Over a few beers after a brilliant conversation between Stan Grant and Richard Flanagan, the talk naturally moved to politics and football. It was the week before the AFL Grand Final and a moment of Trump’s strengthening in the polls. George Megalogenis, who’d joined us, was worried; so were we all. Then Richard opined that the fate of the US election lay in the upcoming Grand Final: ‘If the doggies win, then Trump’s lost.’ What the connection between the AFL Grand Final and the US Presidential election was wasn’t clear, but we were all heartened when the Doggies did win.

Flanagan had flown up from Hobart to shine the spotlight on Stan Grant, the Indigenous journalist and author of Talking to My Country, a powerful statement on racism in our country. The book, Flanagan declared, was ‘the most important book published here this year.’ The event was a fundraiser for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation which runs literacy projects in remote communities around Australia. Flanagan is an ambassador for the ILF and $21,000 was raised for the ILF at the event with Grant.

Grant has been commissioned to write a Quarterly Essay on Indigenous futures, which looks particularly at the future of remote communities. That will be out in December. Flanagan, too, has been working on a new book and has delivered the first draft of the as-yet-untitled manuscript to his publisher, Nikki Christer at Penguin Random House. Of the new book, Christer says: ‘It’s quite different to his earlier books; it’s often very funny.’ The book is about a ghost writer and Flanagan started his career as ghost writer for John Friedrich, the notorious con man. That will be probably be published late in 2017. I’m very much looking forward to it.

I can’t not talk about the book Kiffy Rubbo: Curating the 1970s edited by Janine Burke and Helen Hughes and reviewed here. It’s about the work of my late sister, Kiffy Rubbo, who ran the highly innovative George Paton and Ewing Gallery at the University of Melbourne. Kiffy took a little used gallery space in the Union Building and turned it into a hothouse of Australian and international contemporary art. The gallery staged the first survey exhibition of Australian women painters (curated by Janine Burke), hosted the great American art critic Lucy Lippard and artists such as Christo. For two weeks in 1975, performance artist Stelarc lived under a steel plate suspended from the roof in the gallery, naked and performing all bodily functions in front of the patrons. The book is a collection of essays presented at a seminar last year on the influence of Kiffy and the George Paton Gallery. It also includes a collection of letters from Kiffy to our brother, Michael, which portray a loving, creative and inspiring woman; one who, towards the end of her life, reveals herself as immensely and tragically troubled.

Our wonderful Summer Reading Guide will be in the Age on Saturday 19 November and in our shops from Thursday 17 November. It’s full of wonderful book, music and film suggestions and lots of great deals.

Mark Rubbo