Some years ago when I had occasion to socialise with the then Minister for Conservation and Environment Kay Setches, she was talking about a torrid week she’d had trying to reconcile competing interests: she was exhausted from a stoush between the timber industry and old growth forests conservation groups. Why, she wondered, couldn’t a rational compromise be reached?
The answer to that, I told her, is because the protection of wilderness is an emotional issue. Yes, there are rational, scientific reasons why old growth forests and wilderness should be protected, but for some of us, it’s also because we love ancient Aussie trees. To stand beside a grand old tree that’s been there for hundreds of years and fear that it will be chopped down is an intensely emotional experience, one that inspires the tree’s defenders to fight passionately against the threat.
This new release from Black Inc comes highly recommended by Chloe Hooper (author of the much-awarded The Tall Man) and I believe (on the basis of the publisher’s blurb below) that it’s an important book that deserves wide publicity – but I don’t have time to read it before I set off on my travels. So, I’m offering it as a Book Giveaway to an Aussie reader who’s willing to write a brief review as a guest reviewer on this blog.
Here’s the blurb:
For many years, the Tasmanian wilderness has been the site of a fierce struggle. At stake is the future of old-growth forests. Loggers and police face off with protesters deep in the forest, while savage political games are played in the courts and parliaments.
In Into the Woods, Anna Krien, armed with a notebook, a sleeping bag and a rusty sedan, ventures behind the battlelines to see what it is like to risk everything for a cause. She speaks to ferals and premiers, sawmillers and whistle-blowers. She investigates personalities and convictions, methods and motives. This is a book about a company that wanted its way and the resistance that eventually forced it to change.
Into the Woods is intimate, intrepid reporting by a fearless new voice.
“Anna Krien’s intimate, urgent book pulsates with life and truth.” — Chloe Hooper
Title: Into the Woods, the Battle for Tasmania’s Forests
Hi Lisa, just a swift response to your most recent ‘blog post here!:
My name is Kirk Marshall, an emerging writer based out of Melbourne, Australia. I’ve previously written for over fifty literary publications, both online and overseas, including “Going Down Swinging”, “Voiceworks”, “fourW”, “Verandah”, “Word Riot” (U.S.A.) and “3:AM” Magazine (Paris). I’m also the editor of “Red Leaves”, Australia’s (and the world’s!) first English-language / Japanese bi-lingual literary journal.
I’d love to be afforded an opportunity to review Anna’s rigorous work of non-fiction on your ‘blog before October — I’ve heard great things about the substance & journalistic conviction of her book, and I like to perceive of myself as a pretty mobilized environmentalist, sympatico with the conservation effort of Tasmania’s old-growth hardwood forests, having previously worked for The Wilderness Society (Australia) for two years.
I’ve actually recently published a new book review on my up-to-date online weblog, commissioned for Brisbane’s “Avid Reader” Monthly newsletter, on “Lights Out in Wonderland” — DBC Pierre’s latest novel, in the wake of his appearance at the 2010 Melbourne Writers’ Festival. If you’d like a reasonably definitive conception of the way I’d approach composing a critique of a book, you can read the review here:
http://fun-with-kites.livejournal.com/
Hope this is sufficiently persuasive to excite you into conscripting me for the purposes of writing a review (!),
Exchange words again soon,
*Kampai*!,
Kirk.
By: Kirk Marshall on September 6, 2010
at 12:33 am
You’ve got it, Kirk! Please email me at gunungtwoatgmaildotcom (substitute 2 for two) with your address and it will be on its way ASAP.
Lisa:)
By: Lisa Hill on September 6, 2010
at 6:11 pm
Oh dear, Kirk, I have to withdraw this offer because you haven’t got back to me with an address and – because I have such a short timeline here – I have had to accept another offer.
I’ll certainly keep you in mind if a similar opportunity arises.
By: Lisa Hill on September 8, 2010
at 7:08 pm