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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

Summer essentials

All the best Australian series and features collected in one place
  • Illustration of a blanket on a beach with a pile of books on it

    Steamy, dishy, heart-thumping
    The ultimate summer reads

    From classic Terry Pratchett to Britney Spears’s tell-all, Guardian critics and staff pick the best books to devour from the beach, couch or bed
  • baby and grandmother hands

    I compete for my granddaughter’s attention with my mother. But the trick, it seems, is to stand back

    Jessie Cole
  • Topview of a plate of octopus and tomato salad

    ‘Fresh, vibrant, zingy’
    How to cook and eat as though you’re on holiday in Malta

  • Barry Keoghan in Saltburn.

    Saltburn
    How did the comedy-thriller become the most talked-about film of awards season?

  • ‘The heart is a pump and it behaved the way most pumps do when encountering a blockage: it strained, and strained some more, and began to break down.’

    I thought a near-death experience would be a wake-up call. I was a fool

    Tiger Webb
  • Harriet who is the host Of the Pluto Speed Dating night held at the Soda Factory bar, Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia. 29 November 2023.

    ‘Go and talk to strangers – it’s fun’
    Why speed dating is having a moment

The tale I dine out on

  • Actor and writer William McInnes in Somers, Mornington Peninsula

    William McInnes: ‘1979, the year my Wendy Sykes perm of love came to grief’

  • Wesley Enoch

    Wesley Enoch: ‘When I die, I want my DNA to go back into that ground, into that earth’

    The playwright, theatre director and Quandamooka man on how a wedding ring, curlews and a ‘grandfather’ ghost gum brought him the connection to country he craved
  • Mike Bowers holding a camera

    Mike Bowers: ‘We wrote the idea for Talking Pictures on a coaster – thank goodness because we’d had a few drinks’

    On a pub crawl in Belgium with Barrie Cassidy two decades ago, the photographer had a brilliant idea
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Anywhere but the beach

  • Composite image of the Brisbane River and its banks, including a river ferry and someone hugging a tree

    I fulfil Wiradyuri tradition by tree-hugging with purpose. Each hug aims to leave some love behind

    Anita Heiss
  • A composite picture of children playing, the Blue Mountains in the background and a snake curled up beside a tree.

    ‘Snakes on bush paths, pool dinners and storms – summers in the mountains are glorious’

    In the mountains, when it’s too hot to cook and too hot to be in the house, we’d loll on the grass and feel the cool of the evening start to steal in
  • Marrickville Terminus<br>Composite for James Bradley on the Inner West

    James Bradley’s summer: fig trees, cicadas and the warm possibility of night

    In Sydney’s densely developed inner west, this season has as much to do with the rhythms of urban life as it does with weather
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Words to live by

  • A black and white image of a young man in the 1970s with books open in front of him

    'A good rule of thumb for life'
    My father told me to always give a book 50 pages before deciding to put it down

    Adele Dumont
  • Father pulling son in wagon

    ‘You’re still you – but with kids’
    I was freaking out about our baby’s arrival when my friend offered a reminder

    Jasper Peach
    In this series, writers share the best advice they ever received and how it impacted their lives
  • Two young women at a table

    My high school teacher accidentally gave me a lifelong mantra: ‘If you think you hate everyone, have something to eat’

    Wendy Syfret
    In this series, writers share the best advice they ever received and how it affected their lives
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My big move

  • Lissie Turner and her husband on one of their planting days on the property.

    My big move: we were two surfers heading to cattle and cane country – against every bit of logic

  • Candice Chung sits on the bare floor of an empty living room, eating from plates placed on a piece of fabric resembling a picnic rug

    My big move: leaving Sydney for Glasgow, suddenly I was an old-school migrant again

    A deadly pandemic was raging but what kept Candice Chung’s parents up at night was the terror she might not find enough Asian food
  • A woman sitting on a train in Bangkok, looking into the distance.

    My big move: my dream job took me to Bangkok – but living overseas can be lonely without friends

    Thailand’s capital gave me the adventure I craved. But I couldn’t shake the feeling I was missing out on my friends’ lives back in Sydney
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Australia year in review 2023

  • Anthony Albanese’s approval is net negative in Guardian Essential and 76% of respondents are frustrated with what they see as a lack of action on food and grocery prices

    Post-honeymoon PM
    2023 brought Labor back down to earth. What does 2024 hold for Albanese and Dutton?

    Katharine Murphy
  • Jehrmess Waia from Saibai Island's Muyngu Koekaper dance team

    Australia’s best agency photography for 2023 – in pictures

    Protests, natural disasters and First Nations pride were among the memorable images from the past year taken by Australia’s wire agency photographers
  • Kylie Minogue, Troye Sivan, Angie McMahon, Genesis Owusu, Tkay Maidza and Jen Cloher

    Kylie, Jen Cloher, Troye Sivan and others: the 17 best Australian albums of 2023

    From queer ecstasy to award-winning post-punk, here are our critics’ favourite releases of the year
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Five great reads

  • Josh Hartnett with Kate Beckinsale in the 2001 film Pearl Harbor.

    Five Great Reads: why Josh Hartnett disappeared, AI recipes tested, and the war Israel cannot win

  • Eating champion Takeru Kobayashi

    Five Great Reads: when your family were Nazis, shipwrecked for 38 days, and the godfather of competitive eating

    Guardian Australia’s weekend wrap of essential reads from the past seven days, selected by Kris Swales
  • Troye Sivan and Charli xcx on stage at the Wembley arena in London last month

    Five Great Reads: Charli xcx and the Brat era, treating ADHD, and is there a ‘right’ way to grieve?

    Guardian Australia’s weekend wrap of essential reads from the past seven days, selected by Kris Swales
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