John Marsden: The Head Book

By MARGIE THOMSON

A soundbite "tour of knowledge" with popular Australian children's author John Marsden, although this one is for anyone who is not too fussy about the details but simply wants a handle on, for instance, William Shakespeare ("the Sir Don Bradman of writing"), the Russian revolution, Emile Zola's J'Accuse, the origin of various sayings such as being "sent to Coventry", or a raft of other information that you've stumbled inadequately through life without.

It's highly selective and subjective (the chapter "Nine Great Thinkers", for instance, loyally includes Aussies Germaine Greer and Peter Singer alongside more obvious candidates such as Freud, Einstein, Karl Marx and Charles Darwin) but that's what makes it good fun.

Pan Macmillan

$16.95