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New Books Network

About Bede Haines

Bede Haines is a solicitor, specialising in litigation and a partner at Holding Redlich, an Australian commercial law firm. He lives in Sydney, Australia. Known to read books, ride bikes and eat cereal (often). bede.haines@holdingredlich.com

Bede's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Bede:

Australian and New Zealand Studies April 26, 2022

Girt Nation

The Unauthorised History of Australia (Volume 3)

David Hunt

Hosted by Bede Haines
The saga of Australia continues with... Girt Nation: The Unauthorised History of Australia, Volume 3 (Black Inc., 2021). David Hunt tramples the tall poppies of the past in charting Australia's …
Australian and New Zealand Studies October 29, 2021

Currowan

A Story of Fire and a Community During Australia's Worst Summer

Bronwyn Adcock

Hosted by Bede Haines
The Currowan fire – ignited by a lightning strike in a remote forest and growing to engulf the New South Wales South Coast – was one of the most terrifying …
Australian and New Zealand Studies October 19, 2021

Upheaval

The Great Digital Disruption in Journalism and Its Aftermath

Andrew Dodd and Matthew Ricketson

Hosted by Bede Haines
Matthew Ricketson joins to discuss how newsrooms, the engine rooms of reporting, have shrunk. A generation of journalists has borne witness to seismic changes in the media and this book …
Australian and New Zealand Studies September 13, 2021

Child Sexual Abuse Inquiries and the Catholic Church

Reassessing the Evidence

Virginia Miller

Hosted by Bede Haines
In Child Sexual Abuse Inquiries and the Catholic Church: Reassessing the Evidence (Firenze UP, 2021), Dr Miller analyses empirical findings, methodologies and conclusions of the three main national inquiries (Irish, US, Australian) …
Australian and New Zealand Studies September 6, 2021

Tongerlongeter

First Nations Leader and Tasmanian War Hero

Henry Reynolds and Nicholas Clements

Hosted by Bede Haines
Nicholas, today's guest, explains Australia has no war hero more impressive than Tongerlongeter. Leader of the Oyster Bay nation of south-east Tasmania in the 1820s and ’30s, he and his allies …
Australian and New Zealand Studies August 25, 2021

Return to Uluru

A Killing, Hidden history, a Story that Toes to the Heart of the Nation

Mark McKenna

Hosted by Bede Haines
Today I talked to Mark McKenna about his new book Return to Uluru: A Killing, Hidden history, a Story that Toes to the Heart of the Nation (Black Inc, 2021). When McKenna set …
Australian and New Zealand Studies August 6, 2021

The Writer's Diet

Helen Sword

Hosted by Bede Haines
Helen Sword, writing champion, brings us into the word gym. Or maybe kitchen. Either way, The Writer's Diet: A Guide to Fit Prose (U Chicago Press, 2016) is a short, sharp introduction …
Australian and New Zealand Studies July 29, 2021

Creating God

The Birth and Growth of Major Religions

Robin Derricourt

Hosted by Bede Haines
What do we really know about how and where religions began, and how they spread?  Robin Derricourt considers the birth and growth of several major religions, using history and archaeology …
Australian and New Zealand Studies July 19, 2021

The Other Half of You

Michael Mohammed Ahmad

Hosted by Bede Haines
I only ever asked you for one thing,' my father said, a quiver in his voice. 'Just this one thing.' It was as though I had smashed the Ten Commandments.'Oh …
Australian and New Zealand Studies June 29, 2021

Dingo Bold

The Life and Death of K'gari Dingoes

Rowena Lennox

Hosted by Bede Haines
Australia and dingos - we have a past and future, and not without controversy.  Dingo Bold: The Life and Death of K'gari Dingoes (Sydney UP, 2021) examines this relationship, with Rowena Lennox's encounter …
Education June 15, 2021

Level Up Your Essays

How to Fix Your University Essays and Get Better Grades

Inger Mewburn and Katherine Firth

Hosted by Bede Haines
I've had 18 years of formal education - why is writing so hard? Today's guests Dr Katherine Firth explains the disease's cure. The book Level Up Your Essays guides the reader through university essay writing, running through stages including …
Australian and New Zealand Studies June 1, 2021

