The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards were announced in Melbourne on 8th December. Controversy surrounded the Australian History prize, in particular, when this was jointly awarded to Professor Joan Beaumont for her acclaimed Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War and to Hal G. P. Colebatch for his anti-union Australia’s Secret War: How Unionists Sabotaged Our Troops in World War II. Some critics have suggested that Colebatch’s late entry should have been submitted to the Australian Fiction category, given its alleged hearsay and historical fantasies. Continue reading Joan Beaumont and Richard Flanagan – winners of controversial PM’s Literary Awards →