Adelaide-based writer J. M. Coetzee, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003, has been labelled a "celebrity curmudgeon" by Sian Powell, the journalist in charge of the 'Strewth!' column of The Australian newspaper.

The story documents Coetzee's participation in a protest against the building of a permanent grandstand in one of the city's parks.

It's a convenient hook. I'm also not sure why Powell has placed the words "eminent persons" in quotes. Presumably to mock the people, who no doubt include among their number some of those despised elitists who poke their noses in where they're not wanted, working against the construction. A past exponent of the type was Patrick White, who continues to be suspect for sections of the nation's media.