Australian Jurists and Christianity

Geoff Lindsay and Wayne Hudson

Hosted by Bede Haines
Professor Wayne Hudson knows a lot - a whole lot - about religion and society. In Australian Jurists and Christianity (The Federation Press, 2021) Wayne, as co-editor, assembles a collection of …
Australian and New Zealand Studies May 19, 2021

The Missing Among Us

Stories of Missing Persons and Those Left Behind

Erin Stewart

Hosted by Bede Haines
'To be missing, you must be missed'.  Erin Stewart's 2021 book examines missing for just about every point of view.  In Australia 38,000 people are reported missing each year and …
Australian and New Zealand Studies April 30, 2021

Truth Telling

History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement

Henry Reynolds

Hosted by Bede Haines
What if the sovereignty of the First Nations was recognised by European international law in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? What if the audacious British annexation of a whole continent …
Australian and New Zealand Studies April 20, 2021

Leaning into the Spirit

Ecumenical Perspectives on Discernment and Decision-making in the Church

Virginia Miller and David Moxon

Hosted by Bede Haines
Religions, indeed those of the same religion, getting along? Maybe. Dr Virginia Miller edits and contributes to an essay collection on how this thorny issue can be approached - and we've …
Australian and New Zealand Studies April 13, 2021

Cruelty Or Humanity

Challenges, Opportunities and Responsibilities

Stuart Rees

Hosted by Bede Haines
Stuart Rees's Cruelty or Humanity: Challenges, Opportunities and Responsibilities (Policy Press, a Bristol University Press imprint, 2020) exposes politicians' fascination with cruelty in their deliberations about policies. Through empirical analysis, human stories and …
Australian and New Zealand Studies April 2, 2021

British India, White Australia

Overseas Indians, Intercolonial Relations and the Empire, 1901-1947

Kama Maclean

Hosted by Bede Haines
Commonwealth, curry and cricket: now that explains India and Australia! Not really, and not according to today's guest. Kama Maclean discusses her book British India, White Australia: Overseas Indians, Intercolonial Relations and …
Australian and New Zealand Studies March 22, 2021

After Australia

Michael Mohammed Ahmad

Hosted by Bede Haines
After Australia (Affirm Press with the Sweatshop Literacy Movement 2021). No, Australia has not ended - it's a book edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Climate catastrophe, police brutality, white genocide, totalitarian rule and …
Australian and New Zealand Studies March 10, 2021

On Secrets

Annika Smethurst

Hosted by Bede Haines
On June 4, Federal Police raided the home of Walkley award-winning journalist Annika Smethurst, changing her life forever. The police claimed they were investigating the publication of classified information, her …
Australian and New Zealand Studies February 26, 2021

Eating with My Mouth Open

Sam van Zweden

Hosted by Bede Haines
Wow! Food, family, memory, insight, body, mind - worth the effort this one. Eating with My Mouth Open (NewSouth, 2021) is food writing like you’ve never seen before: honest, brave, and …
Australian and New Zealand Studies January 27, 2021

The Bible in Australia

A Cultural History

Meredith Lake

Hosted by Bede Haines
The bible and Australian society! Meredith Lake's published a new 2020 edition of The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History (NewSouth Books, 2020). It's history and sociology and reflections on religion's role on the 'Great …
Australian and New Zealand Studies January 11, 2021

A Bridge Between

Spanish Benedictine Missionary Women in Australia

Katherine Massam

Hosted by Bede Haines
Katharine Massam's A Bridge Between: Spanish Benedictine Missionary Women in Australia (ANU Press, 2020) is the first book detailing the Benedictine women who worked at New Norcia, examining their life in the …
Australian and New Zealand Studies January 5, 2021

The Convent

A City Finds Its Heart

Stuart Kells

Hosted by Bede Haines
Nuns, inmates, community vs corporation, Australia, oasis in a metropolis. The Abbotsford Convent left to languish for years after the last of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd had gone. In its …
Australian and New Zealand Studies December 21, 2020

The Ways of the Bushwalker

On Foot in Australia

Melissa Harper

Hosted by Bede Haines
Today I talked to Melissa Harper about her book The Ways of the Bushwalker: On Foot in Australia (NewSouth, 2020). Australians have always loved to step out in nature, whether off-track or …