In a country where property and real estate are central to the national psyche, it is fair to say that, even by Australian standards, we are having a moment. From the Great Australian Dream to the widespread recreational pursuit of watching The Block, real estate has become the nation’s article of faith. Meanwhile, a confluence of factors has seen housing become the hottest political issue in the country. Far from the dream, we have seemingly arrived at the worst of all possible worlds, where housing is too expensive to buy, too expensive to rent, and too expensive to build. Those without a leveraged portfolio of their own are rightly asking how we got into this mess.

This is a question that veterans of the heritage battles fought in Australia’s cities may be contemplating too, as they find themselves re-prosecuting arguments thought settled in the 1970s. Largely through grassroots activism, the Australian heritage movement succeeded over decades in winning recognition and protection for places deemed significant. This would eventually be cemented with the establishment of legislation, statutory bodies, and a professional industry.

Belgium’s history with what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of brutality and exploitation. In 1885, Leopold II, King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, became the sole owner of what was then called the Congo Free State. The story of how one of Africa’s largest countries, roughly the size of Western Europe, became privately owned – that is, not owned by the Belgian state but by its people’s king – is one of complex deceit, subterfuge, greed and mania. Leopold was responsible for the killing and mutilation of millions of people – some estimate up to ten million – in Central Africa. Animals were victims too. ‘At the start of the nineteenth century there were up to twenty-six million elephants in Africa. That number currently sits between four and five hundred thousand.’ In nine years, the tusks of 94,000 elephants were shipped into Antwerp alone. Eventually, forced to relinquish to Belgium his so-called Congo Free State, Leopold destroyed all incriminating documents, writing to an aide, ‘I will give them my Congo, but they have no right to know what I did there.’ The Palace furnaces were said to burn for eight days.

Andy Griffiths is a children’s and comedy writer. He is the author of the Just! series and the Treehouse series. YOU & ME and Peanut Butter Beast, the second book in his newest series, is published in August 2025.

If you could go anywhere tomorrow, where would it be?

Time travel back to yesterday thereby creating an infinite loop that means I’ll stay the same age forever and cheat death.

What’s your idea of hell?

Hell. (Especially as depicted by Gustave Doré in his illustrations for The Divine Comedy.)

What do you consider the most specious virtue?

Moderation. ‘The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom’ – William Blake.

What’s your favourite film?

King Kong (1928). (The second half of YOU & ME and the Peanut Butter Beast borrows heavily from the second half of the movie.)

And your favourite book?

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. (The first half of YOU & ME and the Peanut Butter Beast borrows heavily from the first chapter.)

Name the three people with whom you would most like to dine?

King Kong, Fay Wray, and Pee Wee Herman. (Although it would most likely be a short meal due to King Kong’s propensity to go ape in the presence of Fay Wray.)

Which word do you most dislike, and which one would you like to see back in public usage?

The word I most dislike is ‘unconscious’ because it’s freakin’ impossible to spell without having at least three bungled attempts before having to look it up. And I’d like to see ‘grouse’ brought back into public usage because, well, it’s freakin’ grouse. (And ‘freakin’ too.)

Who is your favourite author?

Me, of course, duh. Closely followed by Lech Blaine – Australian Gospel is a masterpiece!

And your favourite literary hero or heroine?

Holden Caulfield. Although, his voice leaps off the page in such a vivid and compelling way I’m not completely certain he’s fictional.

Which qualities do you most admire in a writer?

Brevity. Wit. And brevity. Lots and lots of brevity. And wit. But mostly brevity. Lots and lots and lots of it.

Which book influenced you most in your youth?

Coles Funny Picture Book (1879) by E.W. Cole. Inexhaustible, child-centred nonsense.

Name an early literary idol or influence whom you no longer admire – or vice versa.

My childhood collection of riddle books from the late 1960s. I revered them at the time but on returning to them as an adult to raid for material for the Treehouse joke books, I was shocked by the casual racism, sexism, and general inappropriateness of at least fifty per cent of the material.

Do you have a favourite podcast?

No, if it’s a choice between a podcast and listening to music, music wins every time. (Apart from ABR’s one of course.)

What, if anything, impedes your writing?

Alcohol (sadly). And writers’ festivals.

What qualities do you look for in critics?

A sense of humour and a healthy connection to their inner child.

How do you find working with editors?

Reader, I married her!

What do you think of writers’ festivals?

Too much talking. I hardly ever get any writing done.

Are artists valued in our society?

Yes, but in many cases not for the right reasons.

What are you working on now?

Another book featuring YOU, the reader, and ME, the writer, going on yet another one of our unpredictable and wildly silly adventures.

The poems of Bathypelagia by Debbie Lim and Re:Vision by Isi Unikowski are poems of cartography; they map the unknown and probe the world with human curiosity, tracing meaning onto elusive places, feelings, and encounters, solidifying these through the writing process. Both collections conspire to understand the world as they construct their realities one line at a time, the poems themselves moving – in the former’s case, vertically from the deep sea, and, in the latter’s case, through the casting of light, the revealing of landscapes.