ABR Critics Griffen-Foley

Critic of the Month

Bridget Griffen-Foley was born in Sydney in 1970 and educated at Macquarie University. Her PhD thesis became her first book, The House of Packer: The Making of a Media Empire (1999). She continues to specialise in the Australian media, writing Sir Frank Packer: The Young Master (2000) and Party Games: Australian Politicians and the Media from War to Dismissal (2003).

Bridget worked in the Department of History at the University of Sydney before returning to Macquarie University in 2003 to take up an Australian Research Council QEII fellowship. She is now completing Changing Stations: The Story of Australian Commercial Radio.

Bridget Griffen-Foley and ABR

Bridget's first review appeared in ABR in 1994, when she reviewed a new book about Dr H.V. Evatt, the subject of her Honours thesis. In 2000 Helen Daniel asked Bridget for a La Trobe University Essay reflecting on her experiences writing about the Packer dynasty and being perceived as the author of an 'unauthorised' biography. Bridget has since reviewed numerous books in the fields of the media and Australian politics and biography. She looks forward to the day when the ABR editor hands her a book about her secret enthusiasm: tennis.

In 2003 Bridget became an ABR editorial adviser, and the following year joined the board. She sees her appointment as further evidence of the magazine's national reach. In 2004 Peter Rose also asked Bridget to introduce an occasional column about the media. Inspired in part by the media musings of another historian - K.S. Inglis in the legendary Nation - Bridget uses the independent outlet that is ABR to observe, record and comment on notable moments in the evolution of the Australian media.

What does Bridget Griffen-Foley expect of a review?

'A review should treat a book on its own terms, and not be about the book the reviewer wishes (s)he had written. Reviews that are worthwhile should situate the book in the writer's oeuvre and in the field more generally. The reviews that I admire bear some of the characteristics of all great writing - intelligence, insight, dexterity, style and wit'.

Some ABR reviews by Bridget Griffen-Foley