Speaking personally
Robert Hughes, an expatriate critic and writer, returns to look at Australian society and culture in a six-part television series
AUSTRALIA has more to offer the world than the quaint stereotypes of Rolf Harris and Paul Hogan. And who better to delve into these complex manifestations of the national psyche than Robert Hughes, a celebrated expatriate commentator, author and art critic for Time. That at least was the intention behind a new television series financed by the BBC, New York's NVC-ARTS, MNET and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. But halfway through filming, things went terribly wrong. Driving at night on a deserted Western Australian highway, Mr Hughes suffered a near fatal head-on collision that shattered his body and left him in a coma for weeks.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Speaking personally”
From the September 9th 2000 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
Pep Guardiola, football’s greatest coach, is in a bind
A serial winner is learning how to lose
The Economist’s word of the year for 2024
The Greeks knew how to talk about politics and power
What do feta, cucumbers and cottage cheese have in common?
Social media and the internet are changing how people cook and relate to food
Germany’s former chancellor sets out to restore her reputation
But her new memoir is unlikely to change her critics’ minds
The best books of 2024, as chosen by The Economist
Readers will never think the same way again about games, horses and spies
What to read to understand Elon Musk
The world’s richest man was shaped by science fiction