortlist will be announced on Tuesday at the London Book Fair.

ABC book undercooked

ABC Books had got all its ingredients together. An appetiser, admittedly pretty small, by London-based Australian food critic Terry Durack, the main course - a whopper - from a Canadian publisher, Madison Press Books, and it was ready to pull its latest dish, 1001 Foods You Must Eat Before You Die, from the publishing oven. But then there was a problem. It seems Quarto Books in London has made threatening noises about the title. Apparently it reckons it has some sort of proprietary hold on the "1001" things . . . line. So the ABC has halted distribution, withdrawn the book from sale and put the whole thing back into the freezer until it can be sorted out. But it is confident it will serve it up soon.

Pulitzer plus for Sydney

Good timing for the people at Sydney Writers' Festival, which last weekend announced this year's guests. One of them, the Dominican-American Junot Diaz, this week was named as winner of this year's Pulitzer prize for fiction for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, his first novel. (Drowning, which came out ages ago, was a collection of short stories.) Other winners were - history, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848, Daniel Walker Howe; biography, Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father, John Matteson; poetry, Time and Materials, by Robert Hass and Failure, Philip Schultz; general non-fiction, The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945, Saul Friedlander. For information about all the Sydney Writers' Festival guests -Anne Enright, Iain Banks, et al - go to swf.org.au.

Calling all poets

If you missed the debut of Poetry Idol at last year's Melbourne Writers' Festival - it was a hoot, by the way - you should know it's happening again. The next heat for poets will be held on May 6 at St Kilda Town Hall. If you're lucky you might get the chance to appear in the final, to be held at ACMI on August 31 as part of the festival's first appearance in Fed Square. And the three winners of each heat get $100 for their trouble. Inquiries: mfcrane2000@yahoo.com.

© 2008 The Age

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