Australian humour

There are not many things about Australia that I miss, but I do sometimes hanker for the local irreverent, dry humour. So I enjoyed reading The Australian newspaper this morning with a piece on the British royal wedding. It had small pictures of Charles with Diana, then with Camilla, with captions that read "first wife", "next wife" ... implying there might be more.

In the "best" bookshop in Castle Hill, Dymocks, which isn't saying a lot (one length of serious non-fiction, one of 'literary fiction', loosely defined), I was somewhat surprised to find six hard-back copies of Cherie Booth's book, The Goldfish Bowl: Married to the Prime Minister 1955-1997, only $59.95 for the signed copy. (The only option on offer.)

Now I'm not a member of the Be Nasty to Cherie Blair Club: I think that like so many women in prominent positions she'll cop heaps of criticism no matter what she does, but these kinds of stunts - if they are here they must be everywhere - don't do anything for her image.