I arrive early at the Tropicana Caffe in Darlinghurst, but Richard Glover has got there first and is sitting smiling to himself in a corner booth, the happiest man in the room.
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Glover → arrive → room
Glover explains that he is coming up for air after a year of “archive fever”.
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he → explain → fever
“The historian Clare Wright talks about the term.
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historian → talk → term
I’ve been able to spend a year, often in the state library, with the manuscripts and the books and the fever of ‘I’ve got to find this document’.”
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I → spend → document
Glover’s latest book, How to Ruin a Child, is the fruit of these monastic labours – a moving and often very funny examination of child-rearing in Australia, from the early days of absurd discipline to today’s mad mix of helicopter caregiving and internet-driven parenting fads.
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book → ruin → caregiving
After 26 years of live radio, Glover left the ABC in 2024, and for the first time has been able to plunge wholeheartedly into a project.
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Glover → leave → project
“There’s something wonderful about having the time to do research,” he says.
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he → ’ → research
“My other books were written by diving into the library for two hours and then going into work at 11 o’clock.”
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books → write → o’clock
He describes the thrill of uncovering century-old teaching notes, beautifully handwritten in copperplate, that shed light on the early thoughts of education researchers.
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that → describe → researchers
The biggest revelation, though, was that hardly any of the parenting experts had the faintest idea what they were doing.
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they → have → what
“It is incredible how mad the ideas were,” he says.
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he → say → ?
The common thread, of course, was that hardly any of the experts actually had kids.
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any → have → kids
“The advice was very explicit – don’t cuddle.
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advice → cuddle → ?
If they cry it is an exercise for their lungs, if you do cuddle them when they’re crying, it’s their first lesson in self-indulgence and they will become spoilt little tyrants.
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they → cry → tyrants
The conversation flows – with a one-year-old and a five-year-old at home, I’m all ears – and we forget to order.
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we → flow → home
But as the lunchtime buzz begins to grow, the waiter begins hovering and I pick up the menu and, given that we’re talking about kids, randomly ask for a banana milkshake.
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we → begin → milkshake
“Oh well, if we’re in that territory,” Glover says, lighting up.
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Glover → ’re → territory
I’ll have a caramel milkshake, please.
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I → have → milkshake
I haven’t had one in years.
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I → have → years
Glover opts for the pasta con gamberi as a main – malfadine pasta with king prawns, chilli, garlic white wine and tomato sugo – and I order the bolognese, a delicious braised beef ragu with tomato and parmagiano-reggiano, and we split a bruschetta entree.
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we → opt → entree
Tropicana is a cheerful Darlo institution – Tropfest film festival was founded here, and at one stage it reportedly had an internal alarm that warned patrons when a parking inspector was lurking nearby – and the food is wholesome, fresh and fun.
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food → found → patrons
As the bruschetta rapidly vanishes, Glover explains why he chose the venue.
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he → vanish → venue
“One of the things about this place is that it’s the last place I had lunch with James Valentine.
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I → ’ → Valentine
I was driving him to the hospital and we stopped off here and had lunch.
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we → drive → lunch
It was the last time we were really able to have a conversation.”
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we → have → conversation
Valentine, the late ABC presenter and musician, died in April and Glover was among those who spoke at his memorial in Sydney Town Hall.
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who → die → Hall
“He was the great piece of luck in my professional life,” Glover says.
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Glover → say → life
“I think we shared an ethos, an idea that people are important in themselves. That the little detritus of everyday life is worth recording.
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detritus → think → life
I’ve always felt this, and I think James was the same.
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James → feel → this
That an argument about how you stack the dishwasher and the way that people talk about their partners and their children and their dogs is the reason why everything else is important, in a way.
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everything → stack → way
It’s worth recording and it’s worth celebrating because it says that human life is important in itself.
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life → ’ → itself
It’s a feeling that has shaped Glover’s writing, and especially the Saturday columns in the Herald through which generations of readers have followed the whimsical exploits of Glover, his long-suffering partner, Jocasta – writer Debra Oswald – their children, Batboy and Space Cadet, and the family pets.
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generations → ’ → Glover
“It’s a challenge to burrow down into everyday life, and it’s a challenge to be funny sometimes.
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it → ’ → life
A lot of things hammer on the door and demand to be listened to.
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lot → hammer → door
But I always aspire to being funny, or try to.”
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I → aspire → ?
A cadetship at the Herald in 1983 trained Glover to write “straight” journalism, but he says he often felt drawn to documenting the lighter, less newsworthy, but often more rewarding side of life.
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he → train → life
“You had to fight quite hard to get in the paper,” he says.
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he → have → paper
“There was a thing called ‘news hold’, which was full of my stories.”
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which → be → stories
Glover rose to be a senior editor and a foreign correspondent at the paper, and carried his taste for everyday whimsy with him.
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Glover → rise → him
“There’s the view that journalism is printing what someone doesn’t want printed, and that’s true.
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that → ’ → ?
…and 50 more, not listed.
The Aporia
