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Wordplay: Shakespeare's creative coinage bursts the muzzle

<i>Illustration by Simon Letch</i>

Whenever Henrietta went to the opera she shut her eyes to block out the lascivious throats, the heaving breasts, the strapping torsos. Meanwhile a night of Shakespeare enforced the same lass to clap her palms over her ears, lest she absorb an innuendo.

Ann Patchett: I am a better writer without my father

Literary giant: Ann Patchett's seventh work of fiction, <i>Commonwealth</i>, is being hailed as one of the finest novels ...

Described as a literary giant, is the recipient of many awards, has featured on the Time 100 most influential people in the world list and has just released her seventh work of fiction, Commonwealth. Early reviews are praising it as one of the best novels of the year. Here she reflects on the impact her father had on her work.

Turning Pages: unpretentious words smash taboos

English Comedian Alexei Sayle has mellowed a tiny bit.

When she was young, Magda Szubanski used to read Enid Blyton and her father's old anatomy books. "I knew by the age of eight how to dissect a person," she told the Melbourne Writers Festival. "I performed it as a party trick."