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S.A. Jones

S.A. Jones is a Melbourne-based writer, historian and regulatory analyst. She holds a PhD in History from the University of Western Australia and is the author of the novels Red Dress Walking (2008) and Isabelle of the Moon and Stars (2014). She is a regular contributor to Kill Your Darlings.

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The Age of Entitlement

The Age of Entitlement

S.A. Jones

Can Narcissistic Personality Disorder help us make sense of the Abbott experience? It is now seven months since Tony Abbott was deposed by his party two years into his prime ministerial term. Various explanations have been offered for how a sitting prime minister with a sizeable majority came to be our shortest serving leader since […]

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The Age of Entitlement

The Age of Entitlement

S.A. Jones

Castle Dreaming: Love in Paronella Park

Castle Dreaming: Love in Paronella Park

S.A. Jones

Leafing through tourist brochures on a visit to Cairns, I was immediately intrigued by ‘The Spanish Castle’. The glossy pamphlets pictured a balustrade and behind it the remains of a once grand, Mediterranean-style house hollowed out by fire or flood. The buildings were moss-covered and encroached upon by the luxuriant green of the tropics. ‘Come […]

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Castle Dreaming: Love in Paronella Park

Castle Dreaming: Love in Paronella Park

S.A. Jones

Weighty Issues: On Fat, Silence and Self-Knowledge

Weighty Issues: On Fat, Silence and Self-Knowledge

S.A. Jones

I’ve been catching up with old friends that I haven’t seen for a couple of years. I’m growing accustomed to the facial expression they will wear at some point during these get-togethers. The expression is characterised by a questioning flicker in the eyes and a pursing about the mouth, as if my friends are trying […]

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Weighty Issues: On Fat, Silence and Self-Knowledge

Weighty Issues: On Fat, Silence and Self-Knowledge

S.A. Jones

Smut Detective: Pornography, the Historian and the Law

Smut Detective: Pornography, the Historian and the Law

S.A. Jones

As a PhD student at the University of Western Australia, I spent several years ferreting through the National Archives to piece together the story of the regulation of pornography in Australia from 1945. While leafing through some customs records, I stumbled across a reference to a box of items confiscated by customs officials. The box […]

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Smut Detective: Pornography, the Historian and the Law

Smut Detective: Pornography, the Historian and the Law

S.A. Jones

The Birthing

The Birthing

S.A. Jones

There was room in my stomach for butterflies but not for breakfast. The midwife looked disapprovingly at my barely touched tray. ‘You’ll need your strength, love.’ ‘I know,’ I said apologetically. ‘But I’ve got snacks.’ ‘Let’s get you moving then.’ She piled my case, lunch box and books onto my bed, unhitched a lever and […]

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The Birthing

The Birthing

S.A. Jones

A Peanut-Cruncher’s Defence: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes

A Peanut-Cruncher’s Defence: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes

S.A. Jones

The peanut-crunching crowd Shoves in to see Them unwrap me hand and foot – The big strip tease. – Sylvia Plath, ‘Lady Lazarus’ I wept in March 2009 when the headlines baldly declared that Nicholas Hughes had suicided. I’d never met Nicholas Hughes. We never exchanged emails or shared friends. We didn’t even have […]

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A Peanut-Cruncher’s Defence: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes

A Peanut-Cruncher’s Defence: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes

S.A. Jones