Margaret Simons

the Biography

Penny Wong

In The Content Makers Margaret Simons explains the changes taking place in the Australian media. She analyses audiences, our major media organisations, the role of government – and the implications of all of these for our society and our democracy. Her examination leads her to the conclusion that the challenges facing the content providers in the modern world are part of a broader striving, a very old struggle – we might call it the search for meaning. The big media businesses may or may not survive into the future, but content certainly will, because we need it, and have always needed it. The Content Makers delivers a visceral understanding of how modern media works, gives a plain-language explanation of new media, and provides straightforward information on recent changes to ownership legislation and what they mean. But most importantly, it suggests a vision for the future – a. new way of looking at the role of the content makers and how they and their audiences might find new hope and purpose in the future.

The Content Makers

David Kilcullen

Trent Dalton

Patrick Carlyon

Kate Legge

Dave Tacon

Paul Toohey

Walkey Longreads 2015

The Murray-Darling Basin is the food bowl of Australia, and it's in trouble. What does this mean for the future - for water and food, and for the people and towns that depend on it? In this Quarterly Essay, acclaimed journalist Margaret Simons takes a trip through the basin, all the way from Queensland to South Australia. She shows that its plight is environmental but also economic, and enmeshed in ideology and identity. Her essay is both a portrait of the Murray-Darling Basin and an explanation of its woes. It looks at rural Australia and the failure of political processes over the last few generations to meet the needs of communities forced to bear the heaviest burden of change. It considers corruption and resource politics, drought and climate change.

Margaret Simons on Water, Drought, Food and Politics - the Murray Darling Basin:Quarterly Essay 77

Account and analysis of the fight between developers and local Australian Aborigines over the construction of a bridge between the mainland and Hindmarsh Island in South Australia in the 1990s. Looks at how the battle divided the indigenous and white communities, embroiled the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, and prompted a Royal Commission. Includes endnotes, references, and index.

The Hindmarsh Island Affair

The Meeting of the Waters

Novel set in a small town in South Australia's riverland. Lovers Athena and Sam engage in a power struggle while trying to 'tame' the wilderness which the original inhabitants, the Ngawait Aborigines, saw as an abundant garden. The author was awarded the inaugural Angus & Robertson Bookworld Prize in 1993 for this, her first novel.

The Ruthless Garden

Life lessons from the ground up. Sometimes you reap what you sow. Sometimes you reap what other people sowed. Sometimes you haven't got a clue what you are sowing, and sometimes you just get lucky, or unlucky. All these things are true of life, as of gardening. In this thoughtful and beautifully observed book, journalist and gardening enthusiast Margaret Simons takes readers on a journey through the seasons, through her life, and through the tiny patch of inner-urban earth that is home to her garden. Over the course of a year, within the garden and without, there are births to celebrate and deaths to mourn; there are periods of great happiness and light, and times of quiet reflection. There is, in other words, all the chaos, joy, sorrow, and splendour of being alive. PRAISE FOR MARGARET SIMONS ‘In Six Square Metres Margaret Simons, queen of the tiny vegetable garden, heartened me with her radiant pragmatism.’ The Saturday Age ‘[A] considered and meticulously observed book written by an author who is willing to share the tribulations and joys of a blended family, a fast-paced life and the endless smell of French fries. By doing so, she permits us to consider our own plot — in life and in gardening.’ Readings

reflections from a small garden

Six Square Metres

Story of an assertive woman with deep seated insecurities.

Simone de Beauvoir

Dating from her years as a philosophy student at the Sorbonne, this is the 1926-27 diary of the teenager who would become the famous French philosopher, author, and feminist, Simone de Beauvoir. Written years before her first meeting with Jean-Paul Sartre, these diaries reveal previously unknown details about her life and offer critical insights into her early philosophy and literary works. Presented here for the first time in translation and fully annotated, the diary is completed by essays from Barbara Klaw and Margaret A. Simons that address its philosophical, historical, and literary significance. The volume represents an invaluable resource for tracing the development of Beauvoir’s independent thinking and influence on the world.

Margaret Simons

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