Simon Caterson (LLB, BA (Hons), MPhil, PhD, CELTA) is a tutor in English, Literature, Media Studies, Journalism, Visual Arts, ESL at Mannix College, Monash University.

I did a search and this was the series of suggestions by the Google search field.







Caterson is clever, with a nice piece in Quadrant on (you guessed it) Mannix and Monash. The Jewish general and the Irish preacher. The fox and the hedgehog.

Or echidna - a touch of surrealism - says Caterson, whose item is filled with interest and, written in a fairly understated manner, also redolent with learning. History in a nutshell (or, possibly, a gum nut). History, at least, though (alas) it's only twentieth century history.

But you sense the erudition, the months and years of concentrated reading - most probably accompanied by note-taking - resulting in something very special. Yet the combination (Mannix, Monash) aligns a little too sweetly against Caterson's own place of docentary activity (Mannix, Monash). There's something not quite right.

Something fishy. Alas, that's all I can say. Melbourne is a thousand Ks away, and a generation distant as well, just another suburban fabric rising up in the world. Ah, Melbourne (land of my birth, of the gods of yore, of my transient dreams, of a host of good friends).

Melbourne. Bright city of gold, granite black and sky downcast; a hopeful emissary of more than money's bright train. A fairer battle, sunshine blistering the pavement that soaks up the rain.