| Anne Summers' story of her extraordinary career is a riveting read as we follow the journey of someone who has been a journalist, author, policy maker, bureaucrat, editor, publisher, board member and above all change agent. She has helped us see things differently, beginning - as her new book does - with the publication of her classic, Damned Whores and God's Police, a book which upended our understanding of Australia's history and present-day society. Anne starts her career as journalist with the National Times and wins a Walkley Award in her first year. Later, after a stint in the United States on a journalist's scholarship she arrives in Canberra to head up the bureau for the Australian Financial Review. She then leaves journalism to become a 'femocrat', running the federal Office of the Status of Women for Prime Minister Bob Hawke. Then come the New York years, where she returns to journalism, first as North American editor of the Australian Financial Review then as editor-in-chief of the landmark feminist magazine Ms. She returns to Australia to work for Prime Minister Paul Keating followed by becoming editor of Good Weekend and, later, then chair of the board of Greenpeace International. Later she boldly established her own online magazine, Anne Summers Reports, and the wildly popular public interviews with leading figures including Julia Gillard and Cate Blanchett. Her 2012 speech 'Her Rights at Work', documenting the sexual vilification of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, was downloaded more than 100,000 times. Anne has influenced and often shaped the political, cultural and social fabric of Australia, from whatever role she was occupying at the time. She shares wicked anecdotes about the famous and powerful people she has worked with or reported on, and is refreshingly frank about her own anxieties and mistakes. Unfettered and Alive is a provocative and inspiring memoir from someone who broke through so many boundaries to show what women can do. |